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To: Incorrigible

I disagree that Catholics who support Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, strong public education, reasonable welfare protections, oppose the death penalty, insist upon fair trade and a living wage are "CINOs".

They are faithful Catholics.
The papal encyclicals in the post right above yours on the thread spells out the economic terms, which is much more communitarian than morally unacceptable laissez-faire capitalism.

Abortion is the greatest of the issues which faces us, but, of course, elected officials do not determine abortion rights except in the narrowest circumstances; the Supreme Court has, and does. The Catholics on the Supreme Court: Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Scalia are the bulwarks of conservatism, but even they are not willing to actually use their judicial power to find a positive defense for babies. For their Catholicism teaches that they are human from the moment of conception and THEREFORE persons, and THEREFORE protected by the full Bill of Rights from the moment of conception. Catholics in American politics, even conservatives, have allowed subordinate political philosophies to cloud the clear moral imperatives of their God, even the good guys!

The Democrat social view is not always compatible with Catholicism, of course, but it is closer economically.


13 posted on 12/12/2006 1:46:11 PM PST by Vicomte13 (Aure entuluva.)
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To: Vicomte13

A corrective to the myth that Catholics are or ought to be against the free market is Michael Novak's works, including "The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism". Novak is a Catholic seminarian who left the calling to become a journalist and who gradually changed from a leftist to a believer in market capitalism. Along the way, he has explained and expounded on how Catholic doctrine and free market economics are more than compatible, they are essential twins.

There is nothing morally unacceptable about free market economics, especially since free market capitalism is responsible for erasing much of the abject poverty in the industrialized world, the kind of poverty the priests in the pulpits tell us is a scourge.

The papal encyclicals make clear our moral responsibilities to eachother, but they also make clear the need for property rights, the family as an economic unit, and human rights and other aspects of economic reality that are incompatible with socialism. Since the essense of good entrepreneurship is service to others, why not think of a well-functioning market economy as a model of what catholic doctrine would like to see?

We ought not confuse bishops for economic advisors, as if they would or ought have a position on tariffs or minimum wage or tax rates or airline regulation. And we ought not fall in the trap of agreeing to the socialists' phony premises (that only socialists 'care' for people and that capitalism is too cruel simply because it has market-based risk as opposed to Govt-created risk/oppression in it).

Since free market economics is a BETTER model for organizing the economy in a prosperous and sound way, we express our care and concern for other people by supporting an economic system that is best for people.


15 posted on 12/12/2006 5:59:33 PM PST by WOSG (The 4-fold path to save America - Think right, act right, speak right, vote right!)
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To: Vicomte13; Incorrigible
I disagree that Catholics who support ... strong public education ... are "CINOs".

Catholic parochial schools were started because of the overt Protestant bias in the public school system. I'll bet most "Catholics" today are blissfully unaware of that history.

19 posted on 01/06/2007 4:45:09 PM PST by ELS (Vivat Benedictus XVI!)
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