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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWoo Hoo!!! Catholic academics come out against Ryan budget and Smack Down Ayn Rand Too!!!! :)
Catholic academics come out against Ryan budget and Ayn Rand.
My friend who is a tenured professor at University Of Dayton sent this to me. She is the Co-Editor, Philosophy of Peace (Special Book Series in VIBS, published by Rodopi) Associate Professor of Philosophy University of Dayton
She said
I thought you all my be interested in the statement signed by over 150 U.S. Catholic academics (I'm one of the signers, as well as 9 other UD
Faculty) on concerns about the Ryan budget. It's an interesting summary of Catholic Social Teaching, and as a bonus, if you want to irritate anyone who's supporting Romney-Ryan you can forward the statement to them too!
http://www.onourshoulders.org/
This second link is to a French article about the statement!
http://www.lavie.fr/chroniques/matinale-chretienne/des-theologiens-americains-entrent-dans-la-bataille-electorale-11-10-2012-31883_167.php
Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.----Cesar Chavez
Patiod
(11,816 posts)He was a very public-spirited Democrat, and I said "He loved to debate different issues with his fellow Democrats and with his old-time Republican friends. His politics might be described as whatever the opposite of a Libertarian would be. He believed in community. He believed in Lions Club and public schools and PTA in fact he chaired the big fundraiser at our local elementary one year. He believed it was his obligation to help others, and that people who think only of themselves and their own families and their own money are deeply impoverished people, no matter what their back balance is."
I also described a lot of work he had done with several schools in an impoverished area of Philadelphia.
I kept harping on that theme, starting with choosing Matthew 25:14-31 which isn't usually used at funerals because it's pretty harsh (the sheep and the goats, and the people who ignore the needy going to hell).
On the way out of Church, the Bishop (my Dad's former pastor) who sat on the altar during the Mass, stopped and publicly reiterated what I said, and called people to follow my dad's example and get involved in their communities and in help the less fortunate.
I'm sure I disagree with 90% of the Bishop's politics, but at least we're of one mind on the Ryan budget.
Howler
(4,225 posts)Trust me when I say that my friend who is a professor at U.D. is a very lefty liberal has are all my friends who teach.
The Catholics have always had a presence here in Dayton of working with the disadvantaged Saint Vincent De Paul's has had a shelter for the homeless for as long has I can remember. It also offers free health care for the homeless as well has services to help them get back up on their feet.
Patiod
(11,816 posts)It's been doing it for years.
I remember going to Midnight Peace Vigils against the Vietnam War at my parents Catholic Church (which is probably why I'm a Quaker now). The rich Republicans in the parish protested loudly to the Archdiocese, and as punishment, they ended up sending the priest who sponsored them to a congregation in a horribly poor area of inner-city Philadelphia (little understanding that he was probably happier there then he was in the affluent 'burbs).
But some in the Church still cling to traditions such as helping the poor and preaching about the rich man and the eye of the needle, something the "prosperity gospel" church people will NEVER hear. One of my dad's friends, who goes to Mass every day, marched with Cesar Chavez. THAT'S the Church that my liberal friends who are still Catholic are hoping (against all odds) that they can reclaim.
Howler
(4,225 posts)Considering I'm not Catholic but worked side by side with the catholic community out reach programs.
I'm 53 and for me The Kennedy's represented this side of Catholicism before this "me first" malaise set in.
proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)Some Catholic Leaders Speaking Out Against Paul Ryans Budget-Cutting
Laura Ashburn
Aug 20, 2012 4:45 AM EDT
...Rep. Paul Ryans elevation to the Republican ticket at last has galvanized some progressive Catholic Church leaders, especially a minority band of loudmouth Jesuits at Georgetown University. They have been shoving their way into the political fray by decrying Ryans budget plan as insensitive to the poorest among us. Their mission: to raise the awareness of poverty to the decibel level of other hot-button media issues.
Media categorize bishops and Catholics as only concerned about sex and abortionespecially political journalists, says Father Thomas Reese, a senior fellow with the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. He is one of 90 faculty members who wrote an open letter to Ryan criticizing his budget plan when the Wisconsin congressman came to speak three months ago. Its not just the journalists fault. The church will issue press releases to the Hill but doesnt use a megaphone when talking about justice issues.
<...>
Dear Rep. Paul Ryan,
Welcome to Georgetown University. We appreciate your willingness to talk about how Catholic social teaching can help inform effective policy in dealing with the urgent challenges facing our country. As members of an academic community at a Catholic university, we see your visit on April 26 for the Whittington Lecture as an opportunity to discuss Catholic social teaching and its role in public policy.
However, we would be remiss in our duty to you and our students if we did not challenge your continuing misuse of Catholic teaching to defend a budget plan that decimates food programs for struggling families, radically weakens protections for the elderly and sick, and gives more tax breaks to the wealthiest few. As the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has wisely noted in several letters to Congress a just framework for future budgets cannot rely on disproportionate cuts in essential services to poor persons. Catholic bishops recently wrote that the House-passed budget resolution fails to meet these moral criteria.
In short, your budget appears to reflect the values of your favorite philosopher, Ayn Rand, rather than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Her call to selfishness and her antagonism toward religion are antithetical to the Gospel values of compassion and love.
Cuts to anti-hunger programs have devastating consequences. Last year, one in six Americans lived below the official poverty level and over 46 million Americans almost half of them children used food stamps for basic nutrition. We also know how cuts in Pell Grants will make it difficult for low-income students to pursue their educations at colleges across the nation, including Georgetown. At a time when charities are strained to the breaking point and local governments have a hard time paying for essential services, the federal government must not walk away from the most vulnerable.
While you often appeal to Catholic teaching on subsidiarity as a rationale for gutting government programs, you are profoundly misreading Church teaching. Subsidiarity is not a free pass to dismantle government programs and abandon the poor to their own devices. This often misused Catholic principle cuts both ways. It calls for solutions to be enacted as close to the level of local communities as possible. But it also demands that higher levels of government provide help -- subsidium-- when communities and local governments face problems beyond their means to address such as economic crises, high unemployment, endemic poverty and hunger. According to Pope Benedict XVI: "Subsidiarity must remain closely linked to the principle of solidarity and vice versa.
Along with this letter, we have included a copy of the Vatican's Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, commissioned by John Paul II, to help deepen your understanding of Catholic social teaching.
Respectfully,
Thomas J. Reese, S.J.
Senior Fellow
Woodstock Theological Center
Maurice Jackson
Associate Professor of History and African American Studies
Department of History
Angelyn Mitchell, PhD
Associate Professor of English and African American Studies
Department of English
Dolores R. Leckey
Senior Research Fellow
Woodstock Theological Center
Raymond B. Kemp
Senior Fellow
Woodstock Theological Center
Thomas Michel, S.J., Ph.D.
Senior Fellow
Woodstock Theological Center
Rita M. Rodriguez, MBA, PhD
Senior Fellow
Woodstock Theological Center
Hope LeGro
Director, Georgetown Languages
Georgetown University Press
Jackie Beilhart
Publicist
Georgetown University Press
John Langan, S.J.
Professor of Philosophy and Catholic Social Thought
Georgetown University
John F Haught, PhD
Senior Fellow
Woodstock Theological Center
Karen Stohr, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Senior Research Scholar, Kennedy Institute of Ethics
Department of Philosophy
Ilia Delio, OSF
Senior Fellow
Woodstock Theological Center
Joseph Schad, Mdiv
Chaplain, Mission and Pastoral Care
Georgetown University Hospital
J. Leon Hooper, S.J.
Director, Woodstock Library
Woodstock Theological Center Library
Joseph A. McCartin
Associate Professor of History; Director, Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor
Department of History
E. Hazel Denton, PhD
Adjunct Professor
School of Nursing and Health Studies
James Walsh, SJ, Phd
Associate Professor
Department of Theology
Scott Taylor
Associate Professor
School of Foreign Service
Sarah C Stiles, PhD, JD
Professor
Department of Sociology
Katherine Marshall, MPA
Visiting Assistant Professor
Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs
William C. McFadden, S.J.
Associate Professor of Theology
Georgetown University
Alan C. Mitchell, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins
Georgetown University
Rev. Dr. Joseph Palacios
Adjunct Professor of Latin American Studies
Center for Latin American Studies
Julia A Lamm
Associate Professor of Theology
Theology Department
Peter C. Phan, Ph.D., D.D.
Professor of Catholic Social Thought
Georgetown University
William Rehg, SJ, PhD, MDiv, PhL, MA
Professor of Philosophy
Saint Louis University (visiting, Georgetown University)
Diana L. Hayes, JD, PhD, STD
Professor Emerita of Systematic Theology
Georgetown University
Edward Vacek, S.J.
Visiting Scholar
Woodstock Theological Center
Anthony Tambasco, PhD
Professor of Biblical Studies and Christian Ethics
Theology Department
Mark Lance, PhD
Professor of Philosophy, Professor of Justice and Peace
Georgetown University
Robert J. Bies, PhD, MBA
Professor of Management
McDonough School of Management
Benjamin Bogin, PhD
Assistant Professor
Theology Department
John W. O'Malley, S.J., PhD
University Professor
Theology Department
Lauve H. Steenhuisen, PhD
Visiting Assistant Professor
Theology Department
Linda Ferneyhough
Theology Dept. Administrator
Theology Department
Marilyn McMorrow
Visiting Assistant Professor International Relations and Political Theory
School of Foreign Service
Matthew Carnes, S.J., PhD
Assistant Professor of Government
Georgetown University
Diana Owen, PhD
Associate Professor
CCT/American Studies
Friederike Eigler (Ph.D.)
Professor of German
Georgetown University College
Ricardo L. Ortiz, PhD
Associate Professor of English
Department of English
David J. Collins, S.J., S.T.L., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of History
Georgetown University
Peter C. Pfeiffer, PhD
Professor
German Department
Julie Finnegan Stoner
Publishing Assistant
Georgetown University Press
Mary Helen Dupree
Assistant Professor of German
Georgetown University
Lan Ngo, S.J., M.A., MDiv.
Graduate Student
Department of History
Francis J. Ambrosio PhD
Associate Professor of Philosohy
Philosophy Department
Joseph H. Neale, Ph.D.
Paduano Distinguished Professor of Biology
Georgetown University College
Elizabeth Velez
Academic Director, Community Scholars
Professorial Lecturer, English Women's and Gender Studies
Georgetown University College
Astrid Weigert
Assistant Professor of German
Department of German
John Rakestraw, PhD
Instructor of Theology
Center for New Designs in Learning & Scholarship
Susan F. Martin, PhD
Donald G. Herzberg Associate Professor of International Migration
School of Foreign Service
Eli S. McCarthy PhD
Adjunct Professor of Justice and Peace Studies
Center for Social Justice
Veronica Salles Reese
Associate Professor
Spanish Department
Francisca Cho, PhD
Professor of Buddhist Studies
Theology Department
Marcia Chatelain
Assistant Professor of History
Georgetown University
Heidi Byrnes, PhD
George M. Roth Distinguished Professor of German
German Department
Steven R. Sabat, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
College of Arts and Sciences
Marianne Lyons
Assistant Dean
School of Nursing & Health Studies
Ladan Eshkevari, PhD, CRNA
Assistant Professor
Georgetown University
John Kraemer, JD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Health Systems Administration
School of Nursing & Health Studies
Jose R Teruel, MD, MPH
Professor of International Health
School of Nursing and Health Studies
Elizabeth H. Andretta, Phd
Visiting Associate Professsor
Georgetown University in Qatar
Jo Anne P Davis, PhD
Assistant Professor, Nursing
School of Nursing & Health Studies
Irene Anne Jillson, PhD
Assistant Professor
School of Nursing and Health Studies
Jeanne A. Matthews, PhD, RN
Chair and Assistant Professor, Department of Nursing
School of Nursing and Health Studies
Justin M. Owen, BSc(Eng)
Director of Medical Technologies
School of Nursing & Health Studies
Laura Anderko PhD RN
Scanlon Endowed Chair in Values Based Health Care
School of Nursing & Health Studies
Michael A. Stoto, PhD
Professor of Health Systems Administration and Population Health
School of Nursing & Health Studies and Pubic Policy Institute
Ronald Leow, Ph.D.
Professor of Applied Linguistics
Georgetown University
Rosemary Sokas, MD, MOH
Professor of Human Science
School of Nursing and Health Studies
Carol Taylor, PhD, RN
Professor of Nursing
School of Nursing and Health Studies
Robert J. Barnet MD, MA
Adjunct Professor of Medicine
School of Medicine
Leona M Fisher, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English
Department of English
Jane Fitz-Simons MS,RN
Adjunct Faculty Nursing
Georgetown University
Mary Jane Mastorovich, MS
Asst. Professor, Health Systems Administration
Georgetown University
Edilma Yearwood, PhD, RN
Associate Professor of Nursing
School of Nursing & Health Studies
Wilfried Ver Eecke
Professor in Philosophy
Department of Philosophy
Sylvia E. Mullins, M.A.R in Theology
Graduate Student
Department of History
Terry Pinkard, PhD
University Professor
Department of Philosophy
Bryce Huebner, PhD
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Georgetown University
Judith Baigis, PhD, RN, FAAN
Professor Emerita
School of Nursing & Health Studies
Patricia Mullahy Fugere
Adjunct Professor, JD Program
AB '81; JD '84; E.D., Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless
Henry Schwarz, PhD
Professor of English
Georgetown University
Judith Lichtenberg, PhD
Professor of Philosophy
Georgetown University
Joseph A. Chalmers, PhD
Retired Dean
Georgetown University
E. J. Dionne, Jr., D.Phil.
University Professor
Georgetown Public Policy Institute
Marlene Canlas, MA, MPH
Assistant Dean
Georgetown University
Link from http://twitter.com/WilGafney/statuses/234276889693405184
Howler
(4,225 posts)I'm so sending this post Links Out!!!! Thank you proverbialwisdom!!!
If they had a rec for posts I would rec the hell out of this one!!! Instead all I can do is give you a big ole Cyber (((HUG)))
elleng
(130,917 posts)they've been pretty heavy into U. Dayton, and I see on FB they 'like' rmoney. Don't think I'll add this to our relationship, but they could sure learn a thing or 2.
Always nice to spice up family relationships!!!!
Populist_Prole
(5,364 posts)Husband & wife. I wonder how this will affect them?
Howler
(4,225 posts)LOL! Might want to have an excorcist on hand Populist_Prole. No telling how the spirit will move em.
mrmpa
(4,033 posts)donating to the University of Dayton. I attended UD in the '70's, and have seen, in my opinion, the University veer toward the right with its teachings. I will take a close look at what happens to the Professors who signed. If I don't see them taking any backlash, then I might just contribute to the University.
Howler
(4,225 posts)might have had something to do with that mrmpa.
My friend and a couple of the other U.D. professors are pretty out spoken on a regular basis so I'm not looking for any backlash.....but I never really thought about it till you mentioned it. I really hope not.
mrmpa
(4,033 posts)Back in the '80's or '90's, John Paul II i.e. the Vatican ordered all Catholic Universities in the United States to be answerable to the Bishops of their diocese. I hated that, most Catholic Universities were founded as independent schools by certain Catholic Orders. Fore example, UD, the Marianists, Georgetown, the Jesuits, etc.
I attended a Catholic grade school which was overseen by the Parish (the Diocese) but the teachers were the Sisters of Charity, who had to follow the orders of the Diocese and the Parish.
I went to a Catholic all womens high school run by the Sisters of Charity (independent of Diocesan or Parish control), the difference in the Sisters (some who had transferred from my Grade School) was tremendous. Why, because of their independence.
I worked with the sisters at the Saint Vinnie's Homeless shelter for 4 years and I gotta tell you mrmpa They ROCKED!!!! And can they COOK!!!! If you're going to be homeless (Gawd Forbid) Dayton is the place to be you will eat the best food and there is always PLENTY!!!!
mrmpa
(4,033 posts)however, it's for a wedding and I suspect the food there will be good. God forbid if I do help, here in Pittsburgh it's good too.
Howler
(4,225 posts)Beautiful City!!! And the people there are fantastic.
I hope you have a great time at the wedding mrmpa!!
But if things go hinky you could stay here in Howlerville.
The Catholics do alot of good work in most cities and the institutions can usually be found right smack dab in the inner city..
Myrina
(12,296 posts)Robme & Lyin' ... WTF??
:bangshead:
They have alot of Catholics that are very VOCAL right to lifers. The piece itself pretty much dismantles Ryan,Ayn Rand, libertarianism and the current state of Conservatism. They however can not advocate for a specific party or candidate.They are bringing the Catholic teachings into a clear focus. It will give alot of conservative Catholics food for thought.
kitt6
(516 posts)depressive introduced me to Ayn Rand. That's about the size of it!: evilfrown: