Francis, poor women need your help

I don't write for many weeks and then I have articles on back to back days.  The timing of today's article is inspired by an email I received this morning from the Michigan Catholic Conference (MCC), the lobbying organization for the Catholic bishops of Michigan.  

As background to readers from outside the U.S., there is an effort afoot to end US federal funding for a group called Planned Parenthood.  This organization is one of the primary women's healthcare providers for poor women in the U.S.   3% of their services are abortion and by law they cannot use federal funds for abortions.  The majority of their services are related to women's reproductive care and the New England Journal of Medicine attributes the organization's family planning services with actually reducing the number of abortions.

However, there are extremists who oppose abortion that undertook a smear campaign, falsifying videos and accusing the organization of trafficking aborted baby bodies.  Now they seek to defund the organization completely.

At the encouragement of my father, below is a response I emailed moments ago to my bishop and his communication director. For context I also include the note I received from the communication director encouraging me to contact my elected officials asking them to vote to defund this organization. Maybe people would like to contact their representative and express their own opinion on this issue.  The link to a response form is included in the note from the diocese.  However, it appears that if you use it, your message first goes to the MCC.  I think I will just directly communicate with my rep.

All I can say is, Francis, poor women need your help...

My Response:

Dear Mike and Bp Earl,

I send you warm greetings this beautiful day.  However, I do need to comment on this note I received from Mike.

The content of this note fanning flames around videos known to have fabricated and false evidence is unacceptable behavior from an organization that says it is not only a staunch defender of truth but the ultimate defender of truth.  You are not credible guardians of truth if you do not tell it. I expect more from you as leaders.  Please expect more from yourselves too.

If you cannot achieve your objectives via strict adherence to facts, then perhaps you drive your agenda vs God's?  

Here is a link for fact checking about Planned Parenthood. 

http://www.factcheck.org/2011/04/planned-parenthood/. 

As you can see, federal funds cannot be used for an abortion at Planned Parenthood.  Thus, your argument seems empty.

Furthermore, abortion constitutes about 3% of Planned Parenthood services.  Why are you fixated on defunding Planned Parenthood completely?  Why do you wish to defund the primary source of female healthcare services for poor women?  What is your proposed alternative to offer them care?  Please do elaborate.  I am interested in your solutions advocating for poor women, especially on the cusp of a visit from Pope Francis who cares so deeply, passionately and tenderly for the poor.  In the absence of offering an alternative healthcare option for poor women, it is difficult to see this as anything other than a sexist, misogynist move veiled in moral concern.

Your priorities confuse me greatly and I know church leaders worry a great deal about not causing confusion.  Therefore I know you will want to consider this confusion you inspire.  The federal budget includes well over $500 Billion for military.  The Planned Parenthood federal funding is roughly around $500 Million.  It would seem to me, as Christians representing the Prince of Peace, you would exert 1,000 times more effort and outrage at 1,000 times more funding going to the military than towards healthcare services for poor women.

By the way, the New England Journal of Medicine attributes Planned Parenthood, not strident Catholic organizations working feverishly spreading misinformation, as a key reason abortion rates have dropped in the U.S.  This is due to their family planning services.  http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe1510281.  Please see the end of paragraph 2.

I wish you the peace of Christ, the wisdom of the Spirit and the love of God.

The original email from the MCC:

The Michigan Catholic Conference has just sent out the message below via the Bishops' Catholic Advocacy Network.  Please follow the link at the end of the message to contact your U.S. Representative.
 

Legislation is expected to come before the U.S. House of Representatives this week that would eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood of America and its affiliates. Planned Parenthood receives over half a billion taxpayer dollars a year and performs over a third of all abortions around the United States. Recently, a number of undercover videos show officials from the organization willing to participate in the trafficking of fetal organs and tissue, as well as to alter the abortion procedure to obtain more "intact" parts. Taxpayer dollars should not be supporting an organization with these practices.

In particular, House Resolution 3134 places a moratorium on funding for Planned Parenthood for one year and is on the agenda for the House Rules Committee this Wednesday evening. A vote of the full House is expected shortly thereafter.

Take a few minutes now to let your U.S. Representative know that H.R. 3134 and similar legislation such as H.R. 3301 should be adopted into law. Thank you in advance for your efforts on behalf of the unborn.

Michigan Catholic Conference

Click the link below to log in and send your message:
https://www.votervoice.net/BroadcastLinks/DxRp4hLruiYPjLGaShMDWQ 
 

"Don't Surround Yourself with Yourself..."

It is early morning Day Four of my Italy tour.  As mentioned in previous blog articles, I joined a tour group being led by the chancellor of my diocese.  We are in Florence now having already visited Assisi and with Rome yet on our itinerary.

As would be expected of a trip that costs thousands of dollars, the people in the group have incomes which support paying that kind of money for a trip.  That statement can be read as us having precisely zero poor people in the group and having several very wealthy people in the herd.  I am probably amongst the minority in that I have at least experienced poverty, growing up in a very low-income home.  I am definitely in the minority in that I am not a member of America’s Republican Party.

Many people on the tour are huge fans of Cardinal Tim Dolan.  Some have moved beyond admiration of the man to adoration and adulation of him.  These people are stunned and incredulous when they learn I do not or for that matter that anyone might not share their opinions of him.     

A telling conversation came about during Day Two’s lunch with some of Tim’s biggest fans in the group.  Their statement was that “everyone I talk to loves the man.”  Yet my reply was, “I know many people who dislike him.”  We will return to this thought momentarily.

Later that same day I read comments Tim made during the recent U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB’s) Fall Convocation.  When asked if the American bishops and the church needed to do anything differently to align better with Pope Francis’ stated desire to be “a poor church for the poor”, Dolan replied, “Can I think of anything new?  I don't think so. I like to think that this is an affirmation of the good things we are doing."  He went on to highlight that most complaints he hears from the people he interacts with are that the bishops emphasize social justice, government cut backs, and the poor too much.

I sent a link to an article about Dolan’s statements to one of the people participating in our conversation – one of the people who said that everyone he talks to loves Dolan.  I highlighted Dolan’s statements about what he hears from the people with whom he communicates.  The common theme between Dolan’s statements and those of my lunch companions was the concept of confining reality to the sphere of “the people I talk to…” 

With whom do Dolan and the Republican Catholics speak?  The rock group “Yes” has a profound lyric in the song, “I’ve Seen All Good People” which advises, “Don’t surround yourself with yourself.”  If one speaks exclusively to those with whom one agrees, growth becomes difficult if not impossible and there is a grave danger of elevating common opinion to the unwarranted status of “unmitigated fact.”

Quite simply, having a “poor church for the poor” requires understanding poverty and the church. 

Let’s start with the second item first – understanding the church.  One must acknowledge that the overwhelming majority of “the church” does not attend Mass and a near majority no longer even considers themselves Catholic.  So, if Dolan and the people with whom I had lunch earlier this week wish to know what “the church” thinks of either Dolan or the hierarchy’s behavior, they must begin not by understanding the views of the pious but with understanding the viewpoint of the church’s majority – those who do not or rarely darken the threshold of a Catholic Church.  They must seek out those with whom they disagree rather than surround themselves with themselves and declare their shared opinion a universal fact.   

Since the disenfranchised and marginalized are the majority of the church, these voices should be the majority of voices whose opinions we thirst to understand.  Sadly, I’m unsure if this demographic group ranks as high as getting even token slivers of the hierarchy and pious circle's bandwidth.  Also, there is a distinct difference between talking with and listening to people.  So we must ask if we are merely "talking" or sincerely listening to the disenfranchised and marginalized.   

Similarly, to determine if one is doing enough for the poor, the place to begin is by talking with and listening to the poor rather than the wealthy.  Very few wealthy people understand poverty so they are not the best or sometimes even credible spokespeople for it. Also,  I see a disturbing trend where people of economic security believe they actually are the poor and thus believe they already know and represent the poor’s opinions.  My little tour group and the U.S. bishops are only symptomatic of the global pervasive trend wherein the hierarchy allies with the wealthy more than the poor – where it communicates with the wealthy more than with the poor.

Many of my friends and relatives have questioned my sanity for joining this tour group because they knew there would be few if any people with similar spiritual outlook to mine.  Side note of good news: so far I have found two others of similar views to mine.   Anyway, my friends and family are correct in that many things the other group members find exhilarating I find stomach churning…be it the commercialization of St. Francis’ poverty, the opulence of shrines erected in his honor, the distracting opulent ornamentation of cathedrals, etc…  

However, I try to live the legacy of my parents – don’t surround myself with myself. I joined this trip to try to understand better the division in the church.  I can’t understand it by only talking to people who see the world as I do.  I can’t understand it by only listening to people who see the world as I do. 

I have been listening a lot and find it fascinating that people can read the same scripture and theology yet come to such different conclusions.  I find it fascinating that people can declare others' views as "wrong" versus being in disagreement with their opinions yet feel they do not judge.  I find it fascinating that people who want to follow Jesus - a guy who instructs us to "be not afraid" - not only harbor fear themselves, they want others to share their fear.

Unfortunately I have not yet sensed that those having the most different mindset from me have any interest in understanding my viewpoint as much as correcting what they believe are my grievous errors.  Perhaps they emulate their hero Dolan, who surrounds himself with himself, relying upon the views of a small minority of the church and allowing those opinions to bounce around in a confined echo chamber to the point of ultimately declaring those viewpoints as “universally held objective truths.”  Maybe this approach is considered part of the "New Evangelization"...spreading the "good news" of telling other people how wrong they are? 

I do ponder how much the ultra-pious, uber-orthodox crowd listens – really listens – to the poor and marginalized (that would be the majority of the church) versus surrounding themselves with themselves.  But with money comes power and so perhaps they feel they needn’t listen to the majority. 

But, the question I leave you all with is this: do you surround yourself with yourself?  In many respects Jesus advised his disciples against doing that.  

By the way, the clergyman with initials "T.D." that I most admire is Fr. Tom Doyle not Tim Dolan.