News

Monday March 29, 2010


Bishop Vasa Slams ‘Positively Evil’ Health Care Reform Law

By Kathleen Gilbert

BAKER, Oregon, March 29, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Bishop Robert Vasa of the Baker, Ore. diocese has issued a tough rebuttal against health reform lobbyists who downplayed the abortion funding in the federal health care bill, which the Catholic prelate called “positively evil.”

“It is often necessary for us to live with that which is imperfect but a plan that includes funds for the direct and intentional killing of innocent human beings is much more than imperfect, it is nothing short of positively evil,” wrote Vasa in a column for the Catholic Sentinel Monday.

Vasa said the argument that “the perfect is the enemy of the good” should be used “with caution and care lest it be used to justify and rationalize the promotion of the mediocre or even the support of evil.”

“Seeking a health plan that does not expand abortion is not a demand for ‘perfection.’ It is the barest human and moral requirement,” wrote Vasa.

“A program that funds the killing of innocent children is not health care,” he wrote. “No one would claim that a fiancé’s insistence on fidelity on the part of his intended is an enemy of an otherwise ‘good’ relationship.

“Absurd! No one would counsel an affianced to ignore the present infidelities of the intended on the grounds that he or she is really a good, well-intentioned person. No, the infidelity destroys the possibility of an authentic relationship.”

“The provision of abortion funding or abortion expansion destroys the very heart of health care,” concluded the bishop. “The demand that such a provision be eliminated is not a demand for ‘perfection.’ Such a demand, in this case, is not the enemy of the good, it is standing in the face of evil.”

Vasa first spoke out against the Democrats’ health care reform effort in August, before the final Senate version was crafted, saying it was already “fatally flawed” in regard to life issues.

Dozens of other U.S. Catholic bishops, in agreement with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, have condemned the health care reform legislation for unleashing federal abortion funding and lacking adequate conscience protection provisions for pro-life health care professionals.

Click here for a list of U.S. bishops who explicitly opposed the final version of the health care legislation.