Deal Hudson--formerly of the conservative Catholic Crisis magazine--used his InsideCatholic blog to denounce two Catholic political interest groups lobbying for health care reform: Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Catholics United, although he calls them "fake" Catholic groups.
Hudson appoints himself the arbiter of what is Catholic, and if you support health care reform that in any way might lead to an abortion paid for with public funds, you are not one. (Hudson told US News and World Report's Dan Gilgoff that calling the groups "fake" was "journalistic hyperbole," which I guess is another name for calling people names.) Hudson goes on at length to point out the connections these group have to the Democratic Party and George Soros (while not mentioning his own GOP paymasters, for whom he courted Catholics on behalf of previous administrations).
According to Hudson, Catholics should oppose health care reform if it in any way directs public money to abortion--even if it does practically guarantee health care for children already born. Abortion, after all, is a "non-negotiable," and you're a "fake" Catholic if you disagree with him.
Well, I disagree with him, and if he wants to have a debate about whether I'm a Catholic, I say: Bring it, Deal. It's time for Catholics with actual knowledge of the breadth of the Catholic tradition to start speaking up for themselves before we all get read out the church.
Case in point on abortion: While the church does teach that procured abortion can never be morally justified--and Catholics are bound to that teaching--Catholics are free to hold different positions on how the right to life should be pursued in the public sphere. Our common goal is no abortions; our paths can differ. There is plenty of evidence that making abortion illegal actually does little to prevent it--it just forces women in crisis into dangerous and desperate situations. Catholics who argue that access to affordable health care and other progressive social policies will reduce abortion are on solid moral ground.
I'm not the only Catholic who is willing to do the difficult moral math and judge health care reform worth the difficulty surrounding abortion funding. On Christmas Day The New York Times reported that both the Catholic Health Association, which represents hundreds of Catholic hospitals, and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, whose member congregations built the bulk of the Catholic health care system in this country, came out in support of the Senate's approach to the segregation of public funds from premiums used to fund abortion coverage. (UPDATE: Sister Carol Keehan of the CHA denied any divergence between CHA and the bishops in a Catholic News Service story yesterday.)
In other words, you don't have to limit yourself to what is finally the clumsiest of moral arguments and say that abortion alone is the make-or-break issue for Catholics when it comes to health care reform. Catholic teaching has long recognized access to health care as a human (not merely civil) right. (And you'll note that the loudest voices on abortion have said next to nothing about the fact that more than 10 million undocumented immigrants are explicitly excluded from this measure, which should outrage any Catholic.)
Not all Catholics are willing to make the perfect the enemy of the good when health care for a further 31 million of our fellow citizens is at stake. And they're every bit as Catholic as Deal Hudson.
Bryan Cones is managing editor of U.S. Catholic magazine in Chicago.
Follow Bryan Cones on Twitter: www.twitter.com/uscatholic
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The fifth commandment says “thou shall not kill”.
The Church, you claim to be a part of, declares that God issued that commandment to all mankind, and especially to those who follow Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
So if you say ‘Well, that is not right”, who are you denying, the Church or God?
Yes, you may not be a “fake’ Catholic, but your actions seem to place you at some distance from the reason the Church exists. God Himself
1. “Science” says that human life begins after birth. This superstitious belief, perpetuated as dogma since the 1960s, states that by magic, infants becomes “people” when they are born, a selfserving concept created by the self absorbed post WII generation (same people that now run WallStreet). Science has long shown that infants in the womb are alive (vs inert objects), human (vs an other species), full persons distinct from their mothers (own DNA, immune system, etc..). Indigenous peoples know this from observing nature for millennia.
2.Women will now all resort to “back alley” abortions. Stigmatization of out of wedlock or teenage pregnancy of old is long gone. Just go to any high school. Adoption is a viable option. Yes, lets start teaching kids responsible behavior, by first not to swallow corporate image factory brain washing, that sex is just a glamorous game without consequences, designed so kids can be conditioned to become better future consumers of soaps and pharmaceuticals.
3. The “poor” will suffer. This bears no connection with reality and has a tinge of eugenics (see above posted comments). Again, adoption should be facilitated instead.
There are 1.2 million abortion a year compared 2.4 millions total death of all ages after birth. Abortion is not health. What enlightened big fat progress we have made? The health care bill will sink because a few want to force taxes on all to fund their “pro-choice” dogma.
1. The fetus acquires a soul at conception and is at that instant a "person". This is purely an unsubstantiated religious belief.
2. a.) Women will not try to self-abort or have back-alley abortions. Actually, they are doing so even now in extreme circumstances.
b.) Adoption is only an "option" when the baby is a healthy white baby which an adoption agency can make money by selling it to a rich white couple. Nobody wants anything to do with sick, disabled, or non-white babies. In any case, the idea that it is a good thing to forcibly remove a baby from its mother is just plain evil, even when you have brainwashed her to think that the agency is there to do good, rather than to make money.
c.) I suggest you start by teaching your own kids about sexual responsibility, since the religious ones who have not been taught seem to be having lot more of those pesky pregnancies. And guess what? Evangelicals and Catholics have MORE ABORTIONS, too. Clean your own house first.
3. The “poor” will not suffer. This bears no connection with reality. Rich women will still get their abortions, and poor women will end up with a lifetime of poverty from raising kids you decided to force them to have.
It is a very Biblical position, right in line with the idea that for poor people, suffering is redemptive, and so it would be going against God's will to provide them with health care, food, social services, etc. It is also right in line with right wing ideology. Hasn't got anything to do with the teachings of Jesus, though.
I think you need correction here. The church doesn't teach this. Several Bishops would like you to think that this is what is valid church teaching.
The correct teaching is that an abortion that is the main cause from a direct action can never be morally justified. The doctrine of double effect can apply to abortion as it does to all sin. So if for instance a doctor wanted to save the life of a woman with ectopic pregnancy and the fallopian tubes were breached the doctor could perform an abortion to save her life and it would be morally justified. There are at least 3 other exceptions to the abortion rule, in most cases a D&C is morally justified.
Another issue is that official church teaching, which can be found in encyclicals, canon law, and scripture does not teach that indirect actions for abortion like voting for a pro-choice person or pro-choice bill is a grave sin. This is another problem with the bishops expanding on what was agreed upon. The current church teaching is that only the direct actors in an abortion that doesn't fulfill the criteria for double effect are the ones that committed a grave sin.
"D.C. (Inside Catholic) - In an interview with Catholic News Service, CHA president, Sr. Carol Keehan, explained, ‘The Catholic Health Association has not endorsed the health legislation that was passed by the Senate . . . . nor did it endorse the Casey compromise language that was later opposed by the bishops’ conference.”
“There is not a shred of disagreement between CHA and the bishops,” Sister Carol said. “We believe there is a great possibility and probability that in conference committee we can work toward a solution that will prevent federal funding of abortion.”
She told CNS that CHA, representing over 600 Catholic hospitals, ‘brings a lot of expertise with funding structures in the marketplace’ to the debate and hopes to ‘bring that to bear’ during the conference committee process.
“I felt they [the Senate] were making progress and were getting where we needed to be,” she said. “I understand that it doesn’t make a good story to say (CHA and the USCCB) are working together. But it would have been an honest story.”"
Those of you who call yourselves catholic, but protest against the core teachings of the church should do the honorable thing as other protestants have done - start your own church.
Your ‘conservative’ American Catholics have more in common with the Republicans than they have with Christianity. They are a bunch of arrogant American idiots and hypocrites.
This is not a problem for ‘fake’ Catholics, like me, to deal with. IT IS YOUR COUNTRY, DUDES. The Founding Fathers of this country did not intend that the clergy of one sect should dictate terms to the legislature and the rest of the nation.
WHY DO YOU TOLERATE THIS? In THIS country, NO cleric, not even the pope, has any right to tell an American citizen how to act. The Founding Fathers set up a wall of separation between church and state because they wanted to protect the church. When clergy have political power the church becomes corrupt; as evidenced by the American Catholic church.
ALL of you American Citizens have a responsibility! Do not be intimidated by these egotistical men who give themselves fancy titles and wear colorful robes. They are making a mockery of my church and shredding the constitution of my adopted country.
Speak out! Give them two kicks up their backside! Do to them what they have done to innocent American altar boys.
Lack of compassion for the children abused by the clergy, an unwillingness to accept people as they are--the way God made them, using bullying tactics in the public against Catholic Politicians and during political campaigns...none of this models who Christ is or how he would act in the world.
Abortion as handled by the church has ceased being a pastoral issue and instead has become a political brick bat... The Church has lost its way...
If Hey-Zeus,(Jesus), came back right now, a world of folks would be in big trouble who claim to be religious. "The road to hell is through religion, the way to God is in faith."
Isn't that just like the phony pro-lifers ... saving souls in the before & after ... instead of saving LIVES in the HERE & NOW!