To the Editor:
First of all, I would like to commend Fr. Ryscavage for his commitment to establish The Center for Faith and Public Life at Fairfield. He is incredibly knowledgeable in the classroom and his wealth of experience is certainly an asset to the Fairfield community. I would also like to commend the College Democrats for continuing an important discourse about the role of faith-based groups in the official political scene. I am cautious what the presence of Richard Boucher, Deputy Director of the White House Office for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives means for the direction of this program. It was the Bush administration’s emphasis on faith based groups that led to the confusion of FEMA’s role in emergency management after Hurricane Katrina! While I believe that faith-based organizations have the best intentions to help those in need, the outsourcing of the federal government to these types of groups is politically loaded as the organizations fundraise and members vote almost exclusively for Republicans. An overarching organization for faith-based and community initiatives should exist to organize the many good faith-based groups and inform them of grants, etc., but it should certainly not be a part of the White House. These organizations are being given special opportunities while their federal counterparts charged with national responses to social problems are floundering. No wonder why the American people are losing trust in this federal government. I challenge Fairfield students to question the role of these programs as a substitution for government and applaud the College Democrats for raising this issue on campus.
Sincerely, Heather Morassini Class of 2005
Leave a Reply