Fair Warning to the USCC's "Rights" Crowd

Roeser is right, you know.

...I come now to the injunction a good many Catholic prelates use: “The right to health care” where they sanction its passage by justifiable might. None other than one of my favorites used it the other day—Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver. He spoke at Houston Baptist University.

Most of what Archbishop Chaput said made good sense—but like many other prelates of good will, when he turned to the subject of health care. He said this: “First, while access to decent health care may not seem to be a `right’ in the same sense as our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the Church does see it as a right.

TO WHICH WITH RESPECT, I SAY “REALLY?” SHOW ME WHERE THE CHURCH PROCLAIMS THE STATE MUST EXTEND IT.

Well, yes. There is no such teaching in Church doctrine. (The Beatitudes have no language specifying Statism, for the information of the LeftOWackies who inhabit rectories, chanceries, and all the other usual-suspect places....)

And Tom's not done yet.

Make no mistake: I thoroughly support the efforts of prelates and the USCCB to keep the evil of abortion out of universal health care. But at the same time I believe that it is also incumbent on the Church and its churchmen to emphasize that state assumption of private functions runs the risk of incurring a collectivist theory of morality.

Finally, it occurs to me that maybe our prelates are so cavalier about “rights” they urge the state to assume stems from the fact that their dioceses and they themselves in contradistinction to all of us, are tax exempt. I guarantee you this: If they keep this up, there will be enough backlash in this country to insist that they too share the burden of the rest of us taxpayers.

That’s something for them to ponder and ponder well. They may then reflect on how many state mandated “rights” are required.

The "collectivist theory" Tom mentions is quite au courant--a variant, "liberation theology" was smacked down hard by JPII, who was partially successful. It's a category-error class mistake, essentially confusing personal responsibility with State responsibility; an extension of "welfare" to the Nth degree.

It's about time that Bishops with common sense (such as Bp. Nickless of Sioux City) start a vigorous campaign to assist their brother-Bishops in understanding Church teaching and Statism.