Fulfilling an urgent request

Florida bishops take action on critical health care reform request

STAFF AND WIRE REPORT

Posted: 11.03.09

ORLANDO | Florida bishops immediately responded to an urgent Oct. 28 request from the U.S. bishops’ leaders on health care reform to turn up the heat on federal lawmakers to make both the House and Senate versions of the bill abortion-neutral before bringing them up for an overall vote.

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the chairmen of the three major USCCB committees engaged in health care reform wrote to all the bishops and asked that they personally contact their area’s members of Congress and also to ask that a USCCB bulletin insert on health care reform be printed or hand-stuffed in every parish bulletin and/or distributed in pews or at church entrances as soon as possible.

“Bishop (Gerald) Barbarito joins with all the bishops in getting this critical message out to our faithful,” said Alexis Walkenstein, director of communications for the Diocese of Palm Beach.
The message was the same from all of the bishops of dioceses in which the Florida Catholic circulates: Tell Congress to remove abortion funding and mandates from the health reform bills.

Congress is moving forward on health care reform legislation with a vote on the Senate and House floor soon. In its present form, none of the legislation presented reflects the most basic criteria of exclusion of abortion funding mandates and the inclusion of conscience protection.

“The U.S. bishops support health care reform that is accessible and affordable without penalizing immigrants and our most vulnerable population, the unborn,” said Deborah Stafford Shearer, director of the Office of Advocacy and Justice for the Diocese of Orlando.

The bulletin insert calls health care reform “needed,” but said no proposal current under consideration is acceptable without amendments.

“Our nation is at a crossroads,” the insert reads in part. “Policies adopted in health care reform will have an impact for good or ill for years to come. None of the bills retrains longstanding current policies against abortion funding or abortion coverage mandates, and none fully protects conscience rights in health care.”

The USCCB also sent an urgent memo the same day directly to pastors, diocesan pro-life directors, diocesan social development directors, diocesan communications directors and state Catholic conference directors urging them to spread the word unless they heard otherwise from their bishop or archbishop.

“This is an urgent situation — literally a matter of life and death,” said Jeanne Berdeaux, Diocese of Venice Respect Life Director. “All Catholics are called to speak up for the vulnerable, especially those at the beginning of life who cannot speak for themselves. It’s very easy to pick up the phone and call your legislators’ offices or send e-mails through the USCCB system. Unless massive numbers of people do so, not only will abortion be mandated, but we will pay for it with our tax dollars.”

Return to Florida Catholic Online Home Page