Abp. Chaput Warns Faithful on Current 'Health Care Reform'

'Contact your senators and representative. Demand that current health-care proposals be changed to respect Catholic and pro-life concerns...do it now'.

DENVER (Catholic Online) - There is no doubt that Archbishop Charles J. Chaput is one of the preeminent Churchmen and Catholic voices of our age. His courageous and crystal clear messages to Catholics on the importance of living with what Pope Benedict XVI refers to as "moral coherence" and thereby avoiding what the Second vatican Council warned of as "greatest error of our age...the separation between faith and life" have instructed, motivated and challenged millions.

His last book "Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by living our Catholic beliefs in Political Life" is nothing short of outstanding, should be read by every Catholic, every Christian and every person of faith and good will. It is destined to become a classic. It succinctly addresses the vital obligation of integrating our Catholic Christian faith and our obligations of authentically faithful citizenship.

The Archbishop leads the Archdiocese of Denver, Colorado which is a shining example of the "New Evangelization" which the late Servant of God John Paul II called for and which his worthy successor, our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI is now leading. The seminaries are full, the parishes are growing (in fidelity and number)and the ecclesial movements are flocking to find a missionary outpost. The Catholic Church is being demonstrated to all who live there - and beyond - as the continued presence of the Risen Christ in our midst.

Refreshingly, the Archbishop of Denver cannot be "pidgeonholed" as a "liberal" or a "conservative", in the shallow meaning of those terms and all of their hyphenated variations in contemporary political jargon. He is a Catholic. Catholic is, as I like to say, the NOUN in this good Bishop's life, words and deeds. He embraces, teaches and calls the faithful to live the entirety of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church and to embrace the fullness of all that the Church teaches on every front.

Archbishop Chaput was ordained Bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota, on July 26, 1988. Pope John Paul II appointed him Archbishop of Denver on February 18, 1997. As member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Tribe, Archbishop Chaput is the second Native American to be ordained bishop in the United States, and the first Native American archbishop.

We present the full text of the latest uncompromising article authored by this great Bishop as the US Congress gets ready to pass "Health Care Reform" legislation which, if not amended, will usher in an era of increased abortions and the resulting unprecedented evil in this Nation. The article appeared in the November 2d edition of the Denver Catholic. It can be found on the excellent website of the Archdiocese of Denver. http://www.archden.org/index.cfm/ID/2852

*****

A Promise Was Made; Now It Needs To Be Kept

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput

"Eight weeks ago President Obama promised a joint session of Congress that "his" health-care plan would not include or provide public monies for abortion. This seemed persuasive because it made sense. As polling has shown, most Americans do not want abortion or its funding included in any publicly supported health plan.

The president's support for a federal "right" to abortion is a matter of record. Like it or not, voters can assume that he'll appoint judges who share that view. Therefore, the main concern of his "pro-choice" constituency is safe under his leadership. This is bad news for the rest of us, but it does give the White House room to compromise. Excluding abortion funding from the president's health-care efforts - I mean really excluding it and not sneaking it in under the cover of some bureaucratic shell game--would be an easy concession for Congress and the White House to make. It's a modest price to pay for Catholic and similar pro-life support, or at least their neutrality. It might also put some meat on the bones of Washington's talk about "common ground."

Eight weeks later, there is no "president's" plan. Instead, as of Nov. 1, Congress has produced five different proposals, including a merged House version totaling nearly 2,000 pages of complex and sweeping legislation. Few citizens have actually read the text. Even fewer really understand its implications. But all of the proposals have one thing in common: Not one of them lives up to the president's promise.

Let's remember that America's Catholic bishops have pushed for national health-care reform for decades, long before our mass media discovered it as a theme. The Church regards access to basic health-care services as a right, not a privilege. But to be legitimate, reform efforts need to respect the dignity of the whole human person from conception to natural death. That includes the unborn child, the immigrant and the elderly. Genuine reform also demands strong protections for the conscience rights of medical professionals and institutions. And it also requires that our ideals rest on a foundation of sound reasoning. In other words, real reform must be economically realistic and financially sustainable.

Since August, the U.S. bishops and their staff have worked tirelessly with members of Congress and the White House staff, trying to craft mutually acceptable health-care legislation. The Church in the United States wants to find the common ground that would enable Catholics to support Congress and the White House in ensuring access to basic health services for all our people. But every effort by concerned members of Congress to ensure morally acceptable legislation -- despite the outstanding leadership of Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak -- has been rebuffed, often with the kind of political doubletalk that seems deliberately designed to confuse.

Here's the result. On Oct. 28, Chicago's Cardinal Francis George and other leaders of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced that all efforts to adequately revise current health-care proposals have failed. In other words, not one of the current legislative proposals offers legitimate "common ground" on the issues vital to Catholics. And to date, despite the president's original promise, the White House has done nothing to fix that problem.

To put it bluntly: all of the health-care reform solutions currently facing Congress violate human dignity in potentially grievous ways. Unless these proposals are immediately changed to reflect the concerns of Congressman Stupak, other like-minded members of Congress, and leaders of the national Catholic community, Catholics need to vigorously oppose and help defeat this dangerous legislation.

Bishop Conley and I will speak directly to the people of the archdiocese on this urgent matter through a letter read at all Masses in all parishes this weekend, Nov. 7-8. Materials will be made available to all parishes outlining the vital issues that remain in the health-care reform debate, and urging parishioners to immediately contact their federal representatives.

The health-care reform debate has been dogged by a pattern of misleading, complex and at times flatly dishonest claims in Congress about the content of the 2,000-page legislation now taking final shape and nearing a vote. Don't be fooled. Contact your senators and representative. Demand that current health-care proposals be changed to respect Catholic and pro-life concerns. And equally important for all of us: We need to do it now."

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'

Copyright 2021 - Distributed by Catholic Online