By Tom Venzor
Last week, I celebrated my 10-year anniversary at the Nebraska Catholic Conference. So, I figure it’s a good time to reflect on the years to see how God has blessed our work bearing the light of Christ in the public square. Because it’s tough to pack 10 years into 700 words, I’ll do this in a couple installments.
A dream job
Like most Catholics, I didn’t know the Nebraska Catholic Conference (NCC) existed for a good chunk of my life. I had no idea the Church had a government relations/lobbying arm that was devoted to applying the Church’s social teaching to public policy matters. Somehow in my second year of law school, I stumbled across the NCC. And once I did, I immediately thought to myself: when I grow up, I want to work there!
But honestly, I figured I wouldn’t get the chance to work at the NCC until much later in my life, if at all. At that time, the two main titans at the NCC were Jim Cunningham and Greg Schleppenbach, who had both been with the NCC for decades. Given their years of service, I figured I’d be 100 years old before they left the NCC!
During law school, Jim offered me some legal research projects which only reaffirmed my desire to work at the NCC “when I grew up.” But God had different plans for me after law school, as I returned to seminary for two years. But then God had different plans again after I discerned out of the seminary and returned to the secular world with a revived desire to work in state-level public policy.
Around this time, Jim had retired after 37 incredible years of service to the Bishops. Greg had been promoted to executive director, and Greg began the hiring process for his pro-life and family associate director replacement. Through my cunning, I was able to fool Greg into hiring me. Not long after hiring me, and probably because he hired me (I hope you don’t miss the sarcasm!), Greg took off for D.C. to serve the U.S. Bishops and the pro-life cause at the national level. After Greg left, the bishops then hired me as the executive director.
I have, by the grace of God, never had a day where I didn’t want to go to work, or a day where I have anxiously wondered when it would be 5 p.m. I work on amazing issues that make major and lasting impacts on the lives of Nebraskans with an incredible team surrounding me, and for amazing bishops and hundreds of thousands of my closest Catholic brothers and sisters across the state! In short, as I regularly tell people: This is my dream job!
Fulfilling work
Before I dive into specific major legislative wins over these last 10 years (in the next installment), I want to reflect on what I’ve found most fulfilling in this line of work.
First, Nebraska is blessed by incredible bishops. It’s been a joy to serve Archbishops Lucas and McGovern, Bishop Conley, and Bishop Hanefeldt. They are men united to the heart of Jesus Christ, and love the people of God they have been faithfully entrusted to serve. While they each have their unique personalities, they are united and committed to the Church’s social teaching. Their unique personalities provide for intelligent, insightful, and incisive discussions on how to witness to the Gospel on public policy matters, and you couldn’t ask for better Bishops for this work.
Second, the NCC has existed for nearly 60 years and has a rich patrimony. For many years of life, I struggled with the concept of handing down tradition. I never quite understood what this meant in real life. But working for the NCC, it’s come to life. We have a long history of public policy positions on numerous topics. And I have the privilege of helping to build this rich history and passing it along into the future.
Third, it’s incredible to watch public officials grow in holiness and defend their faith. It takes courage to proclaim the Gospel, especially in the political arena. Rather than go along with the rapidly growing cultural secularization, I have witnessed elected officials rely more deeply on their faith through more regular or daily Mass attendance, receiving the Sacraments, attending Bible studies, praying the rosary, making pilgrimages, you name it. These graces flow over into their public life of bearing the light of Christ in the public square, which is what we most desire at the NCC.
I hope it’s obvious to you, as much as it is to me, the amazing things God has done for the Nebraska Catholic Conference, and I’m blessed to play some small role in that work these last 10 years.
