Wednesday, June 02, 2010

The Word of the Year: "Subsidiarity"

Never mind QueenNancy's obnoxious and perverted drooling yappaflappa about 'the Word.'

The word of the year (for the US Bishops) is "subsidiarity." It should have been in their vocabulary since their days in the seminary, but you know........maybe they just forgot it.

Acton Institute would like to remind them of the word and its application.

...the USCCB was right to lay a threefold stress on "the protection of innocent life from the use of lethal force from conception to natural death," "the maintenance of conscience protections," and "the realization of universal access to healthcare for all, especially the poor and migrants" in the health care debate. But Gregg says they overlooked the time-tested Catholic principle of social and economic justice called 'subsidiarity.'

...Subsidiarity is a Catholic principle of social order that puts a check on government interference in roles that other members of a society can do better and have a responsibility to perform. Gregg emphasized that subsidiarity is neither "anti-government" nor "anti-state" but rather recognizes the importance of government for the common good. Under subsidiarity, government should support - but not dominate - the facilitation of the common good through the actions of individuals and communities.

However, it is not just "Catholic." The Constitution's 9th and 10th Amendments conform perfectly with the idea of "subsidiarity," too. That's not because Jefferson & Co. were raving Catholics; it's because subsidiarity is common sense.

...Gregg argues that "the massive expansion of Federal government control over healthcare in the United States" should provoke the USCCB to acknowledge subsidiarity "as a vital principle for Catholics." He praised those bishops who have made clear that "striving to widen access to healthcare need not automatically translate into the state assuming a dominant role."

Names of the three Bishops who actually get it?

Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, ... Bishop Robert W. Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph...and Bp. Nickless of Sioux City.

I don't think it's coincidence that all of them are in "flyover country."

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