Well, it is done. The Government takeover of health-care is now the law of the land complete with the federal funding of abortion.
At this horrific moment we must make an honest assessment of how we arrived at this point. The responsibility for this terrible moment in history is spread far and wide. The Democrat party, committed to the Siamese causes of increasing government control of lives and desire to have less lives, is the obvious culprit but far from the only one.
A truly honest assessment of the situation should hold the Republican party to account. Truth be told, the Republican party has acquitted themselves well in the past year. They managed to hold off this bill as long as they could facing an opposition with a huge majority. But why did the Democrats have such a huge majority? Because when the reigns of government were entrusted to Republicans, they woefully failed in their duty. They failed to live up to their own creed in both a fiscal and moral sense. No need to go into detail here, everyone knows their failings. Those failings opened the door to a virulently pro-death Democrat Congress and a virulently pro-death Democrat president.
Had the Republicans been good stewards of the authority entrusted them, we would likely not be in this situation now.
There is another group that should also take a hard look at their stewardship and and acknowledge their failures, the US Bishops…Continue reading at the National Catholic Register>>>
March 22, 2010 at 10:57 pm
Great post Matthew. You were baptized and confirmed to be a priest, prophet and king. I am edified at the way that you are exercising your ministry. Keep up the good work. Someone has to speak the truth to power.
March 23, 2010 at 2:23 am
Patrick,
I appreciate your addendum to the post over on NCR, as well as deleting some of the more egregious comments.
I don't see where I attributed anything to you that you did not say. Most of my comment was a response to what you did say, and the only time I recapped your post was when I said "You have aligned the bishops with the party of death…". Which you did, verbatim, in your article: "The hard truth is that for years the Bishops have allied themselves with the pro-abort party…"
While it is fair for a Catholic to privately, perhaps, think about how they might make a bishop's "prudential decisions" differently, it is a far different matter to openly criticize in a fashion such as to invite the sorts of comments your post did. Though you might have intended your post to be "constructive criticism," it was not taken as such, either by myself or by many of the other commenters, who ran more with the "criticism" aspect than the "constructive" one.
The intent of your post clearly was to indict the bishops for their perceived inaction on this issue, and for not doing enough–in your opinion–to challenge Pelosi, et al, in the run-up to the passage of HCR. Perhaps more prudent, nuanced language should have been used, because it was read as an indictment and responded to in a like manner, by people who now are encouraging others to no longer donate to the Church, to be suspicious of their bishops' motives, and distrustful of the Church founded by Christ. That is an incredible shame, and as Thomas commented over on the NCR post: "If this unfortunate event has us doing no more than complaining about our shepherds’ inabilities instead of taking decisive action as Catholics, then the Adversary has accomplished his aims."
I understand your anger at this whole situation, but I sincerely feel it has been misplaced, with some unfortunate consequences.
– Rachel
March 23, 2010 at 7:37 am
(From http://www.rightsidenews.com/201003229187/editorial/the-bishops-not-stupak-are-the-problem.html?awesm=fbshare.me_AKGmb )
While commentators speculate as to whether Stupak was in favor of health care legislation all along and was always intending to vote for it, the real attention should be on the Bishops. They were playing the double-game, acting as if the legislation had to be toughened-up in order to be more pro-life, while insisting it be expanded to cover more immigrants. They were sounding conservative and liberal at the same time. All along they were active players because, in the end, they wanted to see national health care legislation passed.
On Friday, Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, was part of a conference call in opposition to House passage of the Senate bill on pro-life grounds. He was asked about a group of Catholic nuns endorsing the bill and expressed his opinion that they were ignorant about how abortion would be funded on the federal level through the Senate bill. I asked why he or other Catholic Church lobbyists or the Bishops themselves hadn't educated them about the issue. He had no coherent explanation.
When I asked why the five Catholic lobbyists involved in passing the original Stupak language were not being sent to explain to the nuns why the legislation was deficient, he took issue with the number of church lobbyists that were reported to have been working on Capitol Hill. Whatever the number, the Bishops know how to lobby and make their views known. But they clearly permitted Catholic groups like NETWORK, "a national Catholic social justice lobby," to support the legislation, even without pro-life language.
-ripples
March 23, 2010 at 8:19 am
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March 23, 2010 at 8:39 am
@Rachel: Should we support the USCCB's CCHD even if it donates to groups that support abortion?
If a bishop reassigns a pedophile priest and we know about it, should we be silent?
If a bishop decides to not apply a canon of the Church, should we simply be like sheep?
If a bishop allows liturgical abuses, should we defer to his judgment and go along with anything he does?
March 23, 2010 at 1:04 pm
One critical issue, arising here as well as during the recent unpleasantness, is the error of clericalism, which has often been condemned by Holy Mother Church.
Of course, a bishop may embrace a private opinion on a political particular on which good and faithful Catholics can disagree. However, his private opinion has no more canonical authority than the opinion of the lowliest publican in the back pew. Those who disagree have every right to dispute his private opinion in the public square — no matter how much ecclesiastical "authority" might adorn the bishop's private prudential judgment.
In this "Age of the Laity," we laity must make this principle clear, lest good Catholics be alienated from the church because they begin to perceive it to be little more than a left-wing sect. We must bear witness to the truth in all things.
Princeton Professor and Catholic Robbie George has elucidated this issue brilliantly in the article linked below.
Christopher Manion, Virginia
link:
http://www.winst.org/fellows/george/Moral_Witness_of_the_Catholic_Church.pdf
March 23, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Great Article Christopher! Thank you for posting it! I love and respect all that Professor George does, says, and writes on!
March 23, 2010 at 5:13 pm
If we are the sheep we need shepherds. If the shepherds are misleading us we must not follow them.
When I hear my bishop during the homily on pro-ife Sunday place abortion and euthanasia on the same level as immigration and the death penalty I am upset because he has subscribed to some leftist social justice nonsense that has nothing to do with Catholic teaching. A poster here called it the "seamless garment" approach – a concept developed by Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago…… please, do me a favor and follow the "Chicago trail" of Bernardin, Aulinsky, Obama…..
Then my bishop didn't even differentiate between legal and illegal immigration, nor did he recognize the right of every nation to maintain and defend her borders.
On top of it, the USCCB has no teaching power. The USCCB is not the right arm of the Magisterium in Rome. The USCCB as an entity is laughable.
So long as my bishop is nurturing and leading me in my Catholic Faith, I will listen to him – it is laudable, for instance, that he is working hard to move tabernacles front and center in our churces, that he is working hard to foster vocations, etc….. I can and will support that.
For other issues, if he deviates, I will look to Rome.
Jesus warned us that there will be wolves in sheep clothing. And now we are not allowed to call attention to them?
I absolutely blame our episcopate first. What do we have shepherds for? I am absolutely convinced that if our episcopate had taught us the Catholic Faith in complete obedience and loyalty to Rome we would not be in this mess. The sheep would be formed correctly and would then act correctly in society. It was the bishops first who allowed malformation, dissent, disobedience and disloyalty to enter the church. It was the bishops' conferences in various countries, Canada, Austria, Germany to name a few, who openly called for dissent and disobedience of Humanae Vitae and put it in writing.
NOT THE FAITHFUL. And now we have a mess.