Posted on 03/09/2006 7:19:56 AM PST by markomalley
Washington DC, Mar. 08, 2006 (CNA) - Bishop William Skylstad, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, urged Congress to make poor people in the U.S. and abroad a priority when adopting a new budget.
“Budget decisions reflect not only economic policies, but moral choices as well,” said the bishop of Spokane in his March 3 letter to U.S. House and Senate Budget Committee members. “When setting national priorities, Congress should seek genuine bipartisan commitment focusing on the common good of all, and especially the essential needs of the poor and vulnerable.
“Providing an adequate safety net for poor and vulnerable families at home and promoting human development in poor countries are both fundamental moral obligations of a responsible society,” he said.
“These must not be neglected as Congress addresses essential priorities like homeland security and the defense of our nation, which can only be enhanced by wise investments to protect human life and dignity at home and abroad. We ask that you support maximum budget authority in those accounts that fund programs to assist poor families and vulnerable children.”
The bishop also encouraged the government to generate sufficient revenues so that it can meet the needs of the most vulnerable in the country and abroad. He said government should evaluate any new tax proposals in light of their ability to generate sufficient revenues for this purpose.
Moreover, Congress should adopt a budget that will ensure adequate funding for families to “escape joblessness, move beyond welfare, choose education for their children, gain needed health care coverage, and overcome hunger and homelessness.” He said the U.S. has “inescapable international responsibilities” that include increased investments in promoting peace, security and sustainable development.
187. The principle of subsidiarity protects people from abuses by higher-level social authority and calls on these same authorities to help individuals and intermediate groups to fulfill their duties. This principle is imperative because every person, family, and intermediate group has something original to offer to the community. Experience shows the denial of subsidiarity, or its limitation in the name of an alleged democratization or equality of all members of society, limits and sometimes even destroys the spirit of freedom and initiative.
The principle of subsidiarity is opposed to certain forms of centralization, bureaucratization, and welfare assistance and to the unjustified and excessive presence of the State in public mechanisms. “By intervening directly and depriving society of its responsibility, the Social Assistance State leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies, which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by concern for serving their clients, and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending.” An absent or insufficient recognition of private initiative – in economic matters also – and the failure to recognize its public function, contribute to the undermining of the principle of subsidiarity, as monopolies do as well.
In order for the principle of subsidiarity to be put into practice there is a corresponding need for: respect and effective promotion of the human person and the family; ever greater appreciation of associations and intermediate organizations in the fundamental choices and in those that cannot be delegated to or exercised by others; the encouragement of private initiative so that every social entity remains at the service of the common good, each with its own distinctive characteristics; the presence of pluralism in society and due representation of its vital components; safeguarding human rights and the rights of minorities; bringing about bureaucratic and administrative decentralization, striking a balance between the public and private spheres, with the resulting recognition of the social function of the private sphere; appropriate methods for making citizens more responsible in actively “being a part” of the political and social reality of their country.
188. Various circumstances may make it advisable that the State step in to supply certain functions. One may think, for example, of situations in which it is necessary for the State itself to stimulate the economy because it is impossible for civil society to support initiatives on its own. One may also envision the reality of serious social imbalance or injustice where only the intervention of the public authority can create conditions of greater equality, justice and peace. In light of the principle of subsidiarity; however, this institutional substitution must not continue any longer than is absolutely necessary, since justification for such intervention is found only in the exceptional nature of the situation. In any case, the common good correctly understood, the demands of which will never in any way be contrary to the defense and promotion of the primacy of the person and the way this is expressed in society, must remain the criteria for making decisions concerning the application of the principle of subsidiarity.
Socialist Bishop Ping!!
Blatant rank SOCIALISM. It has become something that these people try to promote when they really have no other material purpose. Just like our ThugoRats.
If these guys are so big on socialism, let THEM pay for it.
I agree this is socialism and if Congress is going to consider anything along these lines it should be for our country not for other countries. I am sick of our government's foreign aid while ignoring our own country.
I sure wish we'd get some bishops that sounded like Catholics instead of 60s socialists! Good night nurse, the old classic Catholic works taught compassion and help for the poor without sounding like they wanted to sing the Internationale any minute!
Trying to force caritas with the strong arm of government is antithetical to the Christian message. Christ did not come as Caesar, He came as one of us.
Hey Bishop -- get The Church's moral house in order before you climb that high horse!
"the common good of all, and especially the essential needs of the poor" ... and "Providing an adequate safety net for poor..." and "support maximum budget authority in those accounts that fund programs to assist poor families"
We are spending ourselves silly on "the poor". A great number of the poor in this country are so because they are lazy and accustomed to government handouts. IMHO, it is our moral obligation to stop the welfare and give these folks a reason to work for a living.
"Moreover, Congress should adopt a budget that will ensure adequate funding for families to “escape joblessness, move beyond welfare, choose education for their children, gain needed health care coverage, and overcome hunger and homelessness.”
The answer to this: All able bodied adults should WORK to overcome their problems. When you rely on the government for everything, you are sure to be disappointed.
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