Posted on 09/03/2009 11:25:37 AM PDT by livius
The current national debate about health care reform should concern all of us. There is much at stake in this political struggle, and also much confusion and inaccurate information being thrown around...
First and most important, the Church will not accept any legislation that mandates coverage, public or private, for abortion, euthanasia, or embryonic stem-cell research.
We refuse to allow our own parish, school, and diocesan health insurance plans to be forced to include these evils...we insist equally on adequate protection of individual rights of conscience for patients and health care providers not to be made complicit in these evils...
Second, the Catholic Church does not teach that “health care” as such, without distinction, is a natural right.
The “natural right” of health care is the divine bounty of food, water, and air without which all of us quickly die...none of us can morally withhold it from others. The remainder of health care is a political, not a natural, right, because it comes from our human efforts, creativity, and compassion.
As a political right, health care should be apportioned according to need, not ability to pay or to benefit from the care. We reject the rationing of care. Those who are sickest should get the most care, regardless of age, status, or wealth. But how to do this is not self-evident. The decisions that we must collectively make about how to administer health care therefore fall under “prudential judgment.”
Third, in that category of prudential judgment, the Catholic Church does not teach that government should directly provide health care.
Unlike a prudential concern like national defense, for which government monopolization is objectively good... health care should not be subject to federal monopolization.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Ping to a statement by a good shepherd!
When you have the time ping.
The Bishop is right on
That’s great but the creepy USCCB came out in favor of “universal” health care and the public option as long as abortion and euthenasia were not covered. They say it’s a “right”. We have a few individual bishops who “get” Obama but the conference as a whole are far left. I’ve stopped all contributions that go outside of my parish. Sunday offereings are 20% owned by the diocese so for the moment I’m limited to the school and “building repair” fund.
The USCCB is a horrible organization and the head honchos are mostly the old-line bad bishops. This is particularly true on some of their committees, which is where the true damage is done (such as the “Social Justice Committee”).
I have read that the Pope would like to dissolve the national bishops’ conferences and replace them with some other way for the bishops of a country to stay in touch with each other - but also with Rome. The USCCB obviously thinks of itself as the Vatican of the “American Church,” and this is a serious problem.
Iowa Bishop: Don’t Be Railroaded into the Current...Health Care Proposals
in a message issued by the Diocese of Sioux City (The Church on Universal Healthcare)
Nazi Health Care A Catholic Bishop Speaks Out Against "End of Life Care" (Germany, 1941)
Bishop Nickless: "No Health Care Reform is Better than the Wrong Health Care Reform"
Cardinal Rigali, Abp. Chaput Intensify Warnings Against Obamacare's Abortion Expansion
You read the USCCB wrong. They stated that there must be no abortion or euthanasia in the bill for them to approve.
You are cherry-picking what you want to bring out, aren’t you?
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