One of the American Church’s leading bishops, Archbishop Charles Chaput of the Archdiocese of Denver, has publicly debunked a call from some Catholics — especially some in Europe — who claim American Catholics must support President Barack Obama’s health care “reform” plan. In an editorial in the Archdiocesan paper, the Denver Catholic Register, Archbishop Chaput makes clear it is not Catholicism’s role to facilitate “common good” and that there is no hangup on the matter of life, because abortion is “not a Catholic issue.” Rather, it is a universal issue which we are called to raise our voices over.
An excerpt from his response from a British Catholic publication’s editorial, via Catholic Online:
The editorial has value for several reasons. First, it proves once again that people don’t need to actually live in the United States to have unhelpful and badly informed opinions about our domestic issues. Second, some of the same pious voices that once criticized U.S. Catholics for supporting a previous president now sound very much like acolytes of a new president. Third, abortion is not, and has never been, a “specifically Catholic issue,” and the editors know it. And fourth, the growing misuse of Catholic “common ground” and “common good” language in the current health-care debate can only stem from one of two sources: ignorance or cynicism.
No system that allows or helps fund – no matter how subtly or indirectly — the killing of unborn children, or discrimination against the elderly and persons with special needs, can bill itself as “common ground.” Doing so is a lie.
Archbishop Chaput is a leading light in the American Church because of his clarity of thought and uncompromising zeal for the Word of the Lord. The results are seen in the thriving Archdiocese of Denver. Were it so his adamant stand for traditional Catholic teaching were echoed and evangalized more often and with the same conviction throughout the American Church.
