United States Conference of Catholic Bishops condemn Rep. Ryan budget plan....

[telemann.livejournal.com]

In a letter written on April 17, 2012, the Roman Catholic Bishops condemned proposed budget cuts to social safety net programs, including food stamps calling the cuts "immoral." On April 4, Bishop Blaire cautioned that “at a time when the need for assistance from [affordable housing] programs is growing, cutting funds for them could cause thousands of individuals and families to lose their housing and worsen the hardship of thousands more in need of affordable housing.” ¹. The letter also said such cuts are immoral because they threaten human life and dignity, and any proposed budget should consider how it would affect "the least of these." (Matthew 25).

Government and other institutions have a shared responsibility to promote the common good of all, especially ordinary workers and families who struggle to live in dignity in difficult economic times Just solutions, however, must require shared sacrifice by all, including raising adequate revenues, eliminating unnecessary military and other spending, and fairly addressing the long-term costs of health insurance and retirement programs.²

Rep. Ryan (who is a practicing Roman Catholic) tried last week to justify his draconian budget cuts and political philosophy during an interview on the evangelical Christian Broadcasting Network ³: Ryan claimed Catholic principles formed the basis of his budget:

The preferential option for the poor, which is one of the primary tenants of Catholic social teaching, means don’t keep people poor, don’t make people dependent on government so that they stay stuck at their station in life, help people get out of poverty out onto life of independence.⁴

The Ryan plan gets nearly 60 percent of all its cuts from programs that help the poor and unemployed, "it would kick millions out of SNAP, (the federal food stamp program) and would gut the Women, Infant, and Children nutrition program. Food stamps lifted millions of women and children out of poverty in 2009, while tax credits and other programs benefiting low-income families (which could be cut by Ryan’s plan to end such credits) kept millions of women and children out of poverty. And it guts Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act, ignoring the Church’s teachings on health care." ⁵





Then the real fun started: Catholic church leaders reacted quickly and harshly to Ryan's justification by using church teachings has been fast and quick. On April 24, over 100 priests and faculty members of Georgetown University called a press conference to condemn Ryan's misrepresentation of Christian values and his profound misreading Church teaching:

Your budget appears to reflect the values of your favorite philosopher, Ayn Rand, rather than the gospel of Jesus Christ. We would be remiss in our duties to you and our students if we did not challenge your continuing misuse of Catholic teaching to defend a budget plan that decimates food programs for struggling families, radically weakens protections for the elderly and sick and gives more tax breaks to the wealthiest few.⁶

The teachers also were quick to point out Rep. Ryan picked a single statement from Pope Benedict to justify his statement, but willfully ignored a large body of church writings, recent statements of several popes and even the Gospels themselves. The current pope, who is no screaming liberal has outright called for redistribution of wealth, a quote that Rep. Ryan is unaware of:

Profit is useful if it serves as a means towards an end that provides a sense both of how to produce it and how to make good use of it. Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty (21).

Therefore, it must be borne in mind that grave imbalances are produced when economic action, conceived merely as an engine for wealth creation, is detached from political action, conceived as a means for pursuing justice through redistribution(36).⁷

Rep. Ryan tried to brush off any previous connections to Ayn Rand, and been influenced by her philosophy. But he must have forgotten this little speech:

I grew up reading Ayn Rand and it taught me quite a bit about who I am and what my value systems are and what my beliefs are. It’s inspired me so much that it’s required reading in my office for all my interns and my staff… The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand.”
- Representative Paul Ryan, February 2, 2005

Last year, the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace released a report calling for significant world banking system reforms. "It’s a fierce denunciation of the free-market theology embraced by Republicans and Democrats alike, and likely to put more than a few Catholic politicians in the uncomfortable position of either ignoring or downplaying the Vatican’s position on financial reform." ⁸

I think this is a fantastic turn of events, just a few weeks ago, right wing conservatives were using the Catholic Church as a proxy in the war on "Obamacare," and the church is now taking a very aggressive push-back against one of the fundamental principles of conservative thinking on economics and as John-Paul II called it, "the idolatry of the market." I have personal disagreements on the Church as a practicing Roman Catholic, but the church for me is at its most inspired (literally) when it writes on the fundamental rights and dignity of the poor and on world peace and social justice. "If you want peace, work for justice."

Resources:

1.
Georgetown University's Father Thomas Reese finds discrepancies between Catholic doctrine and Paul Ryan's fiscal ministry, and explains that in an interview on The Colbert Report (Unfortunately the video will not embed, please click on the image to view it.)

Report by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace on the Global Economy. The report calls for major reforms to the world banking system, and calls for a tax on financial transactions to be used in creating social justice for the poor. When Rep. Ryan was questioned about the Pontifical Commission report, he dodged specific answers and finally settled on some sort of moral-relativism.

2.
Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth).

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Footnotes:

1. U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops letter "Federal Budget Choices Must Protect Poor, Vulnerable People, Says U.S. Bishops’ Conference."

2.ibid

3. The Christian Broadcasting Network, founded by former Republican presidential candidate Pat Robertson (he prayed hurricane Gloria away from Virginia in the 1980s.

4. Source:"Paul Ryan Cites Catholic Social Teaching To Defend Budget That Ignores It." by Travis Waldron April 10, 2012.

5. ibid

6. U.S. News article "Paul Ryan's budget plan inspired by Ayn Rand, not Jesus Christ."

7. Faith in Public Life article "Why Pope Benedict Disagrees with Paul Ryan on Income Inequality, Economic Principles" by Nick Sementelli, October 28, 2011.

8. Time magazine article: "The Vatican’s Radical Ideas on Financial Reform" by Amy Sullivan, October 24, 2011.