03/07/2015
Re: A Reader Queries The Label “Roman Catholic Right” — The Bishops Seem Leftist Enough, After All
From: Theodore Van Oosbree
In reply to a recent letter, James Fulford wrote
the USCCB has been called the “religious lobby of the Democratic Party”, and they have unsound ideas about the economy and the death penalty.This is because they’re Bishops, rather than economists or criminologists, and thus don’t know what they’re talking about.
The Catholic Church considers economics to be a branch of ethics rather than an empirical science as most economists consider it. As a branch of ethics, economics should properly be concerned with the morality of economic exchanges, particularly those that deal with the vulnerable.
Thus, the chief aim of an economy is to ensure that the maximum number of workers receive a living wage and have their material needs met. Low wages and the usurious loans they breed are disastrous for the poor and harmful to the economy as a whole, as the recent mortgage meltdown and subsequent recession show (a meltdown and recession that caught 95% of economists by surprise, further showing the pretentious nature of their claims to be practicing science).
The bishops are correct to be concerned about how the American economy functions for the poor and the not-so-poor. Where they have failed is in not recognizing that immigration contributes to the economic decline of the American worker.
They ought to insist that the first duty of the US government is to look after the interests of Americans and that non-Americans have an obligation to obey our immigration laws.
I suspect they have failed to do this because the Church’s charitable efforts have become dependent on government funds and anyone dependent on government money becomes PC (the same reason they have not taken a hard line against pro-abortion politicians and denied them communion).
The Bishops' anti-capital punishment stand is likewise PC and contrary to a long history of Church teaching about the licit nature of capital punishment.
See previous letters from Theodore Van Oosbree .
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