June 3, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – In 2007, Joshua McCaig, an attorney with the firm Polsinelli PC, started the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Kansas City. McCaig, a graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville and Ave Maria School of Law was amazed at that time “that a national organization of Catholic lawyers had not already been established.”
Since then, Mr. McCaig has set his sights on a broader goal, to unite the dozens of Catholic lawyer's guilds peppered across the nation into one national Catholic Bar Association.
The project has been in gestation for several years and is being modeled in part after other professional Catholic associations such as the Catholic Medical Association and the Canon Law Society of America.
The Catholic Bar Association was officially established on July 6, 2015 on the 480th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Thomas More and is being led by a national coalition of representatives from various independent Catholic lawyer's organizations.
The inaugural meeting of the Catholic Bar Association will be held in Kansas City from October 27-30.
“The Catholic Bar Association is a response to an urgent need within the Church,” McCaig told LifeSiteNews. “A need to unite Catholic legal professionals into one organization, both nationally and internationally, and build a community where, united by the common bond of faith, the members may grow professionally and personally in the ideal set forth by St. Thomas More, that we are the King’s good servant, but God’s first.”
For this inaugural General Assembly, the CBA is inviting Catholic attorneys, judges and politicians, as well as students (who will benefit from a special law student rate) to participate in this exciting and historic gathering. They encourage representatives from currently established Catholic lawyers groups to participate in this event that will shape the future of this organization.
Invited to the event are prominent Catholic officials such as Governor Sam Brownback and church leaders such as Archbishops Samuel Aquila and Joseph Naumann, and Kansas City's own Bishop James Johnston. In addition there will be a rich variety of public speakers on a diversity of important topics for the Catholic legal community.
According to the interim board, the vision of the Catholic Bar Association is to build a legal community where members are united in the common practice of the law and love of the Catholic faith. For already established Catholic lawyers organizations, the CBA will form affiliate relationships so that the organization can maintain its autonomy. The CBA will also provide the means to create new chapters, both nationally and internationally.
In order to learn more about this and provide input from your respective guild, please visit the event's website at https://www.cbaconference.com. Sponsorship opportunities are available on the website as well.
If you currently belong to an existing organization, please consider sending one or two delegates to the CBA General Assembly. If you don't, sign up and get connected.
This is a historic gathering at a time when Catholic attorneys are facing unprecedented pressure from the legal community to separate their faith from their legal practice. Now more than ever, Catholic lawyers need your prayers and the support of an active and vibrant community.
Gualberto Garcia Jones is a proud member of the Catholic Bar Association and a writer for LifeSiteNews.