Roundup: Bishops State Health Reform Must Conform to Catholic Teaching; "Pro-life" Movement "Has a Problem."

Roundup: Bishops State Health Reform Must Conform to Catholic Teaching; “Pro-life” Movement “Has a Problem.”

Sep 3, 2009, 12:15pm

Jodi Jacobson

Two Catholic Bishops declare that health reform must conform to the teachings of the Catholic Church, while admitting they have not medical or science training....National Catholic Reporter article states that the pro-life movement has a problem..."Some of its leaders are hateful."

Bishops Make Sweeping Statements on Health Reform

Did you know that Catholic Bishops are running the United States Government? I didn’t either. With all the talk of Democrats promoting "socialized medicine," I kinda missed the part where the Catholic Church was running the country….or at least was in charge of what health care was going to be like for everyone else…Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, whatever.

This is the impression I get when I read the type of sweeping statements cited in LifeNews on conditions laid out by two Catholic Bishops for any health care reform plan.

In addition to shunning abortion, euthanasia, and health care
rationing, any national health care overhaul must align with another
major aspect of Catholic social teaching: namely, the so-called
"principle of subsidiarity" said Kansas City, Kansas Archbishop
Joseph F. Naumann and Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert W. Finn. The
bishops made their remarks in a joint pastoral reflection published
Tuesday.

Really? I thought that health care reform should conform to the evidence, to medical need, to human rights, and to the promotion of health of all people, irrespective of their beliefs (or lack of beliefs) in organized religion. Just exactly how did we get to a place where religious leaders are dictating the terms of all social and health policy?

I won’t even get into the part about how the above claims (abortion, euthanasia, and the end of the world as we know it) are based on falsehoods (what is the moral teaching on misrepresenting facts?].

The Bishops claim that: "Many
of the proposals which have been promoted would diminish the protection
of human life and dignity and shift our health care costs and delivery
to a centralized government bureaucracy."

Again, really? ‘Cause I am not sure what dignity there is for the millions of uninsured and underinsured persons in the United States right now. I am curious how that works. I am not clear on how human dignity is served when purely profit-making motives are behind whether or not people get access to either preventive or curative care and whether or not a totally preventable infection, disease, or condition leads to death or life-long disability. Clearly I need to familiarize myself with the current teachings on these issues, cause I am not getting it.

I think the bishops need to review their own authority or lack thereof on these issues. They stated:

[Our] goal in writing the pastoral reflection was
to "identify and explain the most important principles for evaluating
health care reform proposals." While claiming "no expertise in
economics or the complexities of modern medical science." [emphasis added by author.]

They got that right.

National Catholic Reporter: Prolife Movement Has a Real Problem:

In an article in The National Catholic Reporter, Michael Sean Winters writes:

The pro-life movement has a problem, a big problem. Some of its leaders
are hateful, literally filled with hate.

He discussed the reactions of ultra-conservative, anti-choice leader Judie Brown, whose reaction to the granting to Senator Kennedy of a public funeral attended by the President at a Catholic Church presided over by Cardinal Sean O’Malley of the Archdiocese of Boston was not only to criticize the Cardinal himself for seeking to "curry favor" with the national media, but, according to Winters:

"to quote "approvingly from a letter she received suggesting that the only way to
“cleanse” the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help where the funeral
was held would be to destroy it."

Winters also cites the actions of others, including Raymond Arroyo:

the
irrespressible EWTN host, also delivered a not-so thinly veiled attack
on the proceedings and the presiders at the funeral and the internment.

Others, writes Winters, "have cast similar aspersions upon the motives of Cardinal
O’Malley."

He concludes that it is time to "talk about finding some new leadership of the pro-life movement,
people whose love of Christ and his flock and the pastors he has sent
to govern us will attract those who do not share our views on the
sanctity of human life. Not only will we be more successful, we will
more closely follow in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd who was not
afraid to leave the ninety-nine sheep in search of the one who was
lost."

SEPTEMBER 3

Santa Barbara Independent: The False Prophet of Adoption

PR Web: Angel Adoption, Inc., Excited to Announce New Gender Specific Program

Catholic Online: Kansas Bishops Criticize Healthcare Reform over Abortion & Subsidiarity

ABC Australia: Govt continues push to legalise drug-induced abortion

News.com Australia: Abortion couple face court

SEPTEMBER 2
Texas Insider: Abortion and Health Care Reform

National Catholic Reporter: The Problem with the Pro-Life Movement

NYT: U.N. Guide for Sex Ed Generates Opposition

Salt Lake Tribune: Peg McEntee: Comprehensive sex ed a valuable lesson

LifeNews: Polls in New Jersey, Virginia Show Abortion Advocates Still Behind for November

PopeHat: Some Promising New Adoption Blogs