And it's over!

With the end of the legislative session last week, it's worth checking out the Minnesota Catholic Conference's session analysis that appears in this week's The Catholic Spirit. From sex education, ending poverty and inmate re-entry, MCC's priorities run the gamut.

Vetoed!

Governor Pawlenty vetoed the minimum wage bill late yesterday afternoon. It's unlikely that the Legislature will have the votes to over turn it. The Star Tribune has the story.

The governor said that a higher minimum wage would make it difficult to allow employers to maintain jobs during while the economy slows and prices hike. He also said that Minnesota does not recognize a tip credit, as 43 other states do. He would like to see a provision for a tip credit in the bill.

Legislative wind down (or heat up)

The end of this legislative session is scheduled for Monday, and the Minnesota Catholic Conference is working hard to pass and block a few pieces of legislation.

Included is Senate File 2965, which regulates gestational carrier arrangements and assisted reproduction. It's on the governor's desk, and MCC hopes he'll veto it.

In a letter to Governor Pawlenty on the bill, MCC wrote:

"The Catholic Church teaches that marriage is the only morally acceptable framework for human reproduction. Further, donation of semen or ova and the use of surrogate motherhood to bear children are contrary to the unity of marriage and the dignity of the procreation of the human person. The issue of assisted reproduction is complicated. While we sympathize with childless couples who are desperate to have children, the ends do not justify the means. We hope that government will not attempt to redefine the natural state of marriage and human procreation.

In addition, the bill fails to address the rights of human lives created through assisted reproduction technologies. Most human embryos created through in vitro fertilization are not implanted, much less carried to term, but are discarded, frozen or used in destructive and undignified experimentation."

A bill MCC does want the governor to sign is the minimum wage bill. According to the MCC, 29 states presently have minimum wages higher than Minnesota's. More than 300,000 Minnesota jobs would get a pay boost, which I assume would benefit the economy (the more money you have, the more you spend). And, most importantly, as Archbishop Flynn said two weeks ago, it's a matter of affirming human dignity.

To find out more about these bills, read The Catholic Spirit editor Joe Towalski's editorial this week online.

Will Minnesotans pay for embryo destruction?

Those of you who read my blog last session may recall the amount of attention I gave to a bill that would grant taxpayer funding to embryonic stem cell research at the University of Minnesota. The bill narrowly passed the House Wednesday. It passed the Senate last session. The bill's going to conference committee to reconcile the different versions.

I don't expect Governor Pawlenty to sign the bill, and considering the 71-62 vote in the House, it doesn't look like an override is possible.

I could always be wrong, however.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research is dastardly in and of itself, but it also leads down a slippery slope of continued denial of human dignity to the weakest and voiceless.

Happy Birthday, Archbishop Flynn (and happy retirement, too!)

Friday was Archbishop Harry Flynn's 75th birthday. It was also the date of his official retirement. Instead of hopping a plane to some beach to lounge (or to his cabin in New York State), he spent part of his morning at the State Office Building to speak at a press conference on increasing minimum wage.

The House passed the bill the night before, and it was going to conference committee to resolve differences between the Senate and House versions. It is expected to be on the governor's desk within the week.

"People keep reminding me that this is my 75th birthday — a fact that hasn't gotten by me; but as I move into retirement I wanted just one more tiem to speak about this very important issue and on behalf of these very important workers," he told the gathered crowd, legislators standing proudly behind him.

"I believe that increasing minimum wage is a matter of justice," he said.

"It is true that the people of this state value hard work, but we also value the dignity of the worker. For me, that means that the life of the worker has to be spent doing more than work."

Many low wage workers work two or three jobs to make ends meet, he said.

"This isn't a dignified life," he continued. "True human dignity means that people not only focus on their material survival but that they have time and opportunity to participate in their social, cultural and spiritual development as well. Family life and participation are key to human dignity and important to our democracy."

Increasing minimum wage would allow people to work only one job and thus, have more time for family and social life, he said.

Happy Prayer Day!!

Today's May Day. I remember leaving a May basket brimming with Tootsie Rolls on the doorstep of one of my neighbors when I was about eight, only to watch it blow away.

Twice.

On this May Day, as we look ahead not only to wind, but possible snow, this weekend, it's nice to know that there's something good going on:

The National Day of Prayer

As I write this, Governor Pawlenty and Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau are preparing to speak on the Capitol steps before the gathered crowd. Created in 1952, The observance is always held on the first Thursday of May, and it is intended to invite people of all faiths to pray for America. It's not hard to see, with the war continuing in Iraq, home foreclosures, possible economic recession, and the like, that we could use some serious prayers.

And then some serious response.

(I know that the rest of you who went to Catholic schools, which I didn't, recall that today is also the day we crown the Blessed Virgin Mary, as May's her month. I think that's nice that the May Crowning and National Day of Prayer coincided this year.)