Healthcare Debate

I am not saying I agree with 'Morning's Minion' over at Vox Nova, but I think this post he wrote is something worth thinking about. CST does teach the universal right to healthcare and the duty of society to provide it. It is our role as the laity to come up with effective solutions to the problem of the uninsured members of society. I think Morning's Minion could open up to other possibilities other than the single payer system and regulated private provision, but doing nothing to help the uninsured receive healthcare is not acceptable in the eyes of CST.

We do need healthcare for everyone. We do need to debate what our options are. And so I think his post is something worth thinking about. Full post here.

Highlights:

Let me begin with a simple assertion: the Catholic Church views access to healthcare as a basic human right. To the extent possible, societies are obligated to provide healthcare for all people who live under their jurisdiction. This is a fundamental principle of justice. Consider some evidence for this:

Catechism: “Concern for the health of its citizens requires that society help in the attainment of living-conditions that allow them to grow and reach maturity: food and clothing, housing, health care, basic education, employment, and social assistance”.

John XXIII: “Man has the right to live. He has the right to bodily integrity and to the means necessary for the proper development of life, particularly food, clothing, shelter, medical care, rest, and, finally, the necessary social services. In consequence, he has the right to be looked after in the event of ill-health; disability stemming from his work; widowhood; old age; enforced unemployment; or whenever through no fault of his own he is deprived of the means of livelihood”.

Great New Catholic Blog

I was directed toward a new blog on Catholic Moral Theology via Vox Nova that was started by a group of Catholic theologians and professors from various parts of the United States. I am very impressed with their mission and believe it to be a very good source for Catholic perspectives on contemporary social issues. Check it out!

Capitalistic Idolatry

I highly recommend this post from the "Vox Nova" blog. You can find the entire post here.

Here are a few highlights:

In capitalistic societies, wealth is deemed as the ultimate good which we should seek to possess. Wealth clearly has been made into an idol, and people are willing to sacrifice many things to attain it (including the livelihood of other people).

Riches bring all kinds of trials and temptations to them, making it difficult for those who have them to find salvation.

The Church does not condemn wealth, but its abuse, either in its idolization, or with those who support its unjust distribution, an injustice which ruins the lives of the weak and the poor, causing them to needlessly suffer.

If we have been given wealth, we have been given it to be its steward, to help in the distribution of wealth so that all get what is needed. We convert our wealth by using it for the common good. We must remember, whatever wealth we have been given is not really ours, but God’s. To try to take it and assume absolute authority over it is to claim to be like God. As Christians, let us make sure we are not be seduced by that tree, by that fruit, ever again.

American Exceptionalism

Vox Nova posted this blog a few days ago on a prevalent attitude in our country known as American Exceptionalism. It is the same attitude that produced things like Manifest Destiny and imperialism. Taken even further it produces movements like the Ku Klux Klan. It is an incredibly toxic attitude that is largely a by-product of our country's economic success and the Protestant Reformation/Enlightenment period.

I agree with this Vox Nova writer that this attitude is in no way consistent with Catholic beliefs.

American exceptionalism is therefore not only wrong, but it is dangerous. If you are chosen by God, you do not have to play by the rules of other nations. Your wars are always just, and your torture is never torture. You are less inclined toward introspection, or to seek the counsel of others. You have a God-given right to use the resources of the earth without heed to the effect on anybody else.

After all, Catholicism is all about unity – as Henri de Lubac put it, redemption is a work of restoration geared toward “the recovery of lost unity– the recovery of supernatural unity of man with God, but equally of the unity of men among themselves.”

[Side note: I disagree that this kind of exceptionalism is found in republicans only. The author seems to have a special disdain for the exmaples of Repubilcan American Exceptionalism.]

It is not wrong to think that our country is great and to have pride in the freedoms and material benefits we enjoy, but it is dangerous to believe we're better than others because of it. There is a fine line between authentic pride of nation out of thanksgiving to God for making it so, and excessive pride of nation believing that we are somehow better than others and then using it to excuse our actions. Doing so is akin to condemning sinners, casting them off as evil and proclaiming ourselves to be better, when in fact, we are all sinners and it is not our place to condemn, but to forgive and help each other.

Instead of patting ourselves and our ancestors on the back for doing some things right helping to provide us with a free and prosperous society, we should direct our thanks to God and his beneficence. And, out of humility, extend apologies and welcoming arms toward our international enemies and friends. Solidarity should be our true aim, not material or military greatness. For true greatness is not measured in dollars, status, or might, but in the heavenly goods we have built up--virtue, loving relationships, etc.

"God has not created us for the perishable and transitory things of earth, but for things heavenly and everlasting." -- Pope Leo XIII

Two excellent posts from Vox Nova

On loving others, including enemies:

"The only word for love is everybody’s name..."

On the proper role of subsidiarity as a means to achieving the common good:

"The Abuse that comes from Subsidiarity Alone"