Health Care, in Today's News 09.01.09

Health Care. Another Bishop, this one from Fargo, North Dakota, has made a stab at commenting on the health care situation. His letter may be found at www.usccb.org/healthcare. An article on his letter may be found at the Catholic News Agency.

Bishop Samuel J. Aquila directs his remarks to promoting "genuine health care reform." And right there he goes wrong. The task of the hour is not to come up with some health care reform that is better than the pending legislation. The task is to stop the maniacs who are trying to destroy the great Catholic legacy to humanity of compassionate health care for all. The task is to utterly defeat the attempt to base medical treatment on cost with the government intervening with priority lists and standard procedures.

Bishop Aquila entirely misses the point. By doing so, he is completely out of touch with the American public, which, incidentally, includes the faithful. The great mass of the population is frightened that the pending legislation will limit their health coverage and cost more money, not to speak of the perspective of having to deal with government bureaucrats on health decisions. Most Americans want no part of this legislation.

The Church leaders ought to be in the forefront of this uproar. The Church leaders ought to defend what the Church stands for: compassionate health care. The Church leaders ought to mobilize the power of the faithful to make clear that passing this legislation is unacceptable. (When this attack is defeated, then we can talk about proper reform of health care.)

Instead of what the Church leaders ought to do, we have silence, or in Bishop Aquila's case, the presentation of principles of what a reform should look like. His document would make a very nice PHD thesis. 

As with other issues, the current Church leaders cannot recognize a direct attack on them when it happens. They are so interested in being acceptable that their reaction is almost always to find a way to avoid the difficulties and find a 'nice' solution. In the case of health care, many of the leaders are strong supporters of liberalism and Obama. This stance makes it difficult to criticize the current legislation. About all they can do is making ivory tower-type remarks that try to set a moral tone.

What is missing is leadership!!!!! The faithful appreciate analyses of what is wrong with health care, but what they want more than anything is leadership in a fight that, if lost, threatens to undermine their present situation for something much worse.

The present Church leaders just don't see themselves as leaders. They see themselves at nice guys who try to maintain the Church edifice and try to talk their way out of any disasters.

What is needed is someone with the spirit of Joan of Arc. Someone who attempts to implement God's word and is willing to stand up and defend without compromise what the Church stands for.