Posted on 03/20/2010 8:50:04 PM PDT by GVnana
Washington D.C., Mar 20, 2010 / 09:41 pm (CNA).- In a final, urgent plea to prevent the passage of the current form of the Senate health care bill, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) on Saturday evening sent a letter to Congressmen asking them to vote “no.”
“For decades,” the letter says, “the United States Catholic bishops have supported universal health care. The Catholic Church teaches that health care is a basic human right, essential for human life and dignity.”
“Our community of faith,” the bishops continue, “provides health care to millions, purchases health care for tens of thousands and addresses the failings of our health care system in our parishes, emergency rooms and shelters. This is why we as bishops continue to insist that health care reform which truly protects the life, dignity, consciences and health of all is a moral imperative and an urgent national priority.”
Nevertheless, they add, “we are convinced that the Senate legislation now presented to the House of Representatives on a ‘take it or leave it’ basis sadly fails this test and ought to be opposed.”
The letter is signed by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Chairman of the Committee of Pro-life Activities; Bishop William F. Murphy, Chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development; and Bishop John C. Wester, Chairman of the Committee on Migration.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnewsagency.com ...
They’re going to vote for it on a Sunday during Lent.
Just amazing.
I wonder if they send the letter to Congress WOMAN/BEAST Pelosi too, or just to the men?
This isn’t the first time. They’ve been pleading all along. This is apparently the last plea at least for now depending on wheather they vote tomorrow.
“asking” them to vote “no.”
- - - - - - -
How about “reminding” them it’s their obligation to vote NO.
Ummmm, well, no, it isn't.
But who's going to pick nits at a time like this?
Go get 'em, Bishops!
Leni
So tax payers have to pay for prostitutes getting pregnant and their abortions?
WOw. What kind of garbage bill is this?
Any docotor supporting this bill is garbage. This is all garbage.
The Catholic Church DOES NOT teach that health care is a basic human right. That is more liberal modernist gobbildy gook from the USCCB. The Catholic Church DOES teach the principle of “subsidiarity”: something that can be performed by a lower level of the society or by the individual should not be performed by a higher authority...
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=6155&CFID=9313175&CFTOKEN=68327086
The attempt to divert American Catholics from concern about pro-abortion politics is badly abusing Catholic social doctrine. The line goes: “Never mind the single abortion issue, but consider the many issues of human need held by candidates who might incidentally include the right of a mother to abort her child among them.”
This, of course, implies that every proposal for welfare programs fits Catholic understanding in the area of human need.
This often amounts to a deception and even falsehood for the reason that Catholic social doctrine begins with the principle of subsidiarity — namely, that fulfillment of human needs begins at the lowest level possible, starting with the individual. Only when necessary should social welfare turn to higher levels of society, and that means that government is the very last resort for the working of social justice.
The Church has always recognized that the temptation for the state is to take complete control of a nation’s economy, thereby in effect making the people dependent on it, rather than on themselves.
Pope Leo XIII in Rerum Novarum predicted his insistence on the state protecting public welfare with this statement:
“It is not right for either the citizen or the family to be absorbed by the state; it is proper that the individual and the family should be permitted to retain their freedom of action, so far as this is possible without jeopardizing the common good.”
He also condemned such taxation that amounts to public interference with “the productive activity of the multitude [which] can be stimulated by the hope of acquiring some property in land.”
“. . . These advantages can be attained only if private wealth is not drained away by crushing taxes of every kind.”
And further:
“. . . [Justice] does forbid anyone to take from another what is his and, in the name of a certain absurd equality, to seize forcibly the property of others” (emphasis added).
Pope John XXIII at the outset of his Mater et Magister encyclical quotes from Pope Pius XI’s Quadraqesimo Anno:
“It is a fundamental principle of social philosophy, fixed and unchangeable, that one should not withdraw from individuals and commit to the community what they [individuals] can accomplish by their own enterprise and industry.”
Good Pope John XXIII, known as the people’s Pope, comments:
“Included among [basic rights of individuals] is the right and duty of each individual normally to provide the necessities of life for himself and his dependents. . .
“Experience, in fact, shows that where private initiative of individuals is lacking, political tyranny prevails.”
These he states as principles pertaining to subsidiarity. Only after presenting these does he turn to the need for “appropriate activity of the state to prevent exploitation of the weak” (emphasis added). Nowhere in papal teaching or other magisterial statements do you find endorsement or recommendation of the welfare state, or for forced distribution of income, or for ever-widening “entitlements.”
The Second Vatican Council, though speaking at length of social consciousness and duty of the individual to the needs of others, nevertheless also said this:
“Private ownership or some other kind of dominion over material goods provides everyone with a wholly necessary area of independence, and should be recognized as an extension of human freedom” (Gaudium et Spes, n. 71).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is emphatic concerning subsidiarity:
“Socialization also prevents dangers. Excessive intervention by the state can threaten personal freedom and initiative. The teaching of the Church has elaborated the principle of subsidiarity, according to which ‘a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of need and help to coordinate its activity with the rest of society, always with a view to the common good.’
“God . . . entrusts to every creature the functions it is capable of performing, according to the capacities of its own nature. This mode of government ought to be followed in social life.
“. . . Subsidiarity is opposed to all forms of collectivism. It sets limits for state intervention” (nn. 1883-1885).
These numerous citations make clear that welfarism as understood and presented by many socially minded politicians, many now of the Democratic Party, is not compatible with Catholic social understandings, since it is heedless of the principle of subsidiarity. It holds out economic equality, distribution of wealth, without reference to the ability or willingness of most citizens to earn and take care of themselves and their families. It caters to those who think those of greater industry and wealth should take care of them.
A free market economy held sway in America from its beginning. It allowed for economic ups and downs, with the working of supply and demand to correct things, as was the case until 1929. Herbert Hoover, then president, instituted temporary relief programs, counting on a quick return of prosperity. But the gambling fever that helped bring the crash had deceived the whole culture into a spirit of abandon following World War I. The bubble that burst in Hoover’s second year in office was too immense to allow for a normal working of the economic cycle. Franklin D. Roosevelt, elected to replace Hoover, swept away free economics in favor of Keynesian economics, which inserted government regulation into every area of economic life. Hence the host of regulatory bodies established by Roosevelt — NRA (struck down by Supreme Court), PWA, TVA, and so on.
The Democratic Party has never recovered from the idea that governmental expertise is more reliable than natural free economics in providing opportunity to most Americans, despite the fact that the Great Depression was still ongoing when World War II brought on a burst of demand for labor and production, ending it.
Now, Keynesianism puts no stock in the principle of subsidiarity. To the contrary, it disputes the right and ability of most people to make their own economic way without undue interference. True, free economics is open to abuse when it is allowed to be laissez-faire governmental indifference to the general economic welfare. But only free economics by its very own premise allows for the existence of subsidiarity, which demands not governmental indifference, but proper governmental restraint — the greatest amount of noninterference in economics in keeping with the common good. Welfare programs heedless of need, applied generally and replacing the desire and ability of the vast majority to govern their own lives and families, financed by taxation imposed on the basis of economic success, clearly give no weight to subsidiarity.
Thus it is a major mistake to equate welfarism with compassion, and a worse one to consider it called for by one’s Catholic duty to love one’s neighbor. Often it is elitist contempt for those considered less capable than achievers. Sometimes that is mixed with guilt feelings by rich elitists, embarrassed that they have inherited wealth. All of this ignores that egalite was the cry of the French Revolutionary terrorists, who considered as revolutionary duty the work of making the mighty equal by removing their heads, thus reducing them to the height of the lowly. They considered fraternity a matter of class, not, as does the Church, a matter of sharing human nature. But the aim of the American Revolution was “one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all.”
Welfarism prepares society for collectivism, expressed in various theories of socialism, wherein the wealth of the many is confiscated through taxation to finance a host of “entitlements.” The result, as planned, is a large number of votes in favor of keeping these “entitlements” in place, and enlarging them with each election wherein the givers of others’ money are kept in office by the receivers.
During the New Deal monies were doled out liberally at every level. It was called “priming the pump.” The catch was that as a war against wealth it meant that the pump would eventually run dry. Experience shows the less taxation, the greater the amount of wealth to be shared through employment and respect for enterprise and entrepreneurship.
To buy into welfarism as an excuse to vote for someone who supports exterminating the most helpless humans of all — those conceived but yet unborn — is an irony of ironies. Candidates who favor abortion, but speak of freedom as an antidote for fear, overlook the fact that it is a mockery of both freedom and bravery to reject human life at its beginning.
Every mother should consider that she once was in the womb, and remained there for the months needed before entry into society by birth. If a mother has a right to kill her child, then that mother was once subject to the right of her mother to end her life.
Cumulatively, abortion says that women have the right to put an end to the human race. That is an absurdity of logic and an insult to the instinct of women to love their children. That instinct has been attacked, blurred, and obliterated by one of those false “entitlements” that liberals constantly seek to widen. Whence did the “entitlement” of mothers to kill their babies come? Surely, not from the instinct that helped give them birth and nourishment. It came from the elitists on the Supreme Court who wanted to free women from the responsibilities of motherhood on the idea that choosing not to bear children — be whatever means — should be every woman’s “entitlement.”
Catholics should be aware that their faith does not embrace the idea that freedom means irresponsibility — a freeing of each human from the duty to fulfill the meaning of being human.
The Catholic Church condemns SOCIALISM, as well as abortion.
Apparently these bishops never got the memo.
Cardinal O'Malley rips pro-Obama Catholics on health care
U.S. bishops, dissenting Catholics face off in in health care debate
Practical Politics 101 (remedial: for US bishops) [Is it time to contact our Bishops?]
Opinion: Speaker Pelosi’s Bishop Corrects her Once Again. Call to Catholic Action.
Pelosi’s archbishop slams her rationale for supporting abortion
Mandated Abortion Coverage Threatens Health Care Reform, U.S. Bishops Official Says
Alveda King: Reid's Racial Insensitivity Exceeded by Disregard for Unborn
U.S. bishops reactivate nationwide campaign against federal abortion funding
Battle Over Abortion Funding in Congress Pits Catholics Against Each Other
New Catholic mandate on comatose patients
The US Catholic Bishops and Health Care Reform: A Failure of Imagination
US Bishops' Biggest Hope: Life-Affirming Care for All
Abortion Debate Shows the Catholic Bishops' Growing Influence
The Catholic case against health-care reform
Pro-Life Leaders Launch Opposition to Senate Health Bill Following Nelson Amendment Demise
With pro-life amendment's defeat, US bishops urgently call for changes in Senate health bill
More Proof that the US Catholic Bishops are Leading the Charge in Abortion Battle
Bishops Urge Senators to Support [Abortion]Amendment on Health Care; Urge Constituents to Back It
Bishops urged to be tough on pols who would pay for abortion
Health reform still full of thorny problems for Catholics (Vasa comes out for subsidiarity)
Healthcare and Catholics: True and False Arguments
Meddling Bishops Interfere in Political Process
How the Stupak-Pitts Amendment May Change Our Politics
Health Care and the Power of the Bishops' Conference
US Bishops: Abortion Isn't Health Care
Denver Archbishop Chaput says promises were broken on abortion
Catholic Bishops: Health Care Bill ... ‘Money-Laundering System’ for Funding Abortion
Catholic Caucus: The Bishops Go On Offense
US bishops conference mounts late drive against 'unacceptable' health-care reform
Catholic Bishops Urge Members to Oppose Abortion Funding in Health Care Plan [Catholic Uprising!]
Bishops Announce Unprecedented Massive Catholic Opposition to Obamacare
Bishops Call for Massive Catholic Opposition to Abortion in Current Health Care Reform
Archbishop Charles Chaput on the Current Struggle Between Catholics and "Caesar"
The Bishop's Ax Falls on Obama. And on the Vatican Curia (bombshell article)
US Bishops: Heath Package Still Funding Abortions (Urge Congress to Keep Working)
Catholic Bishops Declare They Will ‘Vigorously’ Oppose Health Care Bill as It Now Stands
Bishops Restate Vow vs. Obamacare's Abortion
Important: US Bishops taking the gloves off on health care reform
BREAKING: Catholic Bishops On Health Care - Change Bills Or Else
U.S. bishops warn of vigorous opposition if Congress fails to fix health care bills
List: *41* Bishops against Obamacare (and counting!)
Bishop Murphy Issues Video Statement on Health Care Reform [Diocese of Rockville Centre]
Health Care Principles [Bishop Samuel Aquila, Fargo, ND]
Florida Bishop [Thomas Wenski] Weighs in on Health Care Reform
ObamaCare and Catholic social teaching [Bishop Neckless]
Some Catholic bishops question gov't health care
Boston’s Roman Catholic Cardinal Says He Confronted Obama about Abortion in Health Care Plan....
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
What are the chances of some “present” votes? The irony!
Good point!
Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Catholic News Ping List.
Should be an insert in your bulletin this weekend also!
This is one of the issues where I am definitely in agreement with the Bishops on. The question is, will the bishops close the hospitals, or will they bend to the law?
Well finally, a typed letter proclaiming a weak protest by my spiritual leaders. A little burp after a pleasant lunch and anticipation of a comfy nap; sigh.. all in a days work.
And just in time, at the last moment, we can now be impressed with the CYA, childish efforts where burning on crosses are actually called for.
Ummmm, well, no, it isn't.
Ummm, well, yes it is. But it is not the job of government to fulfill that right. Private charities and churches have the responsibility of seeing that the sick are cared for.
How do you get a letter to a Congressman on a Saturday night who is supposed to vote on a Sunday afternoon. Use a courier service? Fax machine? Hand delivery?
I doubt that mine believes in anything except the democrat party.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.