{"id":3775,"date":"2009-12-11T20:03:07","date_gmt":"2009-12-11T20:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/12\/catholics-moral-crisis-on-health-care.html"},"modified":"2009-12-11T20:03:07","modified_gmt":"2009-12-11T20:03:07","slug":"catholics-moral-crisis-on-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/12\/catholics-moral-crisis-on-health-care.html","title":{"rendered":"Catholics’ moral crisis on health care?"},"content":{"rendered":"

That’s how the Christian Science Monitor<\/a> is describing things, as it looks at different angles of health care reform: <\/a><\/p>\n

The healthcare reform debate could soon bring many Roman Catholics to a wrenching moral dilemma: Should they support a bill that expands healthcare to the poor, even if it involves so many uncertainties surrounding access to abortion?<\/p>\n

For months, bishops have made their guidance plain: If the final bill weakens a ban on public funding for abortion, then Catholics should oppose it. But they are finding many of their antiabortion adherents willing to embrace what they see as a greater good – improving access to healthcare – even if it undercuts the church’s stand against abortion.<\/p>\n

For Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United, a 50,000-member lay movement that pushes for public policy to reflect Catholic social teachings, Catholics must have open minds: “The wrong thing would be for anyone to be so firmly entrenched in their positions on federal funding of abortion that they’re not willing to come to the table and talk about a compromise.”<\/p>\n

Healthcare reform is a historic opportunity, adds Victoria Kovari, interim president of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, a 45,000-member advocacy group informed by Catholic social teachings.<\/p>\n

“We share all the bishops’ concerns,” she says. “The difference is [our] feeling that we would be morally remiss if we walked away from all of healthcare [reform]. We have to take seriously our call to be about what’s good for the whole human family.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read on for the rest.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That’s how the Christian Science Monitor is describing things, as it looks at different angles of health care reform:  The healthcare reform debate could soon bring many Roman Catholics to a wrenching moral dilemma: Should they support a bill that expands healthcare to the poor, even if it involves so many uncertainties surrounding access to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-r-us"],"yoast_head":"\nCatholics' moral crisis on health care? - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/12\/catholics-moral-crisis-on-health-care.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Catholics' moral crisis on health care? - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"That’s how the Christian Science Monitor is describing things, as it looks at different angles of health care reform:  The healthcare reform debate could soon bring many Roman Catholics to a wrenching moral dilemma: Should they support a bill that expands healthcare to the poor, even if it involves so many uncertainties surrounding access to…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/12\/catholics-moral-crisis-on-health-care.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-12-11T20:03:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jmcgee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Catholics' moral crisis on health care? - The Deacon's Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/12\/catholics-moral-crisis-on-health-care.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Catholics' moral crisis on health care? 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