[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 21 (Monday, May 28, 2001)]
[Pages 798-801]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the St. Augustine Parish Community in Cleveland, Ohio

May 24, 2001

    Father McNulty, thank you very much, sir, for your hospitality and 
your introduction. It's a privilege for me to be here with Bishop Pilla, 
whose reputation at least has preceded him as far as the President goes. 
I've been looking forward for this opportunity to meet such a fine, 
noble man, firmly committed to helping the poor. So, Bishop, thank you 
so much for being here, sir.
    I'm honored also to be--to have been welcomed by Sister Ambroe. The 
Sister is pretty firm in her--[laughter]--she kept us on time. 
[Laughter] I am thankful to be here with distinguished public servants 
from the State of Ohio, your Governor, Lieutenant Governor, both very 
good friends of mine. Thank you all for being here. Two fine United 
States Senators, Mike DeWine and George Voinovich, traveled with me from 
Washington today. I think you're going back. [Laughter] But Ohio is well 
represented in the Halls of the United States Senate with these two fine 
Americans. And two Members of the United States Congress, Steve 
LaTourette and Tony Hall from south Ohio are here, as well. Thank you 
all for traveling with us today.
    Tony is not from this area, but I can assure you that if you got to 
know him, you would know that he shares the same passion most of us do 
for figuring out ways to help people in need.
    The other thing that I want to make note of is that Tony is a 
Democrat. And what we're going to talk about today is not a party issue. 
The idea of helping people transcends political party. And so, Tony, 
thank you for coming.
    I want to thank Pam Delly, the principal of Our Lady of Angels, for 
the tour and the opportunity to meet the students here. And I want to 
thank Dennis McNulty, the director of Catholic Charity Services, as 
well.
    I want to start off with a comment about some news. This morning a 
distinguished

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United States Senator chose to leave the Republican Party and become an 
independent. I respect Senator Jeffords. But I respectfully--but 
respectfully, I couldn't disagree more. Our agenda for reforming 
America's public schools and providing tax relief for every taxpayer 
represents the hopes and dreams of Main Street America. Our agenda for 
reforming our military and modernizing our military to defend America 
and our allies represents the best hope for peace.
    I was elected to get things done on behalf of the American people 
and to work with both Republicans and Democrats, and we're doing just 
that. Just yesterday in the United States Senate, Republicans and 
Democrats overwhelmingly agreed that we should provide tax relief for 
every single American who pays taxes.
    The Senate has now passed tax relief, and so has the House. And I 
call on Congress not to recess for Memorial Day until they have finished 
the job and provided tax relief for the American people.
    And we're making great progress on education, as well. Just 
yesterday in the House of Representatives, Republicans and Democrats 
overwhelmingly agreed that we should insist upon local control of 
schools, strong accountability, and greater options for parents when 
their children are trapped in failing schools. The Senate now takes up 
the education bill, and I'm confident we'll enact a plan to improve all 
of America's public schools so that no child is left behind. As well, as 
I mentioned, I'm working hard with both Republicans and Democrats to put 
in place a Faith-Based Initiative that I truly believe will change 
America for the better.
    Last weekend I spoke at one of America's great Catholic 
universities. The chairman of the board, I think, is here somewhere. 
Here you are. Thank you very much, Pat, for letting me come. I was 
deeply honored. Today I'm pleased to visit one of America's great 
Catholic parishes. Notre Dame and St. Augustine may seem to be a world 
apart, but they're united by the same Catholic teaching, that God has a 
special concern for the poor. For some people, Jesus' admonition to care 
for the least of these is an admirable moral teaching. For the folks at 
this center, and centers like it all around America, it's a way of life.
    I'm visiting here to offer praise. I want to praise the volunteers. 
I want to praise the good folks from corporate Cleveland who are 
helping. I want to praise those like the folks we met in the cafeteria, 
who get up at 6 in the morning, before their job, to come and help a 
neighbor in need. I also want to make a pledge that my administration 
will be more supportive of the good works done here than any 
administration in the history of the country, because I understand the 
power of faith, that faith can change lives.
    I also understand the limitations of Government. Government can hand 
out money, and we will. We've increased budgets to work on social 
problems. But what Government cannot do is put hope in people's hearts 
or a sense of purpose in people's lives.
    I wish--I wish I knew the law that says, love a neighbor like you 
would like to be loved yourself. I'd sign it, that would mandate that to 
happen. But I think of all nations of the world, we understand that that 
law comes from a higher calling than Government. And the great challenge 
for our Nation is to rally, what I call, the armies of compassion all 
across America so that nobody is left behind.
    In my speech at Notre Dame, I started by talking about a speech that 
a former President from Texas gave in 1964, and he declared a War on 
Poverty. I then talked about some of the unintended effects of the War 
on Poverty, one of which was people becoming dependent upon Government. 
It's kind of a loss of responsibility in our society. Members of both 
political parties came together in 1996 to address that problem by 
putting time limits on welfare. The bill was signed by my predecessor, 
and it had a positive effect. But there are still people who hurt in 
America.
    Poverty runs deep in this country, and we need to take the War on 
Poverty a step further by recognizing the power and promise of faith-
based and community-based groups that exist not because of Government, 
but because they've heard the universal call to love somebody in need.
    And so we've laid out an initiative for the United States Congress 
to look at. It's one

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that says we're going to have a--what's called a compassion capital fund 
of a half a billion dollars to help provide seed money for programs such 
as these we're witnessing here today. It says we ought to expand 
charitable choice, which means faith-based organizations should be 
allowed to receive Federal grants when it comes to helping people in 
need.
    There's some concern in our society about encouraging faith-based 
organizations to meet their challenges. But those are people that want 
to argue the process. They want to make everything legal. And my 
fundamental question to America, after having said this loud and clear, 
``We'll never fund faith, we'll never fund churches, but we should fund 
the armies of compassion.'' We should not discriminate against faith-
based programs which exist to help people in need. We provide Medicare 
and Medicaid money, and that money is redeemed at charitable hospitals. 
We provide Pell grants and Government loans for people that redeem 
that--those scholarship monies at religious universities. In order to 
make sure the promise of America is full and whole for every citizen, we 
should not discriminate against faith-based programs that simply exist 
and solely exist to help people who hurt and people in need. The 
neighborhood helpers and healers of America are truly the strength of 
this country.
    In my speech at Notre Dame, I also talked about corporate America. 
And to this end, I'm going to have a convocation next fall calling 
together foundation America and corporate America to figure out a 
strategy of how best to get more money into the coffers of the faith-
based programs in neighborhoods all across America.
    Interestingly enough, 6 of 10 of the largest corporate givers in 
America explicitly rule out giving money to faith-based programs. My 
attitude is America and its Government should not discriminate against 
faith-based programs and neither should corporate America. And so one of 
my missions is to bring folks who care about our country together and 
tout and herald the great works that are being done in programs such as 
this and centers such as this.
    I've set up an office at the White House, run by a man named John 
DiIulio. He's a--one of the forward thinkers in terms of how we 
encourage faith to help people in need. He's a really interesting guy; I 
haven't checked his party affiliation, but I suspect it's not the same 
as mine--because he understands that this is not an initiative to try to 
gain political gain. Ours is an initiative to make America a better 
place.
    Part of the mission of the office is to encourage programs to 
explain how people can access the Federal grant money, explain what we 
can do with the capital compassion fund. But part of it all, and a very 
important part, is to make sure that Government never interferes with 
the good works that are being done in programs such as this. It's to 
make sure that church and synagogue and mosque don't lose the 
fundamental essence of their mission.
    You know, there are many in our society who fear what interfacing 
with the Federal Government can mean. And my pledge to the faith-based 
community in America is my administration will do everything in our 
power to make sure that those who do interface with Government never 
have to sacrifice their mission, their reason for being, because, again, 
I understand the power of faith and the hope faith brings all across the 
country.
    It is an incredible honor to be the President of a Nation of faith. 
It's hard to describe what it's like to travel our country and have 
literally hundreds of people walk up and say, ``Mr. President, I pray 
for you every day.'' It is--first of all, it's a very comforting 
feeling, needless to say. But it also increases my optimism and hope 
about America because the truth of the matter is, in order for us to 
solve the deep poverty that exists, to solve the hurt in people's souls, 
we need people who are willing to put their arm around a brother in need 
and say, ``I love you.'' We need mentors for young children to provide 
hope and solace.
    America's society will change one heart, one soul, one conscience at 
a time. And each of us must do our part to provide hope for that soul 
and that conscience.
    I've been so incredibly impressed by the universal and strong 
commitment of the Catholic Church and the leaders of the

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Catholic Church to make sure that nobody in our society is left behind. 
America is better off because of that commitment. Our Nation is well-off 
because of the love and compassion of our citizens. And my hope, in 
working with folks such as yourself, is to gather that compassion so 
that the hope of the greatest Nation of the world reaches every 
neighborhood in America.
    Thank you for giving me the chance to come, and God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 11:35 a.m. at the Our Lady of Angels/St. 
Joseph Center. In his remarks, he referred to Rev. Joseph D. McNulty, 
pastor, St. Augustine Church; Bishop Anthony M. Pilla, Bishop of 
Cleveland; Sister Corita Ambroe, C.S.J., executive director of programs, 
St. Augustine Hunger Center; Gov. Bob Taft and Lt. Gov. Maureen O'Connor 
of Ohio; and Patrick F. McCartan, chairman, board of trustees, 
University of Notre Dame.