Governor Andrew Cuomo made remarks on Sunday at the New York Leadership 100 Luncheon in honor of 100 years of Catholic Charities.
The Catholic Charities started when the New York State Legislature incorporated the collection of charitable agencies from the eight archdioceses of New York.
April 24 will mark 100 years since this legislation was passed. Governor Cuomo announced Sunday that April 24 will be Catholic Charities Day in New York "as a remembrance and a recollection of the great work and the birthplace of an agency that has helped literally millions and millions of New Yorkers."
Cuomo, who comes from a Catholic background and is the product of a Catholic education, proposed $300 million in funding for Catholic Charities and Catholic schools.
"But the partnership with Catholic Charities is more important than ever before because the old problems that we traditionally came together to fight are still just as bad," said Cuomo. "Poverty, hunger still exist...So, the same course of battle remains and the partnership to fight those issues, but today there are even new issues that are in many ways more challenging and more troubling.
Cuomo also mentioned issues of intolerance within society, citing hate crimes and a collective anger felt across the state. He expressed unity over division, and the basis of love and community.
"I asked in the State of the State, if His Eminence would undertake a special mission on behalf of the state to put together an Interfaith Reconciliation Council, so we remember the commonality among us as New Yorkers, even those of different faiths," said Cuomo.
