Posted on 12/13/2011 6:21:03 AM PST by Alex Murphy
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is urging members of the House of Representatives to “find effective ways to assure continuing Unemployment Insurance and Emergency Unemployment Compensation to protect jobless workers and their families.” The House is considering a measure that would the reduce the duration of unemployment benefits from a maximum of 99 weeks to 59 weeks.
“When the economy fails to generate sufficient jobs, there is a moral obligation to help protect the life and dignity of unemployed workers and their families,” said Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.
In his letter to House members, Bishop Blaire quoted Blessed John Paul II, who wrote in his 1981 encyclical Laborem Exercens that “the obligation to provide unemployment benefits, that is to say, the duty to make suitable grants indispensable for the subsistence of unemployed workers and their families, is a duty springing from the fundamental principle of . . . the right to life and subsistence.”
“When the economy fails to generate sufficient jobs, there is a moral obligation to help protect the life and dignity of unemployed workers and their families,” said Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.
Why sure...
Let me just reach here in my back pocket and pull out my wallet....
Uhhh..Ummm... wait.... it’s EMPTY!!!!
Now what?
I guess not!!!
I sure wish Catholic Bishops would spend more time cleaning their own mess and less time in the Government.
Well Bishops, when you are ready to pay for it, go right ahead. We are broke and they (the unemployed) are out of luck - they are going to have to go find a job, any job. I don’t care what it is, there is nothing beneath anyone. Working any job is far more dignified than sitting around. I believe we make it far too easy on people to be long-term unemployed or even make a career out of being on the dole.
I agree with him entirely. And who is responsible for fulfilling that moral obligation? The Church of course! So the Bishops better start ponying up the cash because they are derelict in their duties.
Two years off work with pay. Not a bad gig if you can find it!
When does it become welfare?
I wish the Bishops would stand up for us,the American people. It seems the Church stands up for those here illegally who take the work Americans could have. They don’t have to follow the rules and their businesses can destroy small American businesses because they don’t follow the rules.
There are jobs. If not,how do illegals live?
I am glad that individual bishops and conferences of bishops are fallible!
I will not begrudge any bishop his right to offer his pastoral guidance. But no Catholic is bound by such statements.
The Church clearly teaches that she does NOT prescribe particular solutions that will bring about justice and charity. Therefore no Catholic can hold that the opinion of a bishop or a conference of bishops is more than a considered prudential judgment that is fallible and is not binding open the faithful.
This statement and the letter to Hispanics are prudentially misguided, in my opinion and in the opinion of many well-informed and earnest Catholics.
The bishops should recall that unemployment extensions are not free.I will pay for MO’s borrowing from the Feds to extend 26 weeks, only I’ll be paying for 28 quarters.
This moral obligation of which the Bishop speaks, is a wonderful, charitable sentiment and should be pursued as an institutional policy of the Church. But, as an obligation for my tax money, this sentiment is nonsense.
If the Catholic Church wants to abrogate its duties to the government, then consider my taxes as my tithe.
Interesting analysis. I think I agree.
It is so sad to see that the bishops continue to misapply Catholic doctrine.
The Church does charity - that is her only role.
The State does not have a heart and thus it cannot love - charity is impossible for the State.
Another collective pressuring representatives to engage in legal plunder. Take them in, hire them or start a business bishops. Otherwise, pound sand.
The joy of being a liberal...you can be compassionate on someone else’s money!
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