Tue Sep 8, 2009 7:50 pm
ARCC spot LIGHT (analysis of Church issues offered by the ARCC Publications Committee, R. Schutzius, ed.)
Hurray for Subsidiarity!
Doesn't it touch your heart to read
about how many Catholic bishops are advocating the principle of
subsidiarity in their opposition to a government coordinated healthcare
plan? Subsidiarity means:
"Just
as it is wrong to withdraw from the individual and commit to the
community at large what private enterprise and endeavor can accomplish,
so it is likewise unjust and a gravely harmful disturbance of right
order to turn over to a greater society of higher rank functions and
services which can be performed by lesser bodies on a lower plane." Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno (1931)
Apparently the bishops believe that "private enterprise and endeavor"
has provided adequate healthcare for all even though 50 million
poor are without it here in the good old U.S. of A. which
ranks 37th among nations in healthcare. Are these
bishops out-of-touch?
More striking is their blindness to the lack of subsidiarity in their own back yard. Do they truly believe that it is "unjust
and a gravely harmful disturbance of right order to turn over to a
greater society of higher rank functions and services which can be
performed by lesser bodies on a lower plane," when it comes to their own governance, i.e. parish closings, openness and accountability, etc.? Are they not controlled by the Vatican ("a greater society of higher rank") on all matters liturgical, secrecy and rules of administration? Is a parish allowed to deviate from chancery mandates?
Subsidiarity is a truly
Christian principle. We call upon our good and well-meaning Catholic
bishops to check out the beam in their own eye before trying to help
with the healthcare speck in our country's.
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