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Email: "Abp. Chaput Steps up Pressure on Obamacare: Funding Abortions not ‘Common Ground’"

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BY LifeSiteNews.com By Kathleen GilbertDENVER, Colorado, August 25, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver has penned another column on the health care debate, this time slamming efforts to frame President Obama's health care legislation as a vehicle for the "common good." In an editorial titled "U.S. bishops must back Obama" in the U.K.'s Tablet last week, the journal claimed that U.S. bishops "have so far concentrated on a specifically Catholic issue - making sure state-funded health care does not include abortion - rather than the more general principle of the common good." The journal's editors suggested that the bishops should, instead, join forces to help President Obama overcome the "awkward alliance of Republicans and conservative Democrats" blocking the bill.  "Through the influence they wield as leaders of America's largest Christian denomination, they could play a central role in salvaging Mr Obama's health-care programme," they suggested.Archbishop Chaput responded to the article by noting that "abortion is not, and has never been, a 'specifically Catholic issue,' and the editors know it."  Also, he said, "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," said the archbishop. Chaput published an email written to him by a mother who recounted the many health needs of her Down Syndrome daughter, and who said she did not trust the Obama administration "to mold policy that accounts for my daughter in all of her humanity or puts 'value' on her life."What most struck him about the email, the bishop said, was the "parental distrust" - which he has heard from many parents - that has already raised the red flag on the attitude of government-related programs toward more vulnerable members of society.  "Health-care reform is vital.  That's why America's bishops have supported it so vigorously for decades.  They still do," he said.  "But fast-tracking a flawed, complex effort this fall, in the face of so many growing and serious concerns, is bad policy.  It's not only imprudent; it's also dangerous."   Chaput concluded, "If Congress and the White House want to genuinely serve the health-care needs of the American public, they need to slow down, listen to people's concerns more honestly—and learn what the 'common good' really means."The White House has recently invited several "faith groups" to join in its own campaigning to pass the health care reform bill.  In several meetings with religious leaders, President Obama has referred to his health care overhaul in heavily religious terms, calling on people of faith to fight opposition to his legislation as an impediment to "a core ethical and moral obligation ... that we look out for one another, that I am my brother's keeper and I am my sister's keeper."  Several left-leaning religious groups have launched a corresponding "40 Days for Health Reform" campaign, borrowing the Judaeo-Christian temporal symbol of prayer and fasting in the push to pass the bills through Congress. Yet faith groups that oppose the killing of the unborn, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops, have refused to come aboard the campaign despite their support for true heatlh care reform.Several U.S. bishops, including Bishop Robert Vasa, Bishop R. Walter Nickless, and Cardinal Justin Rigali of the USCCB pro-life office have come down hard against Obama's abortion-promoting health care legislation in recent weeks.  In a column last week, Bishop Nickless said that "no health care reform is better than the wrong sort of health care reform.""First and most important, the Church will not accept any legislation that mandates coverage, public or private, for abortion, euthanasia, or embryonic stem-cell research," Nickless wrote.  "We refuse to be made complicit in these evils, which frankly contradict what 'health care' should mean."  In a Huffington Post column last week on the health care bill, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards directly attacked the U.S. bishops' opposition to abortion as "hard-line opposition to women's rights." See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:Obama: 'We are God's Partners in Matters of Life and Death'  http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/aug/09082014.htmlThe Gloves are Off: Planned Parenthood President Slams U.S. Bishops on Abortion, Healthcare  http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/aug/09081910.htmlBishop Nickless: "No Health Care Reform is Better than the Wrong Health Care Reform" http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/aug/09081810.html http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/abp-chaput-steps-up-pressure-on-obamacare-funding-abortions-not-common-grou/

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