Cardinal George Writes Letter to President-elect Obama

Below is the text of Cardinal George's letter to the president-elect (dated January 13th), with my comments interspersed.

Once again, Cardinal George strikes the right tone in saying the right things.

Link to USCCB page text here:

If imitation be the sincerest form of flattery, then let this be an homage to Fr. Zuhlsdorf...

The Honorable Barack Obama President-elect
Presidential Transition Team Washington, D.C. 20270

Dear Mr. President-elect,

As our nation begins a new year, a new Administration and a new Congress, I write to outline principles and priorities that guide the public policy efforts of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). As President of the Bishops' Conference, I assure you of our prayers, hopes and commitment to make this period of national change a time to advance the common good and defend the life and dignity of all, especially the vulnerable and poor. We continue to seek ways to work constructively with the new Administration and Congress and others of good will to pursue policies which respect the dignity of all human life and bring greater justice to our nation and peace to our world. This is exactly right: positive and upbeat, cordial and sincere, while also principled; the bishops will work with the new administration, not for it.

As Bishops, we approach public policy as pastors and teachers. We have a duty and a mission to be in the public square, and we do not stop being bishops when we stand in the square and talk. Our moral principles have always guided our everyday experience in caring for the hungry and homeless, offering health care and housing, educating children and reaching out to those in need. We lead the largest community of faith in the United States, one that serves every part of our nation and is present in almost every place on earth. You want us on your side. From our experience and our tradition, we offer a distinctive, constructive and principled contribution to the national dialogue on how to act together on issues of economic turmoil and suffering, war and violence, moral decency and human dignity.

Our nation now faces economic challenges with potentially tragic human consequences and serious moral dimensions. We will work with the new Administration and Congress to support strong, prudent and effective measures to address the terrible impacts and injustices of the economic crisis. In particular, we will advocate a clear priority for poor families and vulnerable workers in the development and implementation of economic recovery measures, including new investments while strengthening the national safety net. We also support greater accountability and oversight to address irresponsible abuses of the system that contributed to the financial crisis.

The Catholic Bishops of the United States have worked for decades to assure health care for all, insisting that access to decent health care is a basic human right and a requirement of human dignity. We urge comprehensive action to ensure truly universal health care coverage which protects all human life including pre-natal life, and provides access for all, with a special concern for the poor. We are also the largest health care provider in the country and indeed in the world. As a matter of fact, you can't come close to making good on your health care promises without our help, so... Any such legislation ought to respect freedom to choose by offering a variety of options and ensuring respect for the moral and religious convictions of patients and providers. We're not spoiling for a fight, but we're not afraid of one, either, and we have a real, legitimate interest in this. It makes sense for you to work with us on this. Such an approach should seek to restrain costs while sharing them equitably.

On international affairs, we will work with our leaders to seek a responsible transition in an Iraq free of religious persecution. We especially urge early, focused and persistent leadership to bring an end to violent conflict and a just peace in the Holy Land. You are inheriting several messy situations, and you need to deal with them responsibly. Administrations start wars, but countries win them and lose them, and invaders have duties under the moral law. We will continue to support essential U.S. investments to overcome poverty, hunger and disease through increased and reformed foreign assistance. My reading knife may be too sharp by half on this one, but I think the bishops are saying, "Look, we know the economic times are tough, and some of our pet programs will simply have to be dropped. We will do our part to help the nation's leadership keep their eyes on the ball, but we will not fight tooth and nail - we know how to play politics. [Just to be clear, the L.D. thinks this is a good thing. Prudence is the essence of governance, and so, in a democracy, it is the essence of citizenship.]" Continued U.S. leadership in the fight against HIV-AIDS and other diseases in ways that are both effectively and morally appropriate have our enthusiastic backing. Recognizing the complexity of climate change, we wish to be a voice for the poor and vulnerable in our country and around the world who will be the most adversely affected by any dramatic threats to the environment.

We will work with the new Administration and Congress to fix a broken immigration system which harms both our nation and immigrants. Comprehensive reform is needed to deal with the economic and human realities of millions of immigrants. It must be based on respect for and implementation of the law. Equally it must defend the rights and dignity of all peoples, recognizing that human dignity comes from God and does not depend on where people were born or how they came to our nation. Truly comprehensive immigration reform will include a path to earned citizenship with attention to the fact that international trade and development policies influence economic opportunities in the countries from which immigrants come.

We stand firm in our support for marriage which is a faithful, exclusive, lifelong union of a man and a woman and must remain such in law. Again, no need to rock the boat on this one. Dozens of states have either passed statutes or amended their constitutions to protect marriage. You have said you are for the traditional understanding of marriage. All you have to do in order to see that prevail is, well, avoid touching anything. In a manner unlike any other relationship, marriage makes a unique and irreplaceable contribution to the common good of society, especially through the procreation and education of children. No other kinds of personal relationships can be justly made equivalent to the commitment of a man and a woman in marriage. This is a very carefully and precisely worded pair of sentences, and worthy of our attention. The first sentence in the pair states matters of fact about the institution of marriage as such. Marriage - the institution, and not this or that more or less successful coupling in and under it - has a basic role to play in the creation and maintenance of right social order. The second sentence, in using the word, 'justly', which is rooted in the Latin ius, iuris, meaning "Body of Right or Law", "legal regime", or "power to make law", is saying that an act of positive law cannot change the basic structure of marriage. There is a corrollary to this: if marriage is a natural institution, and a lawmaking body is competent to alter its structure, then that lawmaking body is competent to alter basic structures in nature; a body that is competent to alter basic structures in nature has power over nature itself; that, which has power over nature, is not limited by nature; ERGO, a lawmaking body that claims competence to change the definition of marriage thereby claims to be entirely free from any and all natural limit on the scope of its power. A government with such pretenses is generally described as absolute - the total state.

With regard to the education of children, we will continue to support initiatives which provide resources for all parents, especially those of modest means, to choose education which best address the needs of their children.

We welcome continuing commitments to empower faith-based groups as effective partners in overcoming poverty and other threats to human dignity. We will work with the Administration and Congress to strengthen these partnerships in ways that do not encourage government to abandon its responsibilities, and do not require religious groups to abandon their identity and mission.

Most fundamentally, we will work to protect the lives of the most vulnerable and voiceless members of the human family, especially unborn children and those who are disabled or terminally ill. We will consistently defend the fundamental right to life from conception to natural death. Opposed to abortion as the direct killing of innocent human life, we will encourage one and all to seek common ground that will reduce the number of abortions in morally sound ways that affirm the dignity of pregnant women and their unborn children. We will oppose legislative and other measures to expand abortion. We're not spoiling for a fight, but we're not afraid of one, either. We will work to retain essential, widely supported policies which show respect for unborn life, protect the conscience rights of health care providers and other Americans, and prevent government funding and promotion of abortion. The Hyde amendment and other provisions which for many years have prevented federal funding of abortion have a proven record of reducing abortions. Efforts to force Americans to fund abortions with their tax dollars would pose a serious moral challenge and jeopardize the passage of essential health care reform. In other words: it is politically insane to alienate us. If you work with us, nothing can stop you. If you fight us on this, we will withdraw our support.

This outline of USCCB policies and priorities is not complete. There are many other areas of concern and advocacy for the Church and the USCCB especially: religious freedom and other civil and human rights, news media and communications, and issues of war and peace. For a more detailed description of our concerns please see Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship (USCCB 2008), pages 19-30. This last reference to the FC doc is unnecessary.

Nonetheless, we offer this outline as an agenda for dialogue and action. We hope to offer a constructive and principled contribution to national discussion over the values and policies that will shape our nation's future. We seek to work together with our nation's leaders to advance the common good of our society, while disagreeing respectfully and civilly where necessary for preserving that same common good. Don't listen to the press reports. We are not what they make us out to be. We are reasonable, and we want to help, but we are also prepared to be good citizens, by bearing true Christian witness in the public square. Over 54% of Catholics voted for you. They want to be proven right. Do not betray their trust.

In closing, I renew our expression of hope and our offer of cooperation as you begin this new period of service to our nation in these challenging times. We promise our prayers for you, that the days ahead will be a time of renewal and progress for our nation and that we can work together to defend human life and dignity and build a nation of greater justice and a world at peace. Perfectly executed conclusion.