Archbishop Chaput: Those Confusing the Catholic Stance on Health Care Will Bear the Blame for Anti-Life Effects of Heath Care Bill

From Catholic News Agency:

Denver, Colo., Mar 19, 2010 / 01:18 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a column published today on the website of First Things, Denver’s Archbishop Charles Chaput has commented on how certain “Catholic” groups are working to undermine the U.S. bishops' stance on health care reform. Should the morally deficient Senate version of health care reform be passed into law against the will of the American people, he said, the dissenting “Catholic” voices will be among those responsible.

The archbishop noted that groups such as Catholics United, NETWORK and Washington Post writer E.J. Dionne [ED.: and Commonweal and Vox Nova] are aggressive in attacking those of a different political persuasion and at the same time display a disregard for debasing Christian social teaching. These actions and campaigns cause “grave damage to the believing community,” and spread confusion as they promote the morally flawed Senate health care bill, the archbishop said.

The full text is as follows...

[...]

What lessons can we draw from these three examples—each, in its own way, rich in alibis? First, the captivity of some Catholics to the agenda of current congressional leaders and the White House proves that faith partisans are not a monopoly of the political right, and that some Catholics have an almost frantic unwillingness to see the abortion issue for what it is—a foundational matter of social justice and human rights. It can’t be avoided in developing our public policies without debasing the whole nature of Christian social teaching. No rights are safe when the right to life is not.

Second, people who claim to be Catholic and then publicly undercut the teaching and leadership of their bishops spread confusion, cause grave damage to the believing community and give the illusion of moral cover to a version of health care “reform” that is not simply bad, but dangerous.

Third, for supporters of health care reform at any cost, facts don’t seem to matter when a coveted goal seems within reach. The American bishops have repeatedly shown their support for good healthcare reform. They’ve worked tirelessly and honestly for more than seven months to help craft acceptable legislation. But they’ve also shown—and posted readily on the web—how and why the current Senate version of reform fails in at least three vital areas: abortion and its public funding; conscience protections for medical professionals and institutions; and the inclusion of immigrants. Congressional leaders have no one to blame but themselves for the opposition they’ve had to face. And this makes the arguments of columnists like Dionne—whose March 18 article was little more than a mixture of emotion and disinformation—all the more baseless. Blaming the bishops is a cheap and useful way to divert attention from one’s own embarrassing partisanship.

If the defective Senate version of health-care reform pushed by congressional leaders passes into law—against the will of the American people and burdened by serious moral problems in its content—we’ll have “Catholic” voices partly to thank for it. And to hold responsible.

[Read the whole thing]

(emphasis added)

My Comments:
Archbishop Chaput writes:

If the defective Senate version of health-care reform pushed by congressional leaders passes into law—against the will of the American people and burdened by serious moral problems in its content—we’ll have “Catholic” voices partly to thank for it. And to hold responsible.

I don't think they care if they're held responsible. They want health care "reform" no matter what ... the Bishops and the unborn be damned.

But one thing is clear about those who, rather than impressing upon their Democrat allies the need to include the Stupak language in the health care bill, worked overtime in opposing, undermining, and detracting against the Bishops who, but for the small matter of retaining the House's Stupak Amendment, otherwise support the health care reform effort: what these dissenting voices ARE NOT is authentically Catholic.

Furthermore, by undermining a solidly pro-life Catholic Democrat like Stupak, these folks have all but quashed any meaningful chance of there being a subtantial pro-life voice or presence in the Democratic Party. What pro-life Democrat is going to go out on a limb and take an unpopular stand within his or her party or against his or her party leadership after this?

Rather than fight what could have been a winnable battle to include the Stupak language in health care reform, they've sold out the unborn, they've sold out the Church and her Bishops, they've sold out their allegedly pro-life principles, and they've even sold out their own party by consigning it to perpetual "pro-choice" status. They'll never win their party back to the pro-life cause after this.

Again, not that they give a damn.