As the U.S. Catholic Bishops gather in Baltimore today for their annual meeting, they find themselves at the crossroads of political expediency and integrity. The Republican wave has empowered a caucus whose laissez-faire "small government" agenda runs counter to Catholic social teaching. As poverty rises and recovery stalls, it waxes indignant about deficits and debt while defending tax cuts that exacerbate these problems and opposing measures that protect those living in poverty.
Nonetheless, many bishops are smug about the recent election results. In a misguided attempt to dispel the appearance of partisanship, director of the USCCB's Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development John Carr accused both parties of neglecting the poor: "Our focus is the least of these," he said during a recent panel discussion. "And that is not the focus of Washington no matter who is in charge."
While such assessments might burnish their nonpartisan bona fides in the press, the bishops need to be diligent against succumbing to the temptation of false equivalencies. The fact remains that when it comes to promoting the interests of the poor, Democratic leaders advance the teachings of the church to a far greater extent than their Republican counterparts. Over the past two years, the Democrats have fought to make affordable health care coverage available to all, to extend benefits to the unemployed, and to invest in education, infrastructure, and green jobs. They worked to help struggling families stay in their homes, to reform the immigration system, and to make it easier for workers to form unions. The GOP has opposed these efforts at every step, advancing in response a decidedly un-Catholic agenda: cut taxes, eviscerate government, deregulate, and let the invisible hand of the market take care of the rest.
Sadly, the Republicans were abetted in their pursuit by many individual Catholic bishops, who chose either to remain silent in the face of attacks on social justice, or to focus their political energies on maligning the Obama Administration to Catholic voters. In January 2009, as job losses approached 600,000 per month, the bishops launched a postcard campaign against the Freedom of Choice Act, a piece of abortion rights legislation that wasn't even on the new Congress' radar screen. In the spring, some 80 bishops caved to right-wing culture warriors and joined a campaign opposing Obama's speech at Notre Dame.
And then there's health care reform. The Catholic Church teaches that health care is a fundamental human right, and as such the bishops could have served as a powerful voice for the principle of reform, if not for actual elements of the Democrats' plan. Instead, the USCCB opted to play the primary role of abortion watchdog, its Family Research Council-aligned policy "experts" setting impossible standards for preventing abortion funding in the legislation. The final bill earned the approval of the Catholic Health Association - the U.S. Catholic Church's foremost health care authority. But it's the USCCB's opposition that everyone remembers, a position that Republican-backed "pro-life" groups exploited to the fullest extent in election attack ads against a number of faithful Catholic Democrats.
If the USCCB really wants to demonstrate nonpartisanship, it might consider taking a page from the playbook of its predecessors. When Reagan's Republicans claimed a similar mandate for small government and laissez-faire economics, the bishops issued a 1986 document entitled Economic Justice for All: A Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy. It was a direct response to - if not an all-out dismissal of - the new conservative order:
Government should assume a positive role in generating employment and establishing fair labor practices, in guaranteeing the provision and maintenance of the economy's infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, harbors, public means of communication, and transport. It should regulate trade and commerce in the interest of fairness. Government may levy the taxes necessary to meet these responsibilities, and citizens have a moral obligation to pay those taxes. The way society responds to the needs of the poor through its public policies is the litmus test of its justice or injustice. The political debate about these policies is the indispensable forum for dealing with the conflicts and tradeoffs that will always be present in the pursuit of a more just economy.
What has become of these bishops, who recognized the incompatibility of the GOP's economic agenda with Catholic social teaching, and weren't afraid to say so? No doubt, a vestige survives among the conference's nearly 300 members. Whether these voices have the courage of conviction to stand and be counted this week remains to be seen.
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The believe that is far more important to expend energy on the social control of sexuality and abortion, than it is to expend energy in the pursuit of social justice and compassion for the poor.
Especially in ministering to the poor in ways that help them to actually thrive....rather than merely survive. (Though both kinds of ministering have their place, and value.)
I think the real question here is what is the nature of the disconnect that makes the Church hierarchy so comfortable with this staggering display of hypocrisy??
There's no way to get around abortion. No way. Besides, any government willing to sacrifice its future unborn citizens deserves the moribund economic fate it's bought into. Where are the people going to come from in order to support SSA/Medicare/Medicaid and Obamacare if we keep on aborting ouruture? More abortions, abortifacients, and condoms? THINK: 50 million + Plus abortions performed in the United States and its territories abroad since 1973. THINK. And it won't hurt to pray, either.
The case of Sister Mary McBride clearly evidences the dangers when Bishops and rank amatuers like you arrogate unto yourselves the right to substitute dogma as a solution for real problems. Medicine, health care, right to privacy are real.... dogma is not.
I believe Jesus himself said "Render unto Caesar what is Ceasar's". The Church has no BUSINESS seeking to control what goes on in secular society. If it believes that abortion is sinful....FINE. Teach Catholics that it is sinful for THEM...and work towards supporting women who have unintended pregnancies to choose Life and adoption.
I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who is pro-choice who would cricitize the Church in filling that role. But when the Church steps into politics, and tries to impose its will upon the law in a society that is not only NOT Catholic, but is decidedly SECULAR and has a diversity of religious perspectives...it has overstepped its bounds.
Overstepped its bounds so greatly, that it fundamentally communicates the morally bankrupt message to people that only HOW you come to this world has moral implications.
...but not what happens ONCE YOU GET HERE.
You're on your own after that. Especially if you're not Catholic.
Re-read your post.
Do you think it is something that Jesus would have said?
I seem to recall a Jesus who:
1. Forgave sinners, rather than judged and condemned them.
2. Instructed His followers to be IN the world, but not OF it.
3. Instructed His followers to---when confronted with those who were deaf to his message---to LET THEM BE, and simply move on. Not to use power to impose their will upon these people.
Even to the point that He chastized Peter for resorting to the sword in Gethsemane.
Which brings me to the bloggers overall point. If you are going to preach the Gospel---and claim to be Jesus' representatives on Earth----one must embody the ENTIRE teaching.
Not just those aspects of it that are comfortable, or socially useful.
As the catholic church hemorrhages membership it will continue to become more and more irrelevant. The church has always been about control. They have served themselves throughout history and will continue to push for power over govts and people.
The time of theocracy needs to end. These gods do not belong in our govt. Their usefulness has passed. These ancient texts should be treated the same as any other philosophy. We have millennia worth of good books. Take what is good for humans and leave the rest in the dust bin where it belongs.
IOW, we live...yet we have no collective beliefs that bring meaning (beyond the personal) to the activities of our lives.
The Church is in the position it is, because it clings to an interpretation of The Bible---and the New Testament---that was relevant to the Middle Ages...but is becoming increasingly irrelevant to modern society. Like a person who becomes stuck at a certain level of maturity...but refuses to grow any farther.
http://www.amazon.com/Witness-Truth-Complicity-Dictatorship-Argentina/dp/0883446308/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1289734004&sr=8-4”
I know that can't happen in the United States, because you are so special and different and unique and better than everyone else and Chosen By God.