Tuesday, March 23, 2010

USCCB and CHA On Different Sides Of An Age Old Question




Archbishop Chaput has been all over the Internet giving his opinion about the recently passed health care reform bill. In many of these missives he draws very sharp lines regarding who is 'Catholic' and who is Catholic. The following excerpt is taken from his weekly article in the Denver Catholic Register.

Third, the combination of pressure and disinformation used to break the prolife witness on this bill among Democratic members of Congress – despite the strong resistance to this legislation that continues among American voters – should put an end to any talk by Washington leaders about serving the common good or seeking common ground. Words need actions to give them flesh. At many points over the past seven months, congressional leaders could have resolved the serious moral issues inherent in this legislation. They did not. No shower of reassuring words now can wash away that fact. (I didn't notice Republicans or the USCCB looking for common ground--unless it was their ground. Come to think of it, I never really did know what the Republican ground was except it wouldn't be the Democrats.)

Fourth, self-described “Catholic” groups have done a serious disservice to justice, to the Church, and to the ethical needs of the American people by undercutting the leadership and witness of their own bishops. For groups like Catholics United, this is unsurprising. In their effect, if not in formal intent, such groups exist to advance the interests of a particular political spectrum. Nor is it newsworthy from an organization like Network, which – whatever the nature of its good work -- has rarely shown much enthusiasm for a definition of “social justice” that includes the rights of the unborn child. (Oh my, someone does not like losing. Someone is also ignoring the fact they themselves have thoroughly undercut their own leadership and witness, especially when it comes to children.)

But the actions of the Catholic Health Association (CHA) in providing a deliberate public counter-message to the bishops were both surprising and profoundly disappointing; and also genuinely damaging. In the crucial final days of debate on health-care legislation, CHA lobbyists worked directly against the efforts of the American bishops in their approach to members of Congress. The bad law we now likely face, we owe in part to the efforts of the Catholic Health Association and similar “Catholic” organizations. (Maybe they had the more authentic voice or better argument. After all they are in the actual business of providing "Catholic" health care.)

Here in Colorado, many thousands of ordinary, faithful Catholics, from both political parties, have worked hard over the past seven months to advance sensible, legitimate health-care reform; the kind that serves the poor and protects the rights of the unborn child, and immigrants, and the freedom of conscience rights of health-care professionals and institutions. If that effort seems to have failed, faithful Catholics don’t bear the blame. That responsibility lies elsewhere. I’m grateful to everyone in the archdiocese who has worked so hard on this issue out of love for God’s people and fidelity to their Catholic faith. Come good or bad, that kind of effort is never wasted. (Which means their total blind obedience to their local bishop.)


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Archbishop Chaput has not been the only member of the USCCB who is not taking this loss particularly well. Cardinal O'Malley was not happy, but more sanguine in his criticism, suggesting certain groups and people should give more attention to USCCB opinions. AB Chaput takes things to the extreme, suggesting faithful Catholics will stop thinking for themselves the minute a bishop opens their mouth, well at least in his diocese.

It maybe time other members of the USCCB put some pressure on Archbishop Chaput to at least temper his language. He is not doing any of them many favors. He is coming across more and more like the issues aren't his real agenda, just his definition of his own omniscient authority. That's not a particularly wise path to take at this particular time. Too many Catholics and self defined "Catholics" are beginning to comprehend that it was exactly that kind of thinking that led to the massive sexual abuse cover up. Many lay Catholics are beginning to see that accepting that kind of thinking led directly to them colluding with and enabling said cover up.

The dispute between the USCCB and the CHA seems to me to be one of chicken vs. egg. The CHA takes the position that providing for a healthy uterine environment keeps the egg developing and fosters the choice to sustain life in the mother. The USCCB takes the side that the existence of the egg takes precedent over the environment in which it must develop. They fail to see that nature itself aborts a large number of pregnancies as a direct consequence of poor fetal environment. In this respect they are refusing to acknowledge what is plainly evident in nature and what is statistically proven in countries with universal health care.

In their myopic stance about Roe v Wade they failed to see that in recommending a no vote on the senate health care bill they were arguing for more spontaneous abortion, still births, and maternal deaths. It could be that the arguments of the CHA, which came from the 'chicken' side made more sense to legislators than the 'egg' arguments of the USCCB and their political allies.

A fetus has no effective right to life in an environment which can't sustain life. This not only applies to the legal and social environment, it also applies to the biological environment. It's too bad the USCCB staked their authority on the legal egg side of the equation because it's the weaker side of the argument. Maybe that's why AB Chaput is so obviously trying to make obedience the issue. His argument just doesn't stand up to real scrutiny so he has to fall back on his authority. That is not an approach which is going to fly with many "Catholics" in today's Church climate.


7 comments:

  1. Amen. I think with the Chaputs of the world, women have no value except to the extent they can carry a pregnancy to term like the axolotl tanks of Dune, the handmaids of New Gilead, and the mother in Pan's Labyrinth. Apparently it hasn't dawned on Chaput and the other bishops that we lay Catholics pay for their health care with our contributions, and that many are going without or find out the hard way that they can't afford illness.

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  2. He wants his watered silk and cardinal's beanie SO BADLY that he will say and do anything that puts and keeps him in a good light with the troglodytes who decide who's in and who's out.

    Jim McCrea

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  3. Colleen,

    Someone needs to examine his conscience. He may have been born with a heart that was two sizes too small but he can't help that.

    When will Americans learn anything at all? Denial is not a viable strategy. Consider the facts:

    Compared to other wealthy countries America has:
    * A teen pregnancy rate that is twice as high as in Canada, 3.3 times that of Sweden
    * A teen birthrate that is twice as high as in Canada, 6.9 times that of Sweden
    * A teen abortion rate that is 1.3 times as high as in Canada, 1.6 times that of Sweden
    * In 1996 American teens had syphilis at 10 times the rate of the Swedes and Canadians
    * In 1996 American teens had gonorrhea at 317 times the rate of Swedes, 9.6 times that of Canadians
    What of children who are born? In the USA the infant mortality rate is twice as high as in Sweden!

    What other "pro-life" statistics do you want to compare? Poverty rates? Homicide rates? Life expectancy?

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  4. Colleen thank you for the well written article you point out so much that is helpful to this discussion.

    Anonymous, the facts of your statistics bare restating:

    Compared to other wealthy countries America has:
    * A teen pregnancy rate that is twice as high as in Canada, 3.3 times that of Sweden
    * A teen birthrate that is twice as high as in Canada, 6.9 times that of Sweden
    * A teen abortion rate that is 1.3 times as high as in Canada, 1.6 times that of Sweden
    * In 1996 American teens had syphilis at 10 times the rate of the Swedes and Canadians
    * In 1996 American teens had gonorrhea at 317 times the rate of Swedes, 9.6 times that of Canadians
    What of children who are born? In the USA the infant mortality rate is twice as high as in Sweden!

    The opinion of my 90 some year old mother and resident of the Archdiocese of Denver are also worth stating. "I rejoiced the day we got rid of that "nut" Stafford, but the devil you know is often better than he devil you don't. This is particularly true of Chaput. He like Benedict are even more EVIL than their predecessors." This from a cradle catholic that is still very with it in her nineties and a woman who raised 7 children and put them through Catholic Schools. No, these men do not have the respect of the thinking People of God. The real question is weather they are even christian. Catholic vs "Catholic." Christian vs "Christian." dennis

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  5. Thank you rdp46.

    Chaput should examine the case of Ted Haggard as well as those of RC priests who stray from the teachings of the Church on sexual morality.

    When masturbation is, most often, a mortal sin the tempted person says essentially why go to hell for something that trivial? If I'm going to be bad I'm going all the way! Absolutely no inhibitions. They think "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!" So Haggard's innermost repressed fantasies appear to have be related to having gay sex while doing methamphetamine. Why only fantasize when the act has no more moral penalty than the fantasy? Go for it!

    There's no inching along, sticking a toe over the line. Instead the morally immature plunges in headfirst into deep water because for him it is the moral equivalent of dipping a toe in.

    Chaput and the others constantly appeal to authority as though making abortion illegal will reduce the number of abortions. Not true, according to numerous studies. (See: guttmacher.org and the WHO.)

    What reduces the number of pregnancies, out of wedlock births, and yes abortions, both in terms of absolute numbers and rates per capita? Education. Sex education. Education and contraception address the most immediate causes.

    But the most important factor is less precise. It is improving the status and lives of girls and women. It is about RESPECT and economic opportunity. One of the saddest aspects of "orthodox" Catholics is that they aspire to some sort of pre-Vatican "orthodox" fantasy about the majesty of the Church in 13th Century Europe, the height of clerical power. (What frightens me is they sound just like the Imams calling for Islamic republics and application of sharia law elsewhere. Breaking News! Pope Califate declares bellum sanctum on the secular world... Details at 6:00 pm)

    We would all be better off realizing that the "orthodoxy" one should aspire to is that of the disciples at the time of Jesus.

    Even a casual reading of scripture reveals that women were, in fact, disciples of Jesus. The women remained with Jesus to witness his death while the men ran off. On the matter of Resurrection Jesus appears first to Mary Magdala.

    Here in Canada you only have to look around at any Mass to realize men have abandoned the Church while the women and girls remain. How can the Church ask us to pray for priestly vocations when half the population, but probably 2/3 of the congregation are not eligible to serve. Look at the altar servers, 90% girls! That the future of the Church. Pray that those children are invited to become full members of the ministry.

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  6. Anon your points are well taken, at least in this crowd. The other day I was meditating and I had this vision of what the Church could be like. It started with lay Catholics in a fairly large church calling forward their own ritual celebrants. (You know the way it used to be back in the original day.)

    Funny that young celibate males did not make the cut. Hardly any of those, but older folks of both sexes, those known for both their humility and wisdom, did make the cut. In some cases little old women who had faithfully served the altar for years were finally called to use the altar. (Some of them had some difficulty making the adjustment.) It was a wonderful vision of what could be, but won't be unless we all just DO IT.

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  7. Dear anonymous and Colleen, wonderful comments. Over the last several months, I have often asked this group. Where to now while advancing the point that small prayer groups seem to be a better answer. We should all JUST DO IT. That means this group on this board and so many others! dennis

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