US bishops write president-elect; fundamental priority: defend right to life

CatholicCulture.org ^ | Jan. 16, 2009 | Francis Cardinal George for USCCB

[Salvation]

US bishops write president-elect; fundamental priority: defend right to life

Washington, Jan. 16, 2009 (CWNews.com) - The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops yesterday released a letter from Cardinal Francis George, the conference’s president, to President-elect Barack Obama. The letter, dated Tuesday, outlines the “principles and priorities that guide the [bishops’] public policy efforts” so as to offer “an agenda for dialogue and action.” A similar letter was sent to the vice president-elect and members of Congress.

The foundational priority, according to Cardinal George, is the protection of innocent human life. “Most fundamentally,” he writes, “we will work to protect the lives of the most vulnerable and voiceless members of the human family, especially unborn children and those who are disabled or terminally ill.“ He continues:

We will consistently defend the fundamental right to life from conception to natural death. Opposed to abortion as the direct killing of innocent human life, we will encourage one and all to seek common ground that will reduce the number of abortions in morally sound ways that affirm the dignity of pregnant women and their unborn children. We will oppose legislative and other measures to expand abortion. We will work to retain essential, widely supported policies which show respect for unborn life, protect the conscience rights of health care providers and other Americans, and prevent government funding and promotion of abortion. The Hyde amendment and other provisions which for many years have prevented federal funding of abortion have a proven record of reducing abortions. Efforts to force Americans to fund abortions with their tax dollars would pose a serious moral challenge and jeopardize the passage of essential health care reform.”

Cardinal George also discusses seven other priorities:

1. economic challenges: the bishops “support strong, prudent and effective measures,” “advocate a clear priority for poor families and vulnerable workers in the development and implementation of economic recovery measures,” and “support greater accountability and oversight to address irresponsible abuses of the system that contributed to the financial crisis.”
2. health care: the bishops “urge comprehensive action to ensure truly universal health care coverage which protects all human life including pre-natal life, and provides access for all, with a special concern for the poor. Any such legislation ought to respect freedom to choose by offering a variety of options and ensuring respect for the moral and religious convictions of patients and providers.”
3. international affairs: the bishops support “a responsible transition in an Iraq free of religious persecution,” “early, focused and persistent leadership to bring an end to violent conflict and a just peace in the Holy Land,” “US investments to overcome poverty, hunger and disease through increased and reformed foreign assistance,” and anti-HIV efforts that are “both effectively and morally appropriate.” In wording that accommodates different sides of the debate on climate change, Cardinal George adds, “Recognizing the complexity of climate change, we wish to be a voice for the poor and vulnerable in our country and around the world who will be the most adversely affected by any dramatic threats to the environment.”
4. immigration: the bishops call for “comprehensive reform” that is “based on respect for and implementation of the law,” defends “the rights and dignity of all peoples, recognizing that human dignity comes from God,” offers “a path to earned citizenship,” and is attentive to the impact of trade and development policies that foster emigration.
5. marriage: the bishops call for a recognition of marriage as “a faithful, exclusive, lifelong union of a man and a woman” that “must remain such in law. In a manner unlike any other relationship, marriage makes a unique and irreplaceable contribution to the common good of society, especially through the procreation and education of children. No other kinds of personal relationships can be justly made equivalent to the commitment of a man and a woman in marriage.”
6. education: the bishops reiterate their support for “initiatives which provide resources for all parents, especially those of modest means, to choose education which best address the needs of their children.”
7. empowerment of faith-based groups: “We will work with the Administration and Congress to strengthen these partnerships in ways that do not encourage government to abandon its responsibilities, and do not require religious groups to abandon their identity and mission.”

[Salvation]

God bless the U. S. bishops for doing this. Now if they will only come out individually too.

[Salvation]

U. S. Bishops:

We will consistently defend the fundamental right to life from conception to natural death.

[Salvation]

I wish they had not put in all the other issues.

[Ciexyz]

Most commendable on the part of the US bishops.

[fhayek]

US bishops write president-elect; fundamental priority: defend right to life

Ha, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

[bpjam]

don’t worry Bishop, Doug Kmiec is convinced that The Obama is secretly going to stop more abortions than the Vatican ever could. Just send your mail to Doug since he is the guy who knows the secret Obama strategy to save the children.

[big'ol_freeper]

I wish they had not put in all the other issues.

Indeed the only thing that he will read are the other issues and then claim that he almost completely has implemented and supported the Church's social agenda.

[the invisib1e hand]

Why is it "reduce," not "eliminate" abortion? Or even, "reduce or eliminate?"

Universal healthcare?

Iraq?

Financial Markets regulation?

[the invisib1e hand]

Ha, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

I'm sure there are other threads you can be an annoyance on.

[Salvation]

Hyperbole? Talking in general terms like Obama does?

[Salvation]

Not QUITE how Christ would say it, huh? LOL!

But then the Pharisees didn’t hear Christ’s message either.

[Salvation]

A little different take on social rights in this article by Cardinal George

2009: Old Myths and Fake Rights

January 16th, 2009 by Francis Cardinal George, OMI

Two weeks ago, many of the offices of the [Chicago] archdiocesan Pastoral Center moved from 155 Superior St. to the refurbished Quigley building on Pearson Street. It was good to move to a place that was not built as an office building, for the church is not basically a civil corporation. The Quigley Center is a building that was built to house a high school seminary and has been part of the archdiocese’s life since 1917.The archbishop’s office in the Quigley Center was once the school library. Around the walls of the room now used by administrative assistants and secretaries are statues of figures important to the intellectual and artistic life of the church through the centuries. No one would be surprised to find statues of St. Thomas Aquinas, Francisco Suarez, Giotto, Michelangelo or Cardinal John Henry Newman; but some who live with the conviction that a permanent state of enmity exists between the faith and scientific inquiry might be surprised to find in a seminary library a statue of Galileo.

Galileo was a believing and practicing Catholic all his life, as is evident in his lengthy correspondence with his daughter, who was a nun. Had he been content to teach his theories about the motion of the sun and the planets as a hypothesis, as had others before him, he would not have been censored. As a matter of fact, much of the scientific community of Galileo’s day was not completely convinced of the truth of his teaching, and the final scientific confirmation of Galileo’s theories came some centuries after his death. But the myth has him uniquely a victim of the church. The myth, which strips away complicating circumstances in a sorry moment of church history, serves many purposes; and so it will continue to live and shape people’s mindset.

The current resurgence of anti-Catholicism in the media and in many classrooms is based, I would argue, not so much on old myths as on protecting fake rights. Those who want to claim that we should have the right to kill an unwanted unborn child or who want to have the right to change the nature of marriage itself or who claim a right to kill those who say they want to die find their primary obstacle in the teaching of the Catholic Church about human life as a gift from God, to be respected at all stages of its development. The church can therefore expect to be attacked in order to weaken her moral influence.

No one can claim a moral right to do what is wrong; and a state with laws that invent false rights destroys the collective happiness of its citizens. That the breakdown in sexual morality and married life should go hand in hand with a breakdown in financial security and in political trustworthiness should not be a surprise. Morality is neither public nor private; it’s just a matter of right and wrong in every domain.

A thorough and timely analysis of political morality and its relation to the church’s teaching has been offered recently by Archbishop Charles Chaput in his book, “Render unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life,” (Doubleday). Archbishop Chaput works patiently and with keen intelligence through false myths and fake rights that control our political life. The book makes a good New Year’s present, because the year 2009 will be a pivotal year in our political and economic life. The church’s social teaching applied to public life in our country can help us and our nation to face the challenges before us with intellectual honesty and moral authenticity.

The social teaching of the church is offensive to those who want social policy grounded on desire rather than reason. “If I want something, the law should permit me to have it,” is a popular way to describe what the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche called “the triumph of the will.” There is a chasm between non-violent demonstration against an unjust law, like the laws that once protected racial segregation, and making violent threats against those who disagree with you. Taking advantage of the economic chaos of the 1930s, fascists in Italy and Germany took to the streets in protest, but their protests provoked the very violence they claimed to be protesting and the violence, in turn, strengthened their claim to power. The United States today is not completely immune to forms of fascism, and the church, which stands for rational principles that judge every political arrangement, is a likely target.

As we enter a New Year filled with uncertainty, the church’s social teaching remains a sure anchor for our personal lives and for social polity. We can be grateful for the vision it gives us and resolve to use it well in the New Year to make decisions that shape our lives and the life of our country. With intellects enlightened by faith and wills strengthened by grace, we can face the future with confidence in God’s Providence. A happy New Year to all of you.

Sincerely yours in Christ,
Francis Cardinal George, OMI
Archbishop of Chicago

[the invisib1e hand]

That the breakdown in sexual morality and married life should go hand in hand with a breakdown in financial security and in political trustworthiness should not be a surprise. Morality is neither public nor private; it’s just a matter of right and wrong in every domain.

This is clearly a bullseye.

But this might be ground zero:

The United States today is not completely immune to forms of fascism, and the church, which stands for rational principles that judge every political arrangement, is a likely target.

The number of times "messiah," "financial crisis," "fascism" and "Nazi" have been used in the media of late has to be markedly higher than the average of the recent past. This troubles me.

[pray4liberty]

IF FOCA passes, God will bring judgement on America and strike all pro-choice women barren.

Mark my words!

[hinckley buzzard]

I wish they had not put in all the other issues.

Doesn't matter. Obama will ignore it and it's all eyewash anyway.

[livius]

Actually, the other issues sounded a little more rational and a little less lefty and objectionable than anything that has appeared in the bishops’ statements for years now.

I think this was just an attempt to set forth all the Church’s positions before loonies (such as Biden and Pelosi) could run out and “interpret” them in such a way as to make Bama look like God’s gift to the Church.

It is clear that the bishops are trying to protect the conscience of individuals in things like education and health care, for example, and are not worshipping at the shrine of government in any area. And it included a section supporting heterosexual marriage as being the only thing that can truly be called marriage.

On the whole, I don’t think it was bad and I think it was meant to serve as a reference point for future action and debate.

Obama will push abortion by every means possible, of course, mostly through executive orders undoing Bush’s pro-life work, but it is also very likely that acceptance of gay “marriage” will be imposed on organizations and individuals that reject it, and that public education will become much more ideological and opposed to the values of Christianity. I expect to see his education dept director try to get some sort of national civics or ethics curriculum forced not only on public schools, but any kind of educational institution and even homeschoolers (who will be under attack). That’s what Zapatero, the Spanish PM who is ideologically most similar to Obama, did in Spain and the Church has been engaged in a real struggle against it.

I see this as the opening shot from our side.

[steadfastconservative]

You’re exactly right. By adding all of these other issues, the bishops are providing cover to pro-abortion politicians, especially Catholic ones. I can easily imagine Obama implementing all of the policies that the bishops are calling for except for the ones that protect human life and promote marriage.

While it’s good to see the bishops vigorously upholding the right to life, they aren’t going to be able to do so effectively, at least in the political arena, until they dump this whole “seamless garment” theory, which insists that Catholics must always consider the abortion issue in the context of a host of other issues, only a few of which concern the right to life. The “voter’s guides” that the bishops have issued for the last several presidential elections have been particularly disappointing since with the exception of their condemnation of abortion, euthanasia, and embryonic stem cell research, they were quite similar to the Democrat Party’s platform. During this past election there were some so-called Catholic groups which claimed that the agenda of the Democrats mirrors the teachings of the Catholic Church on social justice. Never mind that it’s not logical or correct to say that someone who would deny the right to the weakest members of society—the unborn—can be said to be advancing social justice. But the fact that bishops have so relentlessly promoted liberal causes and issues allowed these pro-abortion Catholics to hold themselves up as icons of social justice even as they dissented from one of the Church’s most serious moral teachings.

I hope that the bishops hold firm when Obama begins expanding abortion rights and that they don’t end up caving in and going silent when he starts implementing the parts of his agenda which they approve.

[incredulous joe]

That’s productive! Are you pro-choice?

[mimaw]

They could start with their own clergy first. Teaching the doctrine of the sanctity of life first and foremost would be a good start. Moral relativism was a good excuse for many Catholics to vote for pro abort candidates and this view was not challenged by priests and bishops from most of the pulpits. When they get their priorities right they won't be so worried about ticking off pro choice Catholics.

[Mr. Know It All]

I wish they had not put in all the other issues.

Some people are anti-abortion, some people are pro-life. If you are pro-life, you believe in the sanctity of human life inside and outside the womb. The Bishops' position is based on the teachings of Christ. No one is forced to follow these teachings, although Christ makes it pretty clear what will happen to those who don't.