Last week, more than 4,000 Catholic parishioners, employees, volunteers and school children met in Springfield to promote the tenets of Catholic social teaching and express support or disagreement with bills currently being considered by those who represent the citizens of Illinois in the capital. After a rally around schools, we split up to contact various legislators and the new governor. The conversations were mostly pleasant and, I’m told, the day was well received. The state government, like the federal government, is wrestling with huge deficits and with payments for social services that are many months behind. Catholic hospitals now have a harder time borrowing money to pay their bills while waiting for the state to pay its bills for health services guaranteed by government programs. Catholic Charities and other social services have similar problems. Everyone agreed easily that the state has to find ways to pay its bills more quickly, even if ways for the state to find money remain extremely contentious.