Politics PA

The health-care debate has provided its share of teachable moments. The one at hand has little to do with health care.

The catalyst, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, supports government-guaranteed health care. However, its support hinges on an amendment barring government funding of abortions.

The bishops’ stance infuriated Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D., R.I.). “You mean to tell me the Catholic Church is going to be denying those people lifesaving health care? I thought they were pro-life,” he told the Catholic News Service.

Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, R.I., pointed out that the bishops do support lifesaving health care for all – including the unborn. Kennedy countered that his support for legal abortion doesn’t make him “any less of a Catholic,” because the Catholic faith “acknowledges the existence of an imperfect humanity.”

Tobin realized that Kennedy was no longer arguing about health policy, but rather about what it means to be Catholic. Unlike some bishops, this protégé of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua did not let Kennedy’s distortion go unchallenged.

“If you don’t accept the teachings of the church, your communion with the church is flawed,” he wrote in an open letter to Kennedy last month, “or, in your own words, makes you ‘less of a Catholic.’ ”

Read the full Inquirer column here

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Tags: Murphy, Rick Santorum

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