The Catholic Herald

Bishops, Catholic health group at odds on health bill

The Catholic Herald — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:25:17 +0000

WASHINGTON -- "Despite the good" that proposed health reform legislation "intends or might achieve," concerns about the abortion wording in the Senate-passed bill compel the U.S. bishops to "regretfully hold that it must be opposed until these serious moral problems are addressed," Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago said March 15.

The statement from the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops came soon after the head of the Catholic Health Association called on House members to quickly pass the Senate legislation and make changes later.

A House vote on the health reform legislation was expected by March 20, with Senate and House action to follow on a separate bill containing a set of "fixes" proposed by President Barack Obama.

Sr. Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity who is CHA president and CEO, said in a March 13 statement that the Senate bill isn't perfect but would "make the lives of millions more secure, and their coverage more affordable."

She told Catholic News Service March 15 that she considered the Senate language "an acceptable way to prevent federal funding of abortion," even if it might not be the best way or the preferred way.

Cardinal George said in his statement that the USCCB concerns were "not quibbling over technicalities."

"The deliberate omission in the Senate bill of the necessary language that could have taken this moral question off the table and out of play leaves us still looking for a way to meet the president's and our concern to provide health care for those millions whose primary care physician is now an emergency room doctor," the cardinal said.

He acknowledged that the USCCB analysis "is not completely shared by the leaders" of CHA.

They believe, moreover, that the defects that they do recognize can be corrected after the passage of the final bill," Cardinal George said. "The bishops, however, judge that the flaws are so fundamental that they vitiate the good that the bill intends to promote.

"Assurances that the moral objections to the legislation can be met only after the bill is passed seem a little like asking us, in Midwestern parlance, to buy a pig in a poke," he added.

Sr. Carol said in her statement that CHA's priorities for health care reform were to "protect human life and dignity," including mothers and unborn children, and to "alleviate the suffering of people who cannot afford health insurance or cannot afford the health care they need."

She said those who want to pursue abortion coverage in their health insurance would have to "write a separate personal check for the cost of that coverage" and insurance companies would have to be carefully monitored to "assure that the payment for abortion coverage fully covers the administrative and clinical costs, that the payment is held in a separate account from other premiums and that there are no federal dollars used."

Sr. Carol, who was at the White House March 3 for Obama's announcement of the final push for health care reform, also praised the Senate bill for a "wonderful provision ... that provides $250 million over $10 years to pay for counseling, education, job training and housing for vulnerable women who are pregnant or parenting."

A lengthy analysis posted on the USCCB Web site March 12 said the "House-approved health care reform bill follows indispensable and long-standing federal policies on abortion funding and mandates, and conscience rights on abortion, while the Senate bill does not."

The USCCB analysis was directed at the points raised by Timothy Stolfzfus Jost, a law professor at the Washington and Lee University School of Law and co-author of a casebook widely used in the teaching of health law, in a March 11 article in The Hill newspaper.

"In our judgment, ... the Jost analysis is wrong in most of its major claims," the USCCB response said. "The Senate bill's major flaws are as real as ever and must be addressed."

Jost responded to the USCCB statement with a seven-page memorandum March 14 that said the Senate bill is "far more pro-life than the (USCCB pro-life) secretariat acknowledges, as has now been recognized by the Catholic Health Association and other pro-life organizations, leaders and theologians."

"The Senate bill is essentially as pro-life as the House bill, indeed more so on some issues," Jost said. "Pro-life members of Congress should, therefore, be supportive of the Senate bill."

In a letter March 11, Sr. Carol urge House members to "move quickly to enact health reform by passing the Senate-approved legislation in conjunction with a second 'corrections' bill providing for necessary legislative fixes that will improve the overall package."

She said the corrections package should include:

An increase in tax credits for low-income individuals and families.

A rise in Medicaid primary-care reimbursement rates to Medicare levels.

Extension of drug discounts for low-income patients to cover drugs dispensed for those patients during hospital stays. And, Sr. Carol said, "the bill should ensure that the final, overall health reform package will provide no federal funding for abortion."

The USCCB analysis had a similar message on abortion in response to those who, like Jost, see no "significant differences" between the House and Senate bills on abortion.

"If the House leadership believes that to be true, it should substitute the House language on abortion for the Senate language when it makes other changes," the USCCB said.

But Jost said such a recommendation "demonstrates a misunderstanding of the Senate procedures that constrain action at this time." The reconciliation process "can only deal with revenues and outlays of the federal government, which does not include the abortion issue," he said.

"The choice we face, in sum, is the Senate bill or our current health care system," Jost added. "The Senate bill will undoubtedly save many lives through extending insurance coverage to people who cannot afford insurance. It will also in all likelihood make abortion coverage less common than it is now, since people will have to explicitly choose and pay extra for it."

Congratulations to the "Watch the Bucks with Archbishop Listecki" winners!

The Catholic Herald — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:53:37 +0000

Congratulations to the winners of the "Watch the Bucks with Archbishop Listecki" contest. After dozens of entries, these seven names were drawn:

Heidi M. Antoni, St. Joseph, Waupun

Paula Beine, Holy Angels, West Bend

Daniel J. Strandt, St. John the Evangelist, Greenfield

Erik Anderson, St. John Vianney, Brookfield

Gregory Ermatinger, Our Lady of Peace, Marshfield

Daniel Piessens, St. Mary's Visitation, Elm Grove

Jon Whittet, Old St. Mary, Milwaukee

On evangelization, brackets and odds

Brian Olszewski — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:42:41 +0000

Sorry that it has been more than a month since I have written. All those Lutz toe-loops and twizzels during the Olympic figure skating competition made my head spin for days afterward.

However, I was once again so inspired by the bobsled competition, particularly because of the gold medal win for the U.S. four-man team, that I am considering renewing my quadrennial call for the Vatican to enter a bobsled team in the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia.
The Holy See takes sports seriously, given the Pontifical Council for the Laity has had a Church and Sport division since 2004.

It's probably too late for them to consider entering racewalkers in the 2012 London games, but c'mon, there have to be a couple of people in Vatican City who could handle a bobsled, right? The possibilities for international evangelization would be tremendous as their sleds, Spiritus and Dominus, speed along the track. Hey, if you don't like those, you're welcome to suggest other names for the Vatican's sleds.

Sports and religion in one bracket: There is a possibility -- albeit a slim one -- for an all-Catholic school Final Four in the NCAA men's tournament. Eight Catholic schools received bids on Sunday: Georgetown in the Midwest; Marquette in the East; Gonzaga and Xavier in the West; and Siena, Notre Dame, Villanova and St. Mary's of California in the South. How can you not cheer for Siena when their nickname is the Saints? But I'm torn, since those Saints face "my" Purdue Boilermakers in the first round.

I want the Catholic schools to do well. My hope is that if I attended one of them, and that school goes deep into the tourney and gets an even bigger share of that TV money, that will be one less call and/or mailing I receive from that institution's development office asking me for money.

Odds of another sort: They either don't take much interest in the NCAA tournament in Ireland or the betting action has been slow because paddypower.com is posting odds on who will be the next pope.

They see Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, at 4-1. Three are listed at 8-1: Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, president of the Pontifical Counccil for Justice and Peace; Cardinal Angelo Scola, patriarch of Venice; and Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras. I met and interviewed the latter several years ago when he received an honorary degree from Carthage College. Definitely has a universal view of the church.

As for Americans on the list, Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 10-1; Archbishop Raymond Burke, head of the Roman Rota, 14-1; Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, 18-1; Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, 50-1; and Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, 80-1.

For whatever it is worth, in 2005 paddypower.com correctly figured that then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger would succeed Pope John Paul II.

We have chosen a dress!

Amy Rewolinski — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:24:41 +0000

And thank you Lord, they all agree to wear it!!!

After hours of Internet shopping and visiting bridal store after bridal store, we have finally chosen the perfect bridesmaid dress for my friends and sisters to wear, designed by Watters.

Now the next thing I have to do is find the accessories I need to make each girl stand out in a unique way. I'm planning on doing this by finding them a special broach to wear on the bodice of the dress, and a simple diamond letter of their first name initial to add to their bouquet, like so:

and this broach from Amazon.com

It seems as though the closer we get to the actual wedding date, the better our plans have been falling into place. However, the only problem with that is it now leaves me more time to think about other things. For example, how in the world am I going to live with a boy for the rest of my life?!

I know that God is with me each step of the way, but even so, I'm forever worrying about things that are sometimes out of my control. Hopefully after we attend the Engagement Enrichment Conference this coming April at St. Lucy Parish, Racine, we (OK, I) will be a lot better at expressing myself.

Sigh. Can you tell I'm the kind of person who can freak out over the littlest things?

-Amy

Music playing while writing this: "Country Roads" by Ryan Bingham

Church responding decisively to new sex abuse reports

Tracy Rusch — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:48:06 +0000

VATICAN CITY – The religious orders and bishops' conferences dealing with cases of clerical sexual abuse of children in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands are acting quickly, decisively and with transparency to uncover the truth and assist the victims, said the Vatican spokesman.

Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, said March 9 that the religious orders and bishops' conferences not only "have proven their commitment to transparency, in a certain sense they have accelerated the uncovering of the problem by asking victims to come forward even when it involved cases from many years ago."

The correct way to proceed, he said, is to recognize what happened and concretely demonstrate concern for the victims and the consequences the abuse has had on them.

The new revelations of abuse, mainly at Catholic schools, in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands as well as the recent report on abuse in Ireland "mobilize the church to elaborate appropriate responses and should be inserted in the context of a problem that is wider and involves the safeguarding of children and youths from sexual abuse in society," Fr. Lombardi said.

Sexual abuse at the hands of a priest or other church worker is "particularly reprehensible," he said, but those who have the good of children at heart must recognize that the problem is present in many other sectors of society and "to concentrate the accusations only against the church leads to falsifying one's perspective."

Fr. Lombardi said German Chancellor Angela Merkel was right to convoke a round table of people involved in the fields of education and social services for children to examine the phenomenon of child sexual abuse from a broader perspective.

"The church naturally is ready to participate," he said Fr. Lombardi also said the church lives in society and recognizes the responsibility and authority of government courts to impose criminal and civil penalties on abusers.

At the same time, he said, in the view of the church's own internal laws "the crime of the sexual abuse of minors has always been considered one of the most serious crimes of all."

The bishops' conferences of the countries where the sex abuse scandal has returned to the headlines are reviewing all of their procedures and are setting up offices to help the victims, he said.

"While no one can deny the seriousness of the turmoil the church is going through, we cannot hesitate to do everything possible so that positive results are achieved for improving the protection of children and youth in the church and in society, and for the purification of the church itself," Fr. Lombardi said.

The spokesman's comments came the day after the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, said the Vatican fully supports the efforts of German bishops to investigate claims of child sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, even if the cases are decades old. "Full disclosure regarding abuse in Germany," said the front-page

headline of the March 7 edition of the official Vatican newspaper.

"The church is working rigorously to shed light on what happened in religious institutions," it said.

The article followed a letter posted March 5 on the Web site of the Diocese of Regensburg, acknowledging past cases of sexual abuse of young students attending the Domspatzen, the school that trains the elite boys' choir of the Regensburg Cathedral.

Initial news reports said the abuse may have occurred while Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, brother of Pope Benedict XVI, was serving as choirmaster at the school. But the Regensburg Diocese said the cases occurred in the late 1950s, while Msgr. Ratzinger held the post from 1964 to 1994.

Msgr. Ratzinger told the Italian daily La Repubblica that no cases of priestly pedophilia had come to his attention during his tenure there, but that he would be willing to testify should he be summoned by German judicial authorities.

In an online letter addressed to students and parents, Regensburg Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller spoke of two former priests at the school who had been involved in incidents of pedophilia in the 1950s and subsequently jailed. The letter asked anyone with information regarding similar episodes to come forward and said it was seeking specifically a former student who had told German news media that he had been abused at the school.

In a news conference March 5, Bishop Muller said any claims of sexual abuse would be treated with "the maximum transparence."

The Vatican, wrote L'Osservatore Romano, "supports the diocese in its willingness to analyze this painful issue with decisiveness and openness, according to the rules established by the German bishops' conference."

The church's main objective, the paper wrote, "is to render justice to the victims." It said authorities from other institutions, including public schools, should adopt a similar attitude.

As has happened in the United States, Ireland, Australia and other countries, dozens of Germans have made claims recently that they suffered sexual abuse as children while attending Catholic schools.

And as in those situations, the church leadership has been accused of protecting priests rather than children.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, a senior German prelate and the Vatican's chief ecumenical official, said in an interview in La Repubblica that priestly sexual abuse must be punished and the church must take responsibility.

"Enough! We need serious housecleaning in our church," he said, adding that "the pope is certainly not standing idly by."

He called the sexual abuse of minors on the part of clergy "a criminal, shameful act and an inexcusable mortal sin."

Cardinal Kasper said, "The Holy Father is right in seeking clarity and demanding zero tolerance toward whoever is stained by such grave sins."

The leadership of the German bishops' conference will be meeting with Pope Benedict March 12 at the Vatican. The visit was scheduled previously, but the rapidly developing sex abuse scandal was sure to be discussed.

The pope met in February with Irish bishops to discuss the problem of widespread sexual abuse of minors in Catholic schools after a scathing independent report accused the Irish church of maintaining a culture of secrecy for many years.

The pope was to write a pastoral letter to Irish Catholics regarding what he called the "heinous crime" of priestly sexual abuse.

Cardinal Kasper said that while the question of the pastoral letter was up to the pope, he felt that because "such a difficult problem has emerged not only in Ireland, but in Holland, Germany and the United States, perhaps it deserves a more general analysis that applies to the universal church and not just a single nation."

Claims have been made that some students had suffered physical and psychological abuse as well in German Catholic schools. Msgr.

Ratzinger said that while he served at the school, "there was a climate of discipline and rigor ... but also of human understanding, almost like a family."

He said he believed that there was "a certain animosity toward the church, and I see behind certain claims the intention to speak against the church."