Posted on 09/27/2011 9:52:46 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
The Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is urging Catholics to lobby on behalf of anti-poverty programs by contacting members of the congressional “super committee” charged with the task of reducing the federal deficit.
“Tell the Deficit ‘Super Committee’ and your members of Congress that rising poverty at home and abroad requires them to protect programs that serve poor and vulnerable people,” the USCCB action alert states.
The action alert continues:
The Census Bureau recently reported that the number of people living in poverty in this country increased to over 46 million. This is the highest number of people in poverty ever recorded by the Bureau. Almost one in four children in this country lives in poverty. Drought and famine continue to ravage East Africa. According to the State Department almost 13 million need emergency assistance.The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (“Super Committee”) has begun meeting in an attempt to reduce the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next ten years. Programs that serve poor and vulnerable people at home and abroad are in danger of receiving devastating and disproportionate cuts.
In addition, the USCCB joined Catholic Relief Services in declaring September 26 a “national day of action” for calling Congress on behalf of international anti-poverty assistance.
“Tell the Deficit ‘Super Committee’ and your members of Congress that rising poverty at home and abroad requires them to protect programs that serve poor and vulnerable people,” the USCCB action alert states....
....In addition, the USCCB joined Catholic Relief Services in declaring September 26 a “national day of action” for calling Congress on behalf of international anti-poverty assistance.
Again, the USCCB forgets the principle of subsidiarity.
ONE of these days, the Socialist Nazis who control the hierarchies of America’s mainstream chruches are going to turn around in their march towards Statism and find THEY HAVE FOLLOWERS LEFT!!!!
Sorry - correction.
Gets rid of that messy responsibility to care for the poor, and frees them up to pontificate.
If 46 million people live in poverty give each of them a million dollars. No, let’s be generous...two million!
Sure is easy to be generous with other people’s money.
You just made the point of the futility of these programs.
MONEY is NOT the issue.
I was hungry..
And You Forced the Taxpayers to give me more Food Stamps.
I was Thirsty
And You forced the taxpayers to fund my drinking habit by treating it as a “disability”.
I was sick..
And you lobbied for Socialized Medicine (Payed for the the Taxpayers of Course)
I was pregnant and Alone...
So you forced the taxpayers to fund Planned Parenthood.
I was in Prison...
So you forced honest Citizens to become endangered by early release programs and plea bargains.
Oooops...THAT’S not how it goes!
The Poor are the responsibility of the CHURCH as a Body. All the early hospitals, charities, hospices, soup kitchens, and shelters were the purview of the CHURCH (all denominations...not picking on the RCC here, by any means!)
Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and Unto God that which is God’s.
I should think getting in bed with the politicians is the very last thing a religious group would want to do.
CCHD is in fact a Charity.
JMHO
I find some of the Churches activities with politics quite troubling.
Was it not the political establishment that order the Murder of Christ?
Frankly the Church should be about spreading God word not political dogma.
Some will yell at me and say but it’s about caring for the poor. Yes then that is what the CHURCH should do.
Like Mother Thersa, minister to the poor. Even she struggled with faith, doing God’s work. Getting someone else to do the “dirty” work does NOT require faith nor is it service to GOD. IMO.
Exactly! On the eve of Respect Life month, our diocesan news paper makes no mention of it but has two full page appeals for people to lobby for the Dream Act along with several articles that extol the virtue of the act. Very typical, very sad.
The Church is not a singular entity. The Church represents over 60 million Catholic Americans and lobbies on their behalf. That is a voting block that politicians will ignore only at their own peril. Were it merely a corporation or the representative of only 20,000 like some minor denominations its efforts would have no traction with the elected class. It cannot be ignored in matters involving a national morality.
Exactly what I am refering to.
I may be completely off base, but as Christ preached the honor of poverty. He made it clear (to me) that poverty of the spirit was the most dangerous to the soul.
While the Church is preoccupied with the earthly suffering of poverty by so many.
They have totally abandon the Spiritual Poverty that the World itself is suffering.
the Dream Act is NOT a moral issue.
It is in fact a political issue. even attempts to have a sane “dream act” are fought. It is in fact politics of the worst sort. Using the suffering of others as a tool to gain worldly power. Is that not forbidden by Christ himself?
Critical reading and reading comprehension are your friends. The article is not about the Dream Act either. In fact, it does not even mention the Dream Act. The Article is about the USCCB lobbying on behalf of anti-poverty programs. Read up on the Church's teaching and advocacy of "subsidiarity" and get back to me.
Look at all the poverty the “anti-poverty” programs have prevented, after all! < /sarc >
Poverty in the US is living in luxury anywhere else. Our “poor” live better than working people in Spain, the UK and France. The bishops seem to want a state religion since they are shilling for the government. It will backfire.
Oh I thought we were talking about the Church involvement in POLITICS. Sorry.
The United States never was and was never intended to be a "secular" country. The Founders were either Christian or at least religion-friendly and our American culture, all of our public institutions and all of our ideas about the human person are based on a Judeo-Christian vocabulary. We cut God out of our public life without also cutting the foundation out from under our national ideals.
Our pluralistic state does require that Catholics must be quiet in public about serious moral issues because of some misguided sense of good manners nor considered irrelevant or unwelcome. A healthy democracy requires a vigorous moral debate to survive and that moral advocacy be present in that dialog. Real pluralism demands that people of strong beliefs advance their convictions in the public square peacefully, legally and respectfully, but energetically and without embarrassment. Doing anything short of that is bad citizenship and robs from the public conversation.
The "separation of church and state" does not mean Catholics must separate our Catholic faith from our public witness, our political choices and our political actions. That kind of separation would require all Christians to deny who we are and to repudiate Jesus when he commands us to be "leaven in the world" and to "make disciples of all nations."
We're citizens of heaven first as embodied in the Declaration of Independence. We honor our nation best by living our Catholic faith honestly and vigorously, and bringing it without apology into the public square and the voting booth.
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