Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the largest refugee resettlement contractor in the U.S., has adopted a more combative style after failing to get their way on various government social services contracts. After refusing to recognize a new civil union law in Illinois, state government officials stopped working with Catholic Charities on adoptions and foster-care placements. Then, when the USCCB continued to refuse to simply refer human traffic victims – who are often raped and forced into prostitution by their captors – to the full legal range of permissible gynecological and obstetric care, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services decided not to renew the group’s human trafficking grant. The Bishops have decided to ignore critical social justice issues, such as the increasing poverty rate during these hard economic times, while pursuing a so-called religious liberty under attack agenda. They still don’t seem to get the fact that most non-Catholics – and no doubt many Catholics as well – no longer trust them after years of bruising revelations that many dioceses moved clergy involved in sexual abuse of children among parishes without alerting parents or police. An Associated Press article has more:
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meets Monday in Baltimore for its national meeting feeling under siege…
Many Catholic academics, activists and parishioners say the bishops are overreacting. John Gehring of Faith in Public Life, an advocacy network for more liberal religious voters, has argued that in a pluralistic society, government officials can choose policies that
differ from church teaching without prejudice being a factor.“Some perspective is needed here,” Gehring, a Catholic, wrote on his organization’s blog…
…The Health and Human Services Department [HHS] recently decided not to renew a contract held since 2006 by the bishops’ refugee services office to help victims of human trafficking…the women are often raped and forced into prostitution by their captors.
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the bishops, has called the decision discriminatory and a case of “ABC,” meaning anyone but Catholics. [HHS agency] officials vehemently deny any bias and say the sole criteria for evaluating potential grantees was which group could best serve the victims. Administration officials note that the vast network of Catholic social service nonprofits, including the bishops’ conference, receives hundreds of millions of dollars in government funding in amounts that have increased in the last couple of years…
…Scott Appleby, a prominent religious historian at the University of Notre Dame, says many church leaders have recently adopted “a more pugnacious style, much more of a kind of culture-wars attitude.” At the same time, the bishops’ have been stung by their loss of public influence from the sex abuse crisis and the years of bruising revelations that many dioceses moved guilty clergy among parishes without alerting parents or police.
“The church no longer receives deference or the hands-off attitude that it once had for many years. That’s gone,” Appleby said…
Critics of the bishops view the closer focus on religious liberty as another sign that church leaders are turning inward and away from promoting the church’s teaching on social justice.
Steven Krueger, national director of Catholic Democrats, pointed to the agenda released ahead of this week’s meeting, which included no public discussion of poverty despite the state of the economy. In the 1980s, the bishops issued an influential pastoral letter on Catholic principles and the economy, which church leaders reaffirmed in statements and education programs over the next decade.
“I think this certainly will represent to a vast majority of Catholics a tone-deafness on the part of many, many bishops,” Krueger said… Read more here
