Bishops Want Health-Care Reform

DouginMoz,

RE: Your post

Actually, it is untrue that churches, until a few decades ago, paid for most hospitals, etc. This is a matter of fact, not opinion; what you write is not correct.

That said, like many, many others, I believe that the decision to attend or belong to a church, synagogue, mosque, or temple is a personal one. I believe this because it is a fact.

Church, synagogue, mosque, and temple members are invited to support their own religious institutions in their entirety. There is no more reason why taxpayers should contribute to their support than there is for us to help defray the costs of the nation's athletic clubs, attendance at which is also a matter of choice.

Further, separation of church and state is crumbling. I not only believe that tax exempt status is unjustifiable given our commitment to a secular society, but I also think it is unconscionable in light of our current economic distress.

To repeat, all clerics who lobby the Congress should be fined heavily. Anyone including priests, rabbis, imams may communicate with the Congress as private citizens. That is all. Moreover, although challenges to faith-based funding continue, they are not getting very far. Much, much more needs to be done to oppose it.

Theocracy and democracy cannot co-exist.

For those of you that wish to denounce the Church and remove their tax-exempt status, I would just like to remind you that until a few decades ago, the vast majority of hospitals were built by churches or their denominations, and certainly the largest contributor to building hospitals by far was the Catholic church. In those days, hospitals did not necessarily make profits and had to be continually subsidized, again by the churches. Your taxes didn't pay for them, they existed because of the charity of those in the pews and the leadership of the churches willing to care for the "least of these."

This is very interesting. Like the bishops, I, too, would like health care for all, have blogged about it endlessly, have worked, and am working to see that it happens.

However, I want to see abortions covered. I'm working several hours each week to see that that happens. That makes me unlike the bishops.

Also I am unlike the bishops in that I am not paid by any religious institution that receives the benefits of nonprofit status so long as it honors separation of church and state. Neither the bishops nor the RCC do this. Ever.

They are the embodiment of why religious institutions should not receive nonprofit status, why they must be prevented from lobbying. It is fine for individual clergy to write to their representatives asking for this or that, supporting this or that legislation, so long as they are writing in their capacity as American citizens. Nothing more.

Thank you, Thomas Reese S.J. for your article. My bishop told me in a letter read to the congregation last Fall that I was committing a sin if I voted for Obama. I have yet to hear one word from my bishop regarding health care.

I am a practicing Catholic. As such, I am interested in what the Catholic Bishops have to say as a matter of faith. As voting citizen, I could frankly care less. Unless my Church intends to provide me with the benefits each diocese affords its bishops, I am a firm supporter of a wall between church and state. The Bishops are free to comment as is any other individual or organization. The rest of us, notwithstanding our Catholic faith and heritage, are free to make up our own minds about this matter. I fail to understand how any practicing Catholic, bishop or not, would deny healthcare at an affordable price to all in need, because others may use the same plan to abort a baby. Morality and faith are a matter of individual action, not state mandate.

The only sour note in this otherwise commendable stance is the utterly false notion that a fertilized human egg or embryo with no functioning brain is a human with a "soul".
Utter ignorance!

Father Reese: Great article, thanks. AMDG.

Whatsover you do to the least of these you do unto me --- I don't think that was Marx, but to hear the religious rightwing talk, you'd think Jesus was mute on the subject of the more vulnerable of his flock.

We already have an expensive taxpayer supported healthcare system. Most of the benefits go to those most able to fend for themselves, and the subsidies from both sides of the political aisle to people who feed political campaigns instead of His sheep are a scandal - millstones all around!

We can turn the entire nation into the unreconstructed South, or even into Bangladesh -- but most of us, Christians or not, wouldn't enjoy living there as much as we seem to think.

I am a rather devout Catholic so it is somewhat difficult for me to say this, but... the US Catholic Church should put up or shut up. There is a huge system of Catholic health providers (Sisters of Mercy, Franciscan Health, Sisters of Bons Secours, etc.). If the US Church feels so strongly about this, lead by example and make it so that every individual who teaches in a diocesan school anywhere in the country, has access to full service care through any Catholic Health hosptial. They should provide this service in a fee structure that is consistent with the pay levels of the teachers, aides, support staff and principals. This should all be done without "insurance" or pre-existing conditions. Just do it. Many of these hospitals have also created affiliated Drs. groups to provide primary and specialty care, they should be included as well. This will never happen but until then, the Church will continue to be perceived as "do as I say, not as I do".

Comunista:

Let's see, perhaps because I've done Christian mission work in Third World countries where the Catholic Church oppresses the people who live in abject poverty in the shadow of beautifully adorned churches and cathedrals and where the priests charge these same poor people admission to Mass. Can you imagine that kind of greed?

Jesus is smiling on the Bishops.

INTHEMIDDLE- it's also already the largest CHARITY in the world. Care to explain why you conveniently leave that out of your indictment of Catholicism?

It looks like catholics have a hard decision to make: their faith or their wallets. If they choose to stand against reform, they're breaking with the wishes of the church. Hmmm...

The Roman Catholic Church is the richest non-governmental organization in the world. Its members are largely the poor of the world, who are squeezed by the church for every cent they can get out of them.

Why don't the Catholic bishops sell some of that priceless art work or vast real estate holdings and take care of the poor? Isn't that what Jesus would do?

Hypocrites!

Then why is this the first time I have heard this. A couple of weeks ago there was an article on some Bishops that were opposing the health care bill. I would hope the Bishops and Priests are getting this message to their congregations and are not simply satisfied they are doing their job to get health care for all by simply referencing some policies written in 1933. I can't understand why all religions in America aren't shouting from the rooftops the need for health care for all Americans. I am amazed the religious right isn't fully behind a program to bring health care to all Americans, and not just those who have enough money to buy health insurance which has increased in cost by more than 10% a year for the past several years. How can they sit in church every Sunday and pray for the sick in their congregation when they know any of them can't get the health care they need. Maybe they think that their prayers are enough since it doesn't cost them anything to pray.

Let us now compare the number of troops controlled by the pope to those controlled by the Medical Industrial Complex. I think we'll find the ratio similar to the Pius IX v. Hitler figure.

Nice article, but 'the Church' needed an S. J. to get the simple and direct word out!

I'm all for health care reform (by that I mean put the screws to the insurance companies), but I couldn't give a crap about what the Catholic bishops have to say about it or anything else.

Of course the Catholic Churches are in favor of tax funded health care for anyone "living in the US." Grant money is tight, and the parishioners are tired of "giving til it hurts" to supplement the illegal aliens.

EGGY1, note that bishops are nowhere to be found in anyone's list of the wealthiest people on the planet. All the money that Catholics give goes toward maintaining their churches (1st amendment, etc.), running schools, and helping the poor. Those last two things, by the way, reduce your tax burden.

USAPDX, there are very few issues that are purely political issues. Health care is one of them--it has moral implications that are well within most religion's set of core beliefs. Does the government, under the first amendment, have the right to establish its own religion, its own set of values to which all must adhere?

Reese says that "A government option, a single payer system or even socialized medicine are not bogeymen for Catholic social teaching."

While that may be so on a theoretical level, it is equally true that concentrating power in a political elite, as any of the above approaches would do, is antithetical to the values of the Gospels.

If the bishops really want expensive taxpayer-funded health care reform, they should volunteer to pay taxes. Otherwise, it kind of looks like they just want the freebee, doesn't it? They want the free government-controlled health care program and they know they don't have to pay for it. And they don't worry much about running up a multi-trillion-dollar nation debt because they have no heirs to inherit it.

WHY DO THOES THAT FILE TAX EXAMPT SPEAK OUT ON POLITICAL ISSUES IN VIOLATION OF THE TAX EXAMPT RULE? WHY SHOULD ANY TAX MONEY GO TO HEATH CARE FOR ANYONE ILLEGAL BEING IN THE U.S.A.? HEATH CARE CHANGES ARE NEEDED IN THE U.S. A. AS WELL AS OTHER CHANGES IN RELATION TO HEATH CARE FOR AMERICANS.

America is proving that she is not sutpid. Nor is she gullible. Granted we need health reform but we also need to remove lawyers and health insurance companies from the equation. Therein lies the prohibitive cost. Health care platforms as currently written are injurious to America and could lead to a severe decline while we pay for it with the futures of our children. Sure we need Universal health care. We also need to remove monopolistic greedy pharmaceutical providers, monopolistic insurance company and lawyers who've found a way to prey on America's health cart system.