Posted on 03/26/2010 2:40:25 AM PDT by topher
Thursday March 25, 2010Chaput Rebukes CHA & Catholic Groups for Pro-Abort ObamaCare Triumph
By Peter J. Smith DENVER, Colorado, March 25, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput took aim at the Catholic Health Association (CHA) and other Catholic groups that he said are ostensibly committed to social justice so long as the rights of unborn are excluded for damaging the pro-life coalition that was struggling to hold together before this past Sundays momentous vote on President Obamas health care reform. How did we get here? Chaput asked in a column for the Denver Catholic Register. He said that the health care bill passed in the House had not been fixed and remains unethical and defective on all of the issues pressed by the U.S. bishops and prolife groups for the past seven months. He criticized the White Houses Executive Order that brought Stupak and his half-dozen remaining pro-life Democrats on board with ObamaCare, saying it does not solve the many problems with the bill and for that reason the US Bishops never considered it as a legitimate solution. Executive Orders can be rescinded or reinterpreted at any time, said the Denver archbishop, adding that the track record with the Obama Administration in keeping its promises regarding abortion-related issues does not inspire confidence. The fact that congressional leaders granted this one modest and inadequate concession only at the last moment, and only to force the passage of this deeply flawed bill, should give no one comfort. But Archbishop Chaput said that the health care bills passage had killed any talk about serving the common good or seeking common ground. Words need actions to give them flesh, he said, citing the combination of pressure and disinformation used to break the prolife witness on this bill among Democratic members of Congress and the unwillingness of Democratic leaders to heed the strong resistance from American voters as prime examples they did not wish to come to an accord. But the Denver archbishop reserved his harshest words of censure for self-described Catholic groups, whom he blasted for having done a serious disservice to justice, to the Church, and to the ethical needs of the American people by undercutting the leadership and witness of their own bishops. He said the action was unsurprising for groups like Catholic United, which he said serve partisan political ends, and not newsworthy for the advocacy group Network, which he said has rarely shown much enthusiasm for a definition of social justice that includes the rights of the unborn child. But the direct and open revolt of the Catholic Health Association to pass the bill, he said, provided a deliberate public counter-message to the bishops which was both surprising and profoundly disappointing; and also genuinely damaging. In the crucial final days of debate on health-care legislation, CHA lobbyists worked directly against the efforts of the American bishops in their approach to members of Congress, declared Chaput. The bad law we now likely face, we owe in part to the efforts of the Catholic Health Association and similar Catholic organizations. The archbishop praised the many thousands of ordinary, faithful Catholics, from both political parties in Colorado that fought for legislation that would serve the poor, the rights of the unborn, the rights of immigrants, and freedom of conscience for health care providers. If that effort seems to have failed, faithful Catholics dont bear the blame, said Chaput. That responsibility lies elsewhere. Come good or bad, that kind of effort is never wasted. Read the full article A bad bill and how we got it by Archbishop Charles Chaput here.
President Signs Stupaks Executive Order in Private Ceremony Health Care Bill Passes Congress after Last-Minute Stupak Flip-Flop List: Bishops, Nuns, Organizations Supporting/Opposing Senate Health Care Bill Vatican Newspaper: U.S. Bishops Speaks for Church on Health Bill |
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of note are the groups Network and the severely politically biased group Catholic United
Sister Keenan (I believe that’s her name), head of the CHA, received one of the signing pens from Barry for having assisted him to “get Catholics on board” with this atrocity. I’m waiting for her to receive some kind of censure from her superiors, her bishop or Rome...and waiting, and waiting...
I can’t even stand to see the name of one of our traitor bishops in print. Not one of them will ever have credibility again until they stand up and not only DEFEND the unborn, but all of us, from the totalitarianism they have brought us to.
Chaput has actually been pretty good, and a number of other individual bishops have been good as well. However, these are individual bishops...the USCCB, unfortunately, is the one that speaks to the press, and some of them are elderly lefties remaining from the JPII or even Paul VI era.
Even if the USCCB bishops didn’t feel the could get into and criticize the mechanics of how the system was supposed to work, there were many life issues other than abortion that they could have included (end of life care, treatment of the disabled, the government’s power to make these decisions and force Catholic medical providers to go along with them, etc.).
Their lukewarm opposition to the bill helped, but most of all, it was the fact that they refused to discipline people like Pelosi and other pro-death, pro-tyranny politicians.
Clearly, Archbishop Chaput is pointing out there are some very bad organizations that tout that they are Catholic but really are out to pursue an agenda [Catholic United - promote the DNC; Network - New Age, Tree hugging social justice; Catholics for a Free Choice - promote Abortion].
The average lay Catholic sees the word Catholic in the name of the organization and is confused...
Chaput has just reiterated that he WANTS this crap bill. That’s what makes me mad. They have done nothing to stop this anti-Christian attack on our human rights, either individually or as a group. Not one of them has pointed out that socialist totalitarianism not only tramples on the rights of their flock, but inevitably always attacks the Church. The US Bishops are not protecting their flock, and the result of their wet noodle approach is going to be a communist-style pogrom against the Church.
Chaput grew up as a Democrat and he is nearly sixty years old. He can’t get it through his head that the Democratic Party of Scoop Jackson and George Meany
is dead, that it has been replaced by a far-left party that is increasingly hostile to the Church—and not only on account of the abortion issue. Not much doffent from Stupak, who is about the same age, but who is willing to downplay the importance of abortion. Who concerns me is that the bishops are going to be on the wrong side of amnesty for the illegals. We will not hear from them the simple message that they should be telling the Latinos: You came to American for freedom. When Obama is through, you will not have freedom. You will have promises of security he CANNOT deliver. He thinks of the United States as a an untamed bronko, and he is determined to ride it or kill. He doesn’t care which.
Scoop Jackson and George Meany would have probably supported nationalized health care as well, regardless of their positions on social issues or foreign policy.
Yeah, he should have included the USCCB as well. The USCCB supports all Democrat policies except abortion. Well, if you lie down with dogs, don’t be surprised when you wake up with fleas.
Chaput turned 65 last September.
He cant get it through his head that the Democratic Party of Scoop Jackson and George Meany is dead, that it has been replaced by a far-left party that is increasingly hostile to the Churchand not only on account of the abortion issue.
When is the last time you personally spoke with or corresponded with Chaput about what's in his head?
Chaput has made no secret of his Democratic upbringing. As a former liberal Democrat, I know what the thinking of Dmocrats was in 1960. I also have come to the conclusion that Catholic social doctrine, who dates back to the Kulturkampf, is not adequate to the present times. Otherwise, why would 128 or 134 Catholic congressmen vote for a bill that threatens to reduce Catholic hospitals to state agencies and doctors and nurses to state employees?
The Catholic church is a religion, not a political party, and the sooner they get that through their heads and start to act like a religion, the better off we’ll all be.
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