Well, yes, but let’s just be glad that the bishops appear to have woken up.
The Catholic Church made a wrong turn when they decided that government “aid” to poor people could replace private charity. This happened mainly under FDR during the Great Depression.
But the Catholic Church wasn’t alone in this. Protestant pastors made the same mistake, actually starting back in the 1890s, when they decided that it was less embarrassing for the poor to receive handouts from the government than from soup kitchens and from rich members of their congregations.
It took a long time for the consequences of this mistake to become apparent. You could see it coming for a long time, but finally it has arrived in full force.
In any case, it’s not just the Catholic bishops. It’s Christian pastors and lay people of all kinds, who under a false sense of compassion have supported these government handouts. And probably most of them still do.
I have to agree with you 110%. It’s not only in the charity arena, either. Churches have for some time used government to criminalize sin. I cannot even begin to fathom the why of it. Jesus told us to give government its due, but especially give God HIS due. HE is in the sin business, not governments. It’s HIS area of expertise and He’s quite good at it, sending His only Son to DIE so we might find forgiveness of our sins, then He rose again to show us we have the PROMISE of eternal life with Him when we receive our final transfer orders to our last permanent duty station and our names are in the Lamb’s book of life.
Government has but one proper and legitimate function: protect the equal rights of all of us, but otherwise LEAVE US ALONE. Stop trespassing onto God’s turf! No government handouts, no criminalizing SIN.