This holiday season, we at Catholics in Alliance are thankful for you. As we look back, 2009 will be remembered as the time when you helped take our organization to a new level. Because of your generous support and tireless advocacy, we grew our supporter list by over 300% and recorded over 35,000 actions that included sign-on statements, advertisements, letters, and phone calls to Congress. Our work in partnership with other faith-based groups generated unprecedented coverage in local, national, and even international media.

Here is a recap of some of our key 2009 projects:

Voices for Health Reform: We delivered hundreds of your personal stories about our broken health care system to Capitol Hill and emphasized the moral urgency for quality and affordable health care for all (www.voicesforhealthreform.org). In partnership with Faith in Public Life and other faith-based organizations, we co-sponsored a 40 Days for Health Reform campaign that included lobby days, prayer vigils, radio ads in seven states, an advertisement on CNN, and a national conference call that attracted over 144,000 participants - including President Barack Obama!
We Support Notre Dame: Facing harsh criticism for inviting President Obama to give the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, President Fr. John Jenkins stood up for our Catholic commitment to faith, reason, and civil dialogue.  We launched an online campaign -- www.wesupportnotredame.org-- that generated almost 40,000 signatures. As the speech approached, we secured the signatures of twenty-four Catholic theologians on a sign-on statement supporting the University. Thanks to the generosity of our petition signers, we were able to raise enough money to run the letter as a full-page ad in the South Bend Tribune on graduation weekend.
Standing Up for CCHD: The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), which funds thousands of projects that lift people out of poverty and give our struggling neighbors the opportunity to live in dignity, came under attack by right-wing bloggers and partisan idealogues.  We generated over 1,500 letters of support for this valuable anti-poverty tool and placed an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun. Your efforts paid off. The bishops maintained full confidence in CCHD at their November meeting, and Bishop Morin, Chairman of CCHD, called the attacks on CCHD, "outrageous."
Pope Benedict on Social Justice: Pope Benedict XVI released his much anticipated social justice encyclical, "Charity in Truth," in July. We amplified the Pope's call for equitable distribution of wealth, robust financial regulations, and the essential role of government in promoting the common good. Our media outreach, which included a press briefing, letters to the editor and blog commentaries, helped ensure Catholic social justice voices were highlighted in the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today and other major national outlets.

These were just a few of our many projects in 2009. If you'd like to make a contribution to fund our work in 2010 and beyond, please visit our donate page: