On 8 May 2012, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops sent out a letter to the representatives of the United States House of Representatives making certain comments on the proposed reconciliation package for the fiscal year 2013. The letter is well worth reading, let me quote it for you:
Dear Representative,
As you vote on a reconciliation package for the fiscal year 2013 budget, I would like to affirm the principle contained in the Committee Report that the “budget starts with the proposition that first, Congress must do no harm.” In this light, I urge you to ensure all policies meet the moral criteria established by the Catholic bishops of the United States to create a circle of protection around programs that serve poor and vulnerable people and communities:
1. Every budget decision should be assessed by whether it protects or threatens human life and dignity.
2. A central moral measure of any budget proposal is how it affects the lives and dignity of “the least of these” (Matthew 25). The needs of those who are hungry and homeless, without work or in poverty should come first.
3. Government and other institutions have a shared responsibility to promote the common good of all, especially ordinary workers and families who struggle to live in dignity in difficult economic times.
A just framework for future budgets cannot rely on disproportionate cuts in essential services to poor persons; it requires shared sacrifice by all, including raising adequate revenues, eliminating unnecessary military and other spending, and addressing the long-term costs of health insurance and retirement programs fairly.
I reiterate our strong opposition to an unfair proposal that would alter the Child Tax Credit to exclude children of hard-working, immigrant families. The bishops’ conference has long supported the Child Tax Credit because it is pro-work, pro-family, and one of the most effective antipoverty programs in our nation. Denying the credit to children of working poor immigrant families–the large majority of whom are American citizens–would hurt vulnerable kids, increase poverty, and would not advance the common good.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps), provides vital food security to families during tough economic times. It is estimated that cuts proposed in this bill would deny assistance to two million families, and cut the benefit for everyone else. No poor family that receives food assistance would be unaffected, constituting a direct threat to their human dignity. If savings in agricultural programs need to be achieved, subsidies and direct payments can be reduced and targeted to small and moderate-sized farms.
The Social Services Block Grant is an important source of funding for programs throughout the country that serve vulnerable members of our communities–the homeless, the elderly, people with disabilities, children living in poverty, and abuse victims. We should prioritize programs that serve “the least of these,” not eliminate them.
The Catholic bishops of the United States recognize the serious deficits our country faces, and we acknowledge that Congress must make difficult decisions about how to allocate burdens and sacrifices and balance resources and needs. However, deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility efforts must protect and not undermine the needs of poor and vulnerable people. The proposed cuts to programs in the budget reconciliation fail this basic moral test. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states it is the proper role of government to “make accessible to each what is needed to lead a truly human life: food, clothing, health, work, education and culture, suitable information, the right to establish a family, and so on” (no. 1908). Poor and vulnerable people do not have powerful lobbyists to advocate their interests, but they have the most compelling needs.
As you pursue responsible deficit reduction, the Catholic bishops join other faith leaders and people of good will urging you to protect the lives and dignity of poor and vulnerable families by putting a circle of protection around these essential programs and to refrain from cutting programs that serve them.
Please note that, once again, the Roman Catholic bishops have taken the strong stance that being pro-life is much more than simply being anti-abortion. Sadly, the letter received no play in the national media. Conservatives do not wish it known that there is more to pro-life than being anti-abortion, nor do they wish it known that the Church stands against draconian measures against undocumented immigrants and against any economic theory that treats those in need as expendable and not worthy of help. Please note that the letter does not address undocumented immigrants as illegal immigrants, which is another blow to conservatives. But, liberals also do not wish it known that the Church stands for more than anti-abortion. It suits their narrative to picture the Church as an out-of-touch medieval institution whose pronouncements should be ignored. To acknowledge that the Church agrees with them that many of the current conservative fiscal policies are actually anti-Judeo/Christian would be to acknowledge that the Church is not simply an out-of-touch institution.
Thus, neither side was in any hurry to disseminate the letter above. But, the letter above is a good solid example of what Patriarch Bartholomew has said in the past.
There has never been a greater need for spiritual leaders to engage themselves in the affairs of this world.
Please read the bishops’ letter again and see whether your political/economic views are in accord. If they are not, I would suggest that you change them. In particular, if you are Roman Catholic or Orthodox, I call you to be fully pro-life, even if that means that you end up with a position that is neither purely conservative nor purely liberal. Moral purity is significantly more important than political purity.
“Conservatives do not wish it known that there is more to pro-life than being anti-abortion, nor do they wish it known that the Church stands against draconian measures against undocumented immigrants and against any economic theory that treats those in need as expendable and not worthy of help.” – This is an unfair generalization, brother.
As someone who is currently covering the “religious liberty lawsuit,” I have to be careful here, but I will say that had they called coordinated press conferences in dioceses around the country, like they did with their lawsuit, it would have gotten press.
But they did not. And that is to our detriment as Christian citizens.
Oddly enough, right after I read your post, I also received a post from LifeNews.com on Facebook because I keep up with pro-life news from various sites. The headline was that we had to defeat Obama because he was so anti-life. So, given your post, I went to both their website and the website for the National Right to Life (to which I have given money more than once). The first website had multiple anti-Obama political articles. I will commend National Right to Life on not falling into that trap. But, both websites claimed that the national media had ignored the Roman Catholic lawsuit while not making any mention whatsoever of the bishops’ statement that the current House budget proposal is anti-life. I could give more examples, but I would suggest that I have not made an unfair generalization.
I’m a conservative and know many conservatives, and we aren’t pro-life on only one issue.
Frankly, when it comes right down to it, I’m not at all sure that “conservatives” are even “pro-life” when it comes to abortion. Sure, they’ll go all out to vote for candidates who say they will make abortion illegal, something that is simply not possible at this time, but refuse to recognize that criminalizing abortion will actually do little to end it and will often result in not only a dead unborn child, but also, a dead or severely injured mother.
Then, there are those conservatives who, with the greatest consistency, will tell you in private that in actuality, all those single mothers, especially if they are black or brown, should encouraged, if not forced, to get an abortion.
Indeed, today’s “conservatives” do uphold an economic theory that seeks to help those who are worthy, but their definition of just who is worthy is bizarre: the “hard-working” rich people who reputedly have the potential to create jobs, but mainly are the ones we are all to count on to keep the country “growing” (as well as the ones who fund politicians’ campaigns). Those lacking the gumption to pursue wealth and riches have not been deemed worthy of decisive political action. Back when the Magna Carta was established the barons also represented “the people.” So western “civilization” is back to where it started.
Even if they are ignored, the Catholic Bishops, who in their statement are speaking in harmony with the social teachings of the Three Holy Hierarchs St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian, and St. John Chrysostom, whose homilies and writings are so central to the Orthodox Church, will not be rolling over and playing dead on these things. The Truth is marching on.
And I trust our Orthodox Christian Bishops will also step forward on these matters, even if they are not as prominent in the USA as the Roman Catholics because of our Church’s smaller numbers.
Thank you Ernesto! Life is so much bigger than the one issue! I find most republicans and the right wing I general to be pro-death.
But it almost seem to me that our God-loving bishops take the stance that their role is to oversee the Kingdom of God in our midst and to let political matters to others, whether it be the Byzantine Emperor or whoever fills the role now. And while Roman Catholic Popes of old certainly went way too far the other way, what the American Catholic Bishops have put forward seems to fill a void.
The trouble is that there are two parties in America, one which champions abortion rights and same-sex marriage, etc., and the other champions rich people. We’re between a rock and a hard place. But since we live in One-Story universe we do not fear.
I like that, a “one story universe.”