ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the challenges and opportunities tor involvement by religious organizations in this new context. It examines the role that churches, and in particular the Catholic Church, played in welfare reform during the 1990s. The chapter argues that the times provide both a new need and a new opportunity for more effective involvement. In looking at the role of the Catholic Church in both policy advocacy and service provision, the author distinguishes between the actions of official national bodies and the actions of congregations and their members. The Hebrew scriptures are rich with the notions of covenant and community, and of the mandate to do justice, and of the obligation to provide for widows, orphans and strangers. Churches should approach the political realm carefully, of course, avoiding partisanship and dogmatism. Religious politics has often enough been intolerant and threatening to democracy.
