Archbishop Chaput Takes On Know It All British Catholics (Health Care) (Updated)

An appalling editorial in the rag THE TABLET (which is often referred to as the most important English Catholic publication in the secular press for some reason) created quite a stir .

The whole Chaput article here is here Health care and The Common Good Archbishop Chaput urges more prudence, clearer thinking in the face of health-care confusion. This part is great

Last week a British Catholic journal, in an editorial titled "U.S. bishops must back Obama," claimed that America'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." It went on to say that if U.S. Catholic leaders would get over their parochial preoccupations, "they could play a central role in salvaging Mr. Obama's health-care programme."

The editorial has value for several reasons. First, it proves once again that people don't need to actually live in the United States to have unhelpful and badly informed opinions about our domestic issues. Second, some of the same pious voices that once criticized U.S. Catholics for supporting a previous president now sound very much like acolytes of a new president. Third, abortion is not, and has never been, a "specifically Catholic issue," and the editors know it. And fourth, 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................

Update- Catholic Sensibility (from past posts no Chaput Fan) has a response. See Open Letter, Or: How Much Higher Were Denver Premiums Hiked This Year?

I think Sensibility is missing the main point here that Chaput is making.

He states:

Health-care reform is vital. That's why America's bishops have supported it so vigorously for
decades. They still do. 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. As Sioux
City's Bishop R. Walker Nickless wrote last week, "no health-care reform is better than the wrong sort
of health-care reform."
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.

What is bad about that!! The plan of passing anything and the rush to do it despite obvious concerns (PASS IT BEFORE AUGUST) was the stupid thing I have ever seen. Congressman Waxman was not elected by me and perhaps just perhaps what gets out of committee should not be viewed as infalliable.