Posted on 02/28/2011 6:05:52 AM PST by schmootman
I thought it might be helpful to show the chronology of the bishops' role in the budget debate in order to help you form an opinion about their conduct. We can come to different conclusions about their motivation, but the results of their actions are matters of fact.
BOTTOM LINE: I am not aware of any Republican legislator or conservative commentator who has tried to use the bishops' statements as evidence that the bishops support the Republican position, and I'm sure they would have if the wording of those statements seemed to support their position. Yet, the Democrats have used the supposedly neutral bishops' statements to "prove" that the Catholic Church supports their position. If the wording of the statements was in fact "neutral," how can it be that only one party in the dispute has been able, apparently with some credibility, to use the statements for propaganda purposes?
TIMELINE
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
In his role as President of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference, Archbishop Listecki published a Statement Regarding the Rights of Workers and the Value of Unions. http://www.archmil.org/News/StatementRegardingtheRightsofW.htm
Thursday, February 17, 2011
The dissident, "psuedo-Catholic" pressure group, Catholics United, published a statement offering "our heartfelt thanks to Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki for publicly affirming the Catholic church's support for trade unionism." http://www.catholics-united.org/content/press-release-catholics-call-wisconsin%E2%80%99s-elected-officials-suspend-attacks-workers
Coincidentally, I was at the home of some Catholic friends when a Republican Senator called to express his dismay that the Democrats were using the Archbishop's statement to show that the Catholic Church supported their position. I ended up participating in the conversation, in which the Senator also said that the statement was damaging the Republican effort.
Monday, February 21, 2011
The community organizing group, WISDOM, published a statement saying that Archbishop Listecki was "among those who have spoken out against the radical policy changes being proposed . . ." WISDOM is the parent organization of SOPHIA, a Milwaukee community organizing group that received $10,000 last year from the Archdiocese CCHD program. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxzb3BoaWF3YXVrZXNoYXxneDoxOTkwNjgxZTRkYmM3MmM5&pli=1
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Bishop Morlino of Madison wrote an article in the Madison Catholic Herald, saying that "the Wisconsin Catholic Conference has chosen a neutral stance" on the proposed legislation. http://www.madisoncatholicherald.org/bishopscolumns/2083-20110224-column.html
Meanwhile, Bishop Steven E. Blair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement titled "USCCB Chairman Supports Wisconsin Bishops on the Rights of Workers." http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2011/11-038.shtml
Memo to Bishops: It is not 1981, this is not Solidarity, and Wisconsin is not Poland
They're ignorant of basic economics and its not their job anyway. They need to stop grandstanding and issuing statements.
I’m a Latin Mass Catholic, and I have noticed that most priests do not understand politics. They always look at everything with a “help your fellow man” kind of thinking.
Little wonder then that perhaps the largest U.S. religious denomination is ‘fallen-away Catholics.’
Oh, and there is one more thing. You can’t trust the USCCB. They are very liberal. The organization was started by Cardinal Bernadin. Need I say more?
The Roman Catholic Church has a long history of participating in union battles. Such was definitely the case in the United Mine Workers strike
In 1988 Nuns driving Winnebago Clinics drove in the middle of the road disrupting traffic and slowing coal trucks to a crawl.
Ron Flynn. the mayor of Boston and IRA terrorist fund raiser, left his city to come to the boondocks of Southwest Virginia to praise their efforts and hold them up as shining examples of Catholicism
The official position was to praise the terrorist Trumka led strikers
Unfortunately the Roman Catholic church would like nothing more than to regain the power they once held.
We all know how that turned out.
Usually they try to play both sides of these non religious issues because people on both sides need saving. But the bishops are way out of date on this unions represent the little guy against the government philosophy. The taxpayer is now the little guy.
There isn't a serious religious denomination anywhere on the planet that would consider it a God-given right for a worker to retire after 20-30 years on the job, and then live a life of leisure at the expense of others for another 30-40 years.
Ignorance is no excuse. If Bishops and priests make statements in support of the unions in these cases, they are either ideological driven Leftists or simply ignorant. Either positions are troublesome.
Ignorant priests would be better served if they researched and reflected on these subjects before speaking and potentially squandering their standing in the community. This will turn even more conservative Catholics away form the Church.
When are the clergy going to figure out that massive public debt is the number one threat to the working family. They claim they are on the side of the worker with their misguided statements but the truth is that the policies they support will drive jobs far from Wisconsin. Pervasive unemployment is the worst form of government oppression. If they don’t believe that, all they have to do is wait and see the misery that will descend on Wisconsin if the unions win this battle. Then they can tell all their unemployed parishioners that at least the public employees are fat and happy (at the expense of the jobs of Wisconsin). Parasites feeding at the public trough, that’s all the unions are.
100% Spot On!
If Republicans have not used the statement, it’s their own fault. It was a gift to them. It pointed out that the common good can require unions to give in even while it said that completely taking away labor rights is wrong. Republicans, if they had any brains at all, should have seized on it to point out that they are NOT denying all labor rights, only some public sector union rights.
The Dems took the statement, mischaracterized it and the Stoopppppid Party sat on their butts and refused to call them out on it.
And now FReepers buy the Dem spin on the statement lock, stock and barrel.
Intelligent observers of things Catholic, notable, Fr. Zuhlsdorf at What Does the Prayer Really Say, immediately recognized that Morlino and Listecki (both conservative bishops in rabidly liberal sees) were breaking ranks, breaking with the past knee-jerk endorsement of unions.
Why is it that you can’t see this? Because the Dems spun it to their advantage? Haven’t we learned to read DimSpin critically and ask questions about what the bishops really said?
The statement was not “in support of the unions” pure and simple. You’ve been snookered by Dims.
Could you clarify AB-Milwuakee Listecki’s comments.
See no. 17. And look at the statement itself, the two paragraphs after the quote from Benedict. Benedict’s quote might be interpreted as carte blanche to unions, the Wisconsin bishops’ statement explicitly qualifies that and says unions must be prepared to “make sacrifices and adjust to new economic realities.” It appeals to both sides to communicate clearly. Bishop Morlino in his own statement directly said the bishops are neutral.
The Dims are the ones who lied about Listecki’s statement, so Morlino reasserted it. Now Freepers are a week behind the curve, still repeated DimSpin.
We’re smarter than that.
http://www.wisconsincatholic.org/Right%20of%20Workers%20Statement%20Feb%2016,%202011.pdf
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