Catholic Church officially opposes healthcare reform

Ten Morning Observations from Polling Stations around Boston

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13 Comments

• Rick said:

  To answer your question, being Catholic is standing up for the basic human right to life.  The health care reform currently on the floor does nothing to protect unborn children from being killed, the language leaves grave concerns about with-holding medication and treatment, and doesn't seem to protect society as a whole, but rather the portion deemed worthy by the government at the time of treatment.  In my opinion, Congress knows the deal is flawed, as they are not taking part in it themselves, but rather allowing us to pay for a much more expensive option for them.

  As for same-sex marriage, I'm unaware of a time in which the Catholic Church supported anything other than traditional marriage, that being the union of one man and one woman.

  Nothing you mentioned here has changed in Catholic doctrine.  We are, as we always have been, concerned for what is best for our fellow man.

  November 3, 2009 1:19 PM

• tscribe said:

  Yes, Rick, but alas:

  1. We have a 35-year-old Supreme Court opinion that doesn't protect unborn children. Passing a new law that includes such a protection would violate that, thus there's no such protection.

  2. You're worried about the government saying who does and doesn't get treatment? Is that somehow worse than the private insurers' being able to make that decision?

  ... and, oh yeah, most important:

  3. We can't make law based on religion without establishing religion.

  Who the hell gave you or your church the right to say what's best for your fellow man? And how can telling people they can't marry the person they love be best for them anyway? And really, consider the source... your church is as moral as they come unless it's protecting child rapists?

  Thanks for your definition of Catholicism, though. You can keep it.

  November 3, 2009 2:28 PM

• FredFrosty said:

  I believe your unqualified headline is intentionally deceptive. You know why the Church opposes the current healthcare proposals.  You say; “Catholic Church officially opposes healthcare reform.” You know that the Catholic Church opposes only the current proposal. Yet you would leave it as it is.  You mislead intentionally. The Catholic Church runs more Hospitals and gives more to Charity than any organization in the history of the world. For sure you will fool some, but not most. Abortion is not healthcare.

  November 3, 2009 2:42 PM

• FredFrosty said:

  TScribe,

  Although there is not currently a Law that protects the Unborn, there is a law that says that my Tax dollars do not have to pay for abortions. It is called the Hyde amendment.

  The current proposals seek to undermine this law.

  November 3, 2009 2:45 PM

• tscribe said:

  Fred - Granted, particularly because the existence of the Hyde amendment is much narrower than the church-knows-what's-best argument.

  "Abortion is not healthcare."  

  Well, sometimes it is. What abortion is not is one great monolith to which individual situations don't apply. And what the current iterations of the healthcare bills are is not only abortion. If we're all one-issue voters we're not likely to accomplish much.

  November 3, 2009 2:55 PM

• FredFrosty said:

  TScribe,

  Leaving religion out of the Abortion debate, how do you reconcile the cases where in states that recognize the unborn in vehicular homicide can charge one of the vehicle operators with the loss of life (Texas) but the same thing in another state (Vermont) the loss of life is not protected; i.e. no recourse for the mother that lost the child?

  Additionally in the case of Abortion, it is not a life to protect if the mother does not want the child.

  Is that the criteria? The mother wants it?

  Prisoners have sued the state after they have killed an unborn child saying the state cannot bring religion into it.

  Clearly the 3 examples show a conflict; a lack of logic.

  The ONLY logical solution is to protect life from conception to natural death.

  November 3, 2009 3:02 PM

• AverageJoe said:

  The Church is at it again...I love the fact that they have mastered the art of saying with a straight face that they are fighting for whats best for our fellow man.  Clearly no one told them that our current healthcare system leave millions of the most at risk individuals unprotected and that millions die as a result of the system.  

  Hey...maybe if the church would pay taxes on thier vast property holding we could afford healthcare for all.  Or maybe they are afraid that true healthcare reform would put thier tax stayus at risk.  

  Bottom line, everything the church does these days is in thier own selfish best interest. They are lying if they say otherwise.

  November 3, 2009 4:06 PM

• droftnek said:

  The church could prevent thousands of abortions if it would support family planning and sex education programs.

  Making abortion illegal would not stop abortion, it would just make criminals out of women and doctors. We'd have prisons full of young women, with a few doctors tossed in for good measure. (Unless you want to execute them for premeditated murder, which many of you call abortion.)

  Leave your religion out of this important public policy debate. And if you want to preach about it from your pulpits, pay the taxes on your church property and your tithe and offering income.

  November 3, 2009 5:00 PM

• Iamacatholic said:

  I'm catholic and I don't understand why the church is getting involved with this.  It upsets me.

  November 3, 2009 9:18 PM

• Jennifer said:

  How can any church be against health care reform?  Does anyone realize that Americans are dying each day because they either lack insurance or their insurance carrier denies their right to treatment?  I do know the Catholic Church has a hospital system in the United States and that it provides charity treatment, but this is not enough. Americans deserve health care.  Not every insured woman will run out to have an abortion.  Think about that! Church is not the place for politics or the opinion of the bishop.  The founders of the United States purposefully decreed a separation of church and state.  What good will it serve for the Catholic Bishops to hand out literature?  I am Catholic and quite frankly very disillusioned with my church.

  November 4, 2009 8:18 AM

• purplehusky64 said:

  churches want to exert power over women and make them powerless....

  they are being used by the right to further attempts to crush healthcare reform...

  Pharisees and Saducees...

  November 4, 2009 10:19 AM

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