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To: NC Angeleyes; All
"Encourage your congregation to care for those less fortunate...but why put the burden on the government???"

You are ignoring the difference between the freedom of religion established by the Constitution and the freedom of worship advocated by communists governments and the Obama administration.

Freedom of religion ensures that religious institutions can actively participate in the public discourse on a peer basis with any other secular organizations. We have a freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. The Catholic bishops have every bit as much right, representing the countries 64+ million Catholics, to advocate for policies and priorities in line with the Church's values as any political party, union, PAC or pact.

12 posted on 05/10/2012 12:26:24 PM PDT by Natural Law (God, be merciful to me, the sinner!)
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To: Natural Law
"The Catholic bishops have every bit as much right, representing the countries 64+ million Catholics, to advocate for policies and priorities in line with the Church's values as any political party, union, PAC or pact."

The problem here, my friend, is that the economic policies and priorities favored by the USCCB are not necessaily those most in line with the Church's values, especially with respect to subsidiarity.

To say "we" must feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, etc. is morally right and correct--- if "we" means the charitable giver, the family, the parish, the Diocese, the community organization, Second Harvest, Food Bank, Soup Kitchen, the private philanthropy, Youth in Mission --- of which we have many in the USA.

But to say that "we" means "the State" is a distortion of genuine Catholic social teaching. Like the prophets of Israel and the Fathers of the Church, the papal and conciliar documents almost always refer to "society" having such-and-such obligations. "Society" is not a synonym for "the State." By "society" they mean "all of us acting justly and charitably," not "the State acting coercively."

22 posted on 05/10/2012 1:47:01 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("The Holy Catholic Church: the more Catholic it is, the more Holy it is.")
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