Bishop R. Walker Nickless on Health Care Reform

8/21/2009

(Page 2 of 2)

principle assumes that the pool of taxable workers is sufficiently large, compared to those who draw the benefits, to be reasonably inexpensive and just. This assumption is at root a pro-life assumption! Indeed, we were a culture of life when such programs began. Only if we again foster a culture of life can we perpetuate the economic justice of taxing workers to pay health care for the poor. Without a growing population of youth, our growing population of retirees is outstripping our distribution systems. In a culture of death such as we have now, taxation to redistribute costs of medical care becomes both unjust and unsustainable.

�Fourth, preventative care is a moral obligation of the individual to God and to his or her family and loved ones, not a right to be demanded from society. The gift of life comes only from God; to spurn that gift by seriously mistreating our own health is morally wrong. The most effective preventative care for most people is essentially free � good diet, moderate exercise, and sufficient sleep. But pre-natal and neo-natal care are examples of preventative care requiring medical expertise, and therefore cost; and this sort of care should be made available to all as far as possible.

�Within these limits, the Church has been advocating for decades that health care be made more accessible to all, especially to the poor. Will the current health care reform proposals achieve these goals?

�The current House reform bill, HR 3200, does not meet the first or the fourth standard. As Cardinal Justin Rigali has written for the USCCB Secretariat of Pro-life Activities, this bill circumvents the Hyde amendment (which prohibits federal funds from being used to pay for abortions) by drawing funding from new sources not covered by the Hyde amendment, and by creatively manipulating how federal funds covered by the Hyde amendment are accounted. It also provides a �public insurance option� without adequate limits, so that smaller employers especially will have a financial incentive to push all their employees into this public insurance. This will effectively prevent those employees from choosing any private insurance plans. This will saddle the working classes with additional taxes for inefficient and immoral entitlements. The Senate bill, HELP, is better than the House bill, as I understand it. It subsidizes care for the poor, rather than tending to monopolize care. But, it designates the limit of four times federal poverty level for the public insurance option, which still includes more than half of all workers. This would impinge on the vitality of the private sector. It also does not meet the first standard of explicitly excluding mandatory abortion coverage.

�I encourage all of you to make your voice heard to our representatives in Congress. Tell them what they need to hear from us: no health care reform is better than the wrong sort of health care reform. Insist that they not permit themselves to be railroaded into the current too-costly and pro-abortion health care proposals. Insist on their support for proposals that respect the life and dignity of every human person, especially the unborn. And above all, pray for them, and for our country. (Please see the website for the Iowa Catholic Conference at www.iowacatholicconference.org and www.usccb.org/healthcare for more information)
Your brother in Christ,

Most Reverend R. Walker Nickless, Bishop of Sioux City"

-------

- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords:

NEWSLETTERS »

Previous Page 1 | 2

Rate This Article

Was this helpful to you? Very Helpful Somewhat Helpful Not Helpful at All

Would you be interested in more articles like this? Yes, I am Interested No, I am not Interested

Rate Article

1 - 10 of 12 Comments

3 years ago
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
2288 Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God. We must take reasonable care of them, taking into account the needs of others and the common good.
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.
I would argue that the Church does in fact teach that society help in health care. And the context of this passage in the light of Catholic Social teaching from papal encyclicals, I would argue, refers to more than food, water and air. From the beginning I do not find the esteemed bishop's argument convincing as to his development of his standards.
I agree with his assessment of HR 3200 as, in the end, setting up a political and governmental process by which abortion services become more ingrained and funded with public monies despite polls which continue to reveal the citizenship is majority against abortions.
I agree with the guidance from the USCCB web site that any health care reform which fails to protect life should warrant a response from Catholics everywhere protesting such a bill.
So, one might ask, what problem am I suggesting is in the bishop's argument. It is this. What if congress provided a bill that fulfilled the Catholic Church's desires on the dignity and sanctity of life. Would the bishop's standards reflect Catholic social teaching regarding acceptable universal healthcare. I would argue they would not. The arguments then seem to reduce to questions of public financing and government participation in market services versus regulation of services alone.
Given a hard reading of the letter - and I do this more as argument than interpretation - one could read that as long as one has food and water, diets, exercises, etc. then there is no church teaching as impetus for society (constructed in situ in the US as a complex of private and public concerns) to provide any other health care. Granted that borders on a unfair read of the article, nonetheless, I would argue that the whole of Catholic social teaching suggests a more charitable response than that suggested by the letter's standards.
We are professing Catholics have a responsibility as part of society to help the poor among us "in the attainment of living conditions that allow them to grow and reach maturity." (CCC 2288) Healthcare is part of that help.
In the pressing national debate, we as Catholic should follow our bishop's lead against bills such as HR 3200, but that does not imply that our Catholic teaching permits us to spurn universal health care which meets our moral standards because we may not prefer the current president, do not like government participation in market economies, or other political dimensions that are part of our social-political-economic lenses. Matthew 25:31-46 remains a compelling gospel-based reason by we as Catholics are called to respond, not only as individuals, but as a community hoping to shape the broader culture to honor the dignity of the gift of life.
Stephanie Zito
3 years ago
Thankyou Bishop R. Walker. You are absolutely positively correct and I agree with you and I support you. I thank you for being fearless and strong through it all, through God's truth.

I have written over 15 letters to the white house with all of my questions regarding abortion, end of life, and euthanasia and told them I do not support these contents and asked for response and to please tell me if I am wrong. I never received a response and I don't think I will. All I accomplished was to make extensive efforts to try and understand the plan from their response. I do not suppor this plan. " 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. We refuse to be made complicit in these evils, which frankly contradict what �health care� should mean. We refuse to allow our own parish, school, and diocesan health insurance plans to be forced to include these evils. As a corollary of this, we insist equally on adequate protection of individual rights of conscience for patients and health care providers not to be made complicit in these evils. A so-called reform that imposes these evils on us would be far worse than keeping the health care system we now have."
Paolo Boselli
3 years ago
To his Excellency Bishop Nickless:
I am shocked by the tone of your letter about health care.
It is not at all pastoral and it is NOT PRUDENT, as we should expect from a Bishop.

Why to insist in stating a LIE?
It is not true that President Obama is pro-abortion. He is personally against abortion.
He cannot force the conscience of those who are not.
Father: I am Catholic and I try to live in GRACE, with help of thr Sacraments.
I was raised in Italy by incredible good priests. Cardinal Montini was my Archbishop.
They taught me to be severe with myself, to take on myself my responsibilities, but to be tolerant with the others and not to impose my will on anybody.

I would like ideally to impose on the society, to those who kill the unborn the same rules applied to the murderers. But I cannot. I can only pray, pray and pray.
And I can educate, educate and educate.

I cannot go over your letter point by point [I have no time because at my age of 71 I must make enough money to pay my health insurance with Blue Cross Blue Shield of NY of $1,340.00 a month that was $402.00 in the 2000.] However allow me to ask you this: "Where did you learn the social teaching of the Church?" Not at the school of an other my Archbishop, Cardinal Martini.
You write: �Third, in that category of prudential judgment, the Catholic Church does not teach that government should directly provide health care.� Fantastic, you know what, where is written that the Church teaches that the government has to take care of the education. You know what, your Excellency, why do not you start a campaign to close the American public schools?
Your reasoning is at the same level of Justice Scalia � a so called catholic � who in the Troy Davis case wrote: �This court has never held that the Constitution forbids, the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is �actually� innocent.�
I cannot believe it! My Catholic conscience cannot accept any idiotic [I should say criminal] reasoning that allows to KILL [to execute] an innocent person.
Finally, your Excellency, you are a public figure and therefore your behavior has to be public. In occasion of your next pastoral letter present your Health Care Insurance plan.
You have to show us what you get and what you pay. It is your duty!

The Catholics and the non Catholics need witnesses of the Love of our Lord through the factual behavior of our Bishops.
Look at the extraordinary message that Senator Edward Kennedy sent to us today.
The teaching of his life that was manifested at his funeral was more powerful than all the preaching of my very, very, very good priests of my Forest Hills, NY, parish. for the rest of my life.
Finally go to read the column of Nicholas Kristof, �Health Care Fit For Animals� on the New York Times of August 27 and ask Mr. Wendell Potter to come to Sioux City to explain how the PRIVATE HEALTH CARE INSURANCE works.
Best regards. Paolo Boselli
Pam
3 years ago
Abotion is the greatest evil of our times--Far more people have been killed than all the wars we know of. I find it very hard to believe President Obama re. the healthcare reform he is proposing. When it comes to abortion and euthanasia, etc., he asserts one thing and promotes the opposite. Yes, in a stroke of deceitful craftiness, there may be nothing explicitely said about abortion in the healthcare plan being proposed, but the door is wide open for anything the President and his allies want done. What else can we expect from someone who has surrounded himself with a cabinet and other top people in government who are strong advocates for abortion. The "proof is in the pudding" and it leaves a very bad taste in the mouth! We've already had more than enough of it in the executive decisions he has made in the last 8 months!
Sherry Stevens
3 years ago
Bishop Nicless's comments on abortion are well-taken and providential. His comments on health care reform are prudential.

Medicare is govt-run socialized medicine that has existed since 1965. Eighty percent of the elderly are satisfied with it. As for how much Americans are taxed, that is simply a prudential issue. Compared to European nations, we are among the least-taxed people. Further, taxes would only be raised on upper income earners.

The Congressional Budget Office has said a public option will not drive private insurers out of business. But again, whether it does or not is a prudential issue. The United States is the only nation on earth that depends primarily on private insurers for health care. No other nation is like us. Does that mean that Ireland, Italy, Spain and other predominately Cattholic nations are not in line with Church teaching? I don't recall their bishops demanding they scrap their national health care systems and go for private insurers.

Two final points: It has become increasingly burdensome for private employers to provide health care for their workers and in a global economy, they are competing against companies whose workers receive govt-paid health care. If health care reform does not go through, employers are eventually going to either dramatically raise the premiums they charge workers or reduce the health insurance benefits they provide workers by forcing them into Consumer Driven Health Plans which have high deductibles and provide limited coverage when you are seriously ill.

Finally, Bishop William Murphy, Chair of the Domestic Council on Social Justice for the USCCB, has said, "Health care is not a privilege, but a basic human right."

Fianlly, Bishop William Murphy, Chair of the USCCB Domestic Council on Social Justice, has said "Health care is not a privilege, but a basic human right."
gene
3 years ago
I wish we had a bishop like nickless in the state of washington.I think the catholics are missing being led by the church in the states on the west coast.Our bishop ask us catholics to pray for obama's health care, but never ask for any prayers for the end to the evil of killing of babies
kim martin
3 years ago
Why isn't Cardinal Rigali's excellent writing, "Abortion is not Health Care" also on this site in headlines....it was fabulous... see www.archphila.org...thank you to all Bishops who have spoken out. We are blessed to have you all
Kim in Pa.
Jerry Nieb
3 years ago
This great Bishop has explained the complex issue of health care better than anyone I've ever heard or read before now. I pray that those currently in power will have a change of heart, listen to him and take heed of his clearly stated moral advice.
s
3 years ago
Perfectly well said by Bishop Nickless. Pray for all those others who cannot see the truth in this matter. I wish more Bishops would have this kind of understanding and stand up and speak and provide this kind of guidance.
Ed Burke
3 years ago
Satan never makes these things simple, or easy. Try to reform a dismal over priced health care system with runaway costs, and millions of unprotected people, and he deftly weaves abortion into the needed repairs. Throw out the new reforms to prevent more abortions, and you drop millions through the black hole again.

I read recently a quote from Padre Pio that great confessor and champion of The Lord. He said if we could see the demons present in our world, they number so many that they would blot out the sun. I guess they are simply everywhere waiting for us to invite them in. Padre Pio also referred to his Rosary, on his deathbed, as his 'weapon' . My fellow Catholics, please remember to wield that weapon against these dark forces, and we will all win in the end. Remember to invoke prayers to Saint Michael the Archangel, Saints Peter and Paul, as well as asking the Immacualte Heart of the Queen of Heaven and earth to light our way. We have many allies, and stand with the greatest power in the universe, we need to use it now like never before. And say a prayer of thanks daily for the God who loves us and gave us our guardian angels. Too often I have neglected to remember that constant companion.

May the peace of the Lord be with each of you.

Prev12 Next

Comments submitted must be civil, remain on-topic and not violate any laws including copyright. We reserve the right to delete any comments which are abusive, inappropriate or not constructive to the discussion.

Though we invite robust discussion, we reserve the right to not publish any comment which denigrates the human person, undermines marriage and the family, or advocates for positions which openly oppose the teaching of the Catholic Church.

This is a supervised forum and the Editors of Catholic Online retain the right to direct it.

We also reserve the right to block any commenter for repeated violations. Your email address is required to post, but it will not be published on the site.

We ask that you NOT post your comment more than once. Catholic Online is growing and our ability to review all comments sometimes results in a delay in their publication.

Name *

Email *

Comment *

Send me important information from Catholic Online and it's partners. See Sample

Post Comment