Help the poor=Give them more tax money.
This indicates that they have really, really dropped the ball on conveying basic moral and ethical teachings.
Also they have muddied the message by getting in bed with Liberals in so many cases.
Oh yeah, libtard Catholics LOVE the poor. They should, they are responsible for helping to create most of them with their votes.
Are you surprised?
Honestly, I am not. The typical American Catholic skews more to the left than the right.
The view is that abortion is settled, and the focus should be on those who weren’t aborted (the poor). Had that discussion once with a family member.
They pretend that government programs “fix poverty”, and that is more important than protecting innocent Human Life.
1. Protecting innocent Human Life is more important.
2. Government doesn’t “fix” poverty, but rather enslaves those they pretend to help, in an endless cycle of dependency.
The first is a Constitutional responsiblity, the 2nd is NOT!
They are both reflective of Christ's preference for the poor throughout the life cycle.
To create a false dichotomy here is neither pro-life nor socially just.
This approach has been used successfully by liberals to split the Church. That Catholics allow this to happen says more about themselves than about pro-life or social justice stances.
The teaching of the Popes (Benedict in Caritas in Veritate quoting John Paul II in Evangelium Vitae) show it cannot be an either or.
We have, according to PEW, a situation where barely 9% of people called actually respond!
Let's say that 7% of Catholics are interested in social justice (Or Third World Liberation Theology) more than abortion and are willing to speak out on the questions in that area. They are geared to answer polls 100% of the time. The other 93% will answer only 9% of the time ~ like normal people.
.93*.09 = .083. At the same time .07*1 = .07. That means the very small minority of Catholics into SJ look to be almost as great as the vast majority into RTL.
There are a lot of prudential issues about how to help the poor. A prospering economy brings jobs that help the poor. Government redistribution may not always be the best way or the most moral way to go about helping. In other words there is a lot of room for debate, and the bishops would be disingenuous to take the Democratic Party platform and imply that it is contiguous with Catholic doctrine. With abortion, however, Catholic teaching is that this is clearly always wrong. That is a moral truth, and moral truths cannot be determined by democratic vote. Moreover, “downplaying” the abortion issue will simply lead over time to support for abortion, as has been shown time and again in the liberal mainstream Protestant denominations.
There are a lot of prudential issues about how to help the poor. A prospering economy brings jobs that help the poor. Government redistribution may not always be the best way or the most moral way to go about helping. In other words there is a lot of room for debate, and the bishops would be disingenuous to take the Democratic Party platform and imply that it is contiguous with Catholic doctrine. With abortion, however, Catholic teaching is that this is clearly always wrong. That is a moral truth, and moral truths cannot be determined by democratic vote. Moreover, “downplaying” the abortion issue will simply lead over time to support for abortion, as has been shown time and again in the liberal mainstream Protestant denominations.
I think the most helpful idea that has come from the bishops on this is that in Catholic teaching you are supposed to help up close, knowing the people and standing with them. I don’t remember the term they use for that. I think this is the key to connecting superficial Catholics to respect for the unborn as well as the needy.
1. abortion
Helping the poor is one of those things that you can do without actually getting to know any poor people. It’s like environmentalism. You can do it without feeling too personally guilty. Abortion, on the other hand, is something that people actually know people who are doing it and would have to regret and feel guilty or hypocritical about getting active on pro-life stuff. It’s awkward.
So, I think the bishops need to help people move through true regret and guilt to repentance, because there will be no true conversion without this hard work.
2. the poor
We are called to know them like family. When we do, we realize that they make some of their own trouble. Then we still have to help them anyway, but we will do so more wisely, as fellow sinners, not as if we have rescued an abandoned puppy. When Catholics start to do that, I think they will re-balance between the poverty and the pro-life issues, because there is enough in both of them to humble us and bind us.
Let’s see the methodology.
Social justice is another word for income redistribution, leveling and socialism. The survey reflects our 47% lazy mob who want someone else’s money to pay for benefits to them.
Real steps to move out from poverty are to look for paying work, stay in school to get marketable skills and take government’s foot off the neck of business to allow job creation.
Maybe the Church should add these thoughts to the homily.