Letter to Obama from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
January 13,
2009
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.
As Bishops,
we approach public policy as pastors and teachers. 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.
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. 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. 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. We will continue to support essential U.S. investments to overcome
poverty, hunger and disease through increased and reformed foreign assistance.
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 in our midst. 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. 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Sincerely
yours,
Francis
Cardinal George, OMI
Archbishop of Chicago
President
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