CAMPAIGN ’88 : End Housing Crisis, Bishops Ask Candidates

In an unusual appeal to political candidates, Roman Catholic bishops asked Democrats Michael S. Dukakis and the Rev. Jesse Jackson as well as President Reagan and Vice President George Bush to take “concrete steps” to end the housing crisis.

In letters to the four men, and in testimony before a House subcommittee on housing, the church leaders criticized “the tragic reality of so many people without decent housing in our land.”

“What our nation needs is the political will and political leadership to get on with the task of housing our people with dignity,” the letters said. “We look forward to your response to this challenge.”

Generally, the church’s social policy agency--the U.S. Catholic Conference--has refrained from direct appeals to presidential candidates since 1976, when Archbishop Joseph Bernardin, now a cardinal, met Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter on the abortion issue.

Bernardin was sharply criticized for implicitly endorsing a candidate following the meetings when he characterized his response as “encouraged” by the session with Ford and “disappointed” by his talks with Carter.

Conference officials said it is the practice to provide viable candidates a copy of the church’s identical testimony to each party’s platform committee but acknowledged it was a departure from tradition to highlight a specific issue.