[Please see the addendum at the end of this post.]
Well, it is done. The Government takeover of health-care is now the law of the land complete with the federal funding of abortion.
At this horrific moment we must make an honest assessment of how we arrived at this point. The responsibility for this terrible moment in history is spread far and wide. The Democrat party, committed to the Siamese causes of increasing government control of lives and desire to have less lives, is the obvious culprit but far from the only one.
A truly honest assessment of the situation should hold the Republican party to account. Truth be told, the Republican party has acquitted themselves well in the past year. They managed to hold off this bill as long as they could facing an opposition with a huge majority. But why did the Democrats have such a huge majority? Because when the reigns of government were entrusted to Republicans, they woefully failed in their duty. They failed to live up to their own creed in both a fiscal and moral sense. No need to go into detail here, everyone knows their failings. Those failings opened the door to a virulently pro-death Democrat Congress and a virulently pro-death Democrat president.
Had the Republicans been good stewards of the authority entrusted them, we would likely not be in this situation now.
There is another group that should also take a hard look at their stewardship and and acknowledge their failures, the US Bishops.
Again, while the Bishops have acquitted themselves well through this process recently, they cannot ignore the past.
The hard truth is that for years the Bishops have allied themselves with the pro-abort party in matters related to health-care, and now they claim 11th hour betrayal.
When you hang out with thieves, you shouldn’t be surprised when you get robbed.
Moreover, the Bishops silence for years in the face of pro-abortion Catholic politicians has given aid and comfort to those who seek the death of children. The Bishop’s unwillingness, with some obvious exceptions, to effectively address or discipline pro-abort Catholic politicians allowed for the Democrats to portray the Church as divided on the issue. They have also allowed a culture of dissent to flourish for decades that culminated in the shameful last minute endorsement by a group of radical nuns that seriously hurt the cause of life.
The bishops’ decades long collective silence on these issues allowed for this culture to develop and has resulted in the USCCB being understandably criticized as an extension of the Democrat party (the Democrat party at prayer they say). This is the horrible result of that ungodly alliance.
Blame may be cathartic for some but that is not the reason I bring this sorry history up now. Like the Republicans, the Bishops too must learn from their mistakes. If they continue to ally themselves with the Democrat party and continue their ineffective “pastoral” approach to pro-death Catholic politicians things will only get worse, and yes they can get worse.
So it is time for all of us to admit our mistakes and learn from them. Lives depend on it. We failed them before, let’s not do it again.
Addendum:
When writing this post, I did not intend it to be the launch area for attacks against our Bishops, collectively or individually. In fact, as I mentioned in my post, I think that collectively the Bishops have done a commendable job in opposing the aspects of the healthcare bill that will provide federal funds for abortions. They have been clear in their opposition from the start of this process and have been actively engaged throughout. I was even more impressed with the quick turnaround of the Bishop’s Conference in pointing out the unacceptability of the Executive Order solution that eventually won the day. The Bishops did all they could during this process and I commend them for it.
In bringing up past failings, I intended it as a learning exercise. This situation was not created only in the last fifteen months. All of us, need to take a deep look at what we could have done better and what, perhaps, we did wrong. I fully expect that most of the Bishops are aware of mistakes that have been made. Their excellent work in defense of life this past year gives proof of it. Yet still, serious consideration should be given to historical mistakes as well if only to ensure that they have learned the necessary lessons.
That said, vitriol and blanket criticism of the Bishops is unfair and certainly not constructive. For that reason, we will be turning off comments on this post. I hope that most of those who have read my post understand the intent of what I wrote and sincere desire to be constructive.
As for those who have used this post as an excuse to bash the Bishops I ask you to turn your anger to something much more efficacious. Pray for the Bishops.
Patrick
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Let’s not forget that God likes to bring His greatest good out of the world’s greatest evil. Could this be an accident that this “healthcare” abomination is going on right before Easter? Hardly!
Thy Will Be Done!
This is a sad day, particularly for the Church. As a Catholic medical student, I am uncertain of what my future career will be like. Even worse, I feel as if our faith has been betrayed. The actions of the CHA and all of those ‘sisters’ boils my blood. The bishops truly have done too little, too late. So now, we must clean up the mess by recapturing our Catholic identity. I know that this has been a goal for many years now in these circles, but now we must try and accomplish that task even sooner. Until we clean up our own house, we will have a very difficult time cleaning up this health care bill. We could be a formidable force, IF we finally had a coherent identity and front. The time is now to make this push happen in this country. The first step: Prayer.
www.catholicmedstudent.blogspot.com
Amen. It is only by the extreme grace of our Lord that I can fend off the anger which accompanies my thoughts on the Bishops actions.
I am reminded why the wisdom of the Church sees the USCCB as non-canonical. I pray that it is disbanded and the shepherds return to tending the sheep.
The chickens are coming home to roost. Get it? “Whatsoever a man soweth, so also shall he reap.”
Hand-wringing time is over. Now is not the occasion to “indict” this bishop or that bishop. Charity demands otherwise. The bishops are charged with far more responsibility than we have, and we know the Tempter devotes more attention to them to get them to fall, and they do fall, and in a more spectacular way because of their office. If this unfortunate event has us doing no more than complaining about our shepherds’ inabilities instead of taking decisive action as Catholics, then the Adversary has accomplished his aims.
An illustration: two Sundays ago, as the frenzy to pass health care legislation was entering its final phase and the voice of every Catholic voter needed to be heard immediately in Washington, my diocese was distributing pre-printed postcards to send there on the urgent subject of… “comprehensive immigration reform”.
Indict the bishops by sending your Lenten Apeal money to the crisis pregnancy centers.
You need to include Notre Dame here. Fr. Jenkins went against the local bishop and ignored Obamas’ own words on reproductive rights. The ND88 fought against 0bamas’lies while Jenkins embraced them, misleading his own students and families.
The rotting fruits of Vatican II…
@Thomas: Charity demands that we identify the false prophets who mislead the faithful into supporting pro-abortion politicians. Our recent Church history has proven that leaders in the Church have betrayed God through their personal sins, pedophilia, or collaboration with liberals. Last election and last night were tragedies caused by liberal, dissident bishops, priests and nuns. This is our Church too and we must not let bad shepherds to continue to mislead the sheep to their perdition. Are you one of those who think that it is alright to sacrifice the unborn for the sake of expediency? If we remain silent, we cooperate with evil as “Silence is consent!”
Mr. Archbold, I urge you to reflect on the comments that have been posted thus far. A common theme is distrust and malevolence towards the US bishops, which, I think, is appropriate given the scandalous article you have written here. Sometimes, one might think, and rightly, that one is following the teachings of the Church more closely and more passionately than one’s bishop. Sometimes, one might think, and rightly, that one is a “better Catholic” than one’s bishop. However, such an attitude, while in itself harmless, can be extremely poisonous when it is expressed openly in a public forum. In effect, you have put both the grace of God and the entire Catholic Church into question, leaving it up to your readers to decide if they think they know better than their bishop. Are you not saying that the grace of God has failed? Are you not saying that questioning is better than obedience? How is this not the very attitude which Pelosi or Kennedy has, the very attitude which they too have expressed openly, in private and in their political career? Mr. Archbold, you have written here a most scandalous article, and I urge you to take this down, reflect on it, and post an apology to your readers as soon as you feel ready.
The USCCB might have five bishops that have a working knowledge of economics. Worse, the bureaucratic apparatchiks that run the place DO have clear goals but they are Marxist. I challenge anybody who has ever had to make a payroll to read the Bishops’ Pastoral Letter on the Economy (1986). It’s crawling with Marxism and I doubt the bishops even had a clue. Too many of them were “cradle Democrats” before they became “cradle Catholics”. The idea of a Schumpeter or a Friedman having a valid thought is unimaginable to them. The principle of subsidiarity (an ancient teaching of the Church) is beyond their ken. The principle of Pareto optimalty might as well be latin (Of course if they knew latin they would not have been hoodwinked by the Dutch bishops at Vatican II). They are immunized against rational thought by the Jesuitical Marxist (read: liberation theology) teaching that has permeated about 200 of our 235 American “Catholic” universities. A great primer on this catastrophic condition is The Character of Nations by University of Boston’s professor Angelo Codevilla. Fr. Sirico’s Acton Institute is focused on this exact problem as well. In the end, the Church survived Judas, Peter, and Thomas so I’m confident the Holy Spirit will keep Peter’s bark afloat. Our souls are only in marginal danger from this, but our 401K’s are certainly going to hell. The good news is that B-16 has made excellent appointments recently, but it will take many years to repair the damage.
Patrick,
I’ve been a loyal reader of CMR for a long time now, but I have to say that I cannot disagree more with this column. In fact, I find the hostility towards and criticism of our bishops—our SHEPHERDS, given to us by the Holy Spirit—to be appalling and almost as scandalous as Pelosi’s disregard for the teaching authority of the Church.
However upset we are by what has transpired, however much we feel betrayed by so-called ‘Catholic’ groups, we cannot fall into the utterly Protestant position of questioning the authority of our bishops and the motives by which they are guided.
In our passion for the pro-life movement it is all too easy to see the enemy everywhere, but in this column you have spread dissent and division within the Church herself. Look at the comments. Good Catholics are saying that they now know that they cannot trust their priest, their bishops. They are going to stop donating to the Church in order to “teach the bishops a lesson”. You have aligned the bishops with the party of death—something which they NEVER did—so what else did you expect?
The evil behind this HCR stuff has done what evil always does—spread discord and chaos among people. It has caused good, faithful Catholics to forget that there is no one more Catholic than the bishop, and there is no way to BE Catholic while at once rejecting the authority of those who are the successors of the Apostles and share in their office.
In all of this have we forgotten that the USCCB is not a PAC? That the goal of each bishop is to shepherd his flock—UNTO HEAVEN? It’s easy for us to sit back and say “Pelosi’s bishop should have excommunicated her long ago—for that matter, Pope Benedict should have weighed in on the issue when he met her”—but our concern is more political in nature than for the salvation of her soul. It is not our place to judge how a bishop shepherds, for the Holy Spirit has not called US out as shepherds, but has called HIM.
Our hope is not in this world—that is clearer now than it ever has been in most of our lives. But God will provide, and Truth will prevail, even as we see the darkness closing in. Remember—the darkness WILL NOT overcome the light. But let’s be sure not to help it claim any more Catholics by dividing them from the Church.
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