Saturday, March 7, 2009

CATHOLICS FOR SEBELIUS

26 Catholic Priests, Leaders, Scholars and Theologians Join Pro-Life Republican Senator Sam Brownback in Supporting Sebelius for HHS Secretary

Bipartisan group reiterates the Catholic faith’s support for universal health care for all Americans

The statement, posted at Catholics United's Catholics for Sebelius Web site (www.catholicsforsebelius.org), reads as follows:


26 Catholic leaders, scholars and theologians publicly expressed support for the nomination of Governor Sebelius as the next HHS secretary. The statement calls attention to Sebelius successful efforts at reducing abortion in Kansas as well as the Catholic faith’s long standing support for universal health care:

As faithful Catholics we proudly offer our support to Governor Kathleen Sebelius, who has been nominated to head the Department of Health and Human Services.

Governor Sebelius is a woman of deep faith with a proud family history of public service. We believe Governor Sebelius’ record of building the common good, reforming immigration laws, improving schools, innovating health care solutions, and significantly reducing the abortion rate in Kansas, makes her an excellent candidate for HHS Secretary.

Governor Sebelius has demonstrated civility and a new kind of politics that both earned her the respect and collaboration of Republican allies and delivered results for the citizens of Kansas. In addition to offering our support, we also reject the tactics of those who would use Gov. Sebelius’ faith to attack her. As Catholics, we find such partisan use of our religion regrettable and divisive.

What are the facts? Kathleen Sebelius has made clear that she agrees with church teaching that abortion is wrong and has lived and acted according to that belief. As governor she has worked to reduce the number of abortions by supporting expanded prenatal care and adoption incentives, expanding health services for Kansas families, and providing a variety of support services for families.

Among other actions, Governor Sebelius:

signed the Senator Stan Clark Pregnancy Maintenance Initiative Program, a bill which funded support services for pregnant women and alternatives to abortion;

signed Alexa’s Law, to deal with certain crimes against unborn children, which defines an unborn child as a fetus at any state of gestation from fertilization to birth. As a result, if a pregnant woman was murdered, the offender could be charged with the murder of the unborn child as well;

signed a law doubling the adoption tax credit and oversaw an expansion of adoption support spending in Kansas from $17,566,288 in 2003 to a projected $23,279,623 in 2008;

and oversaw a decline in teen pregnancies between 2002 and 2007

Indeed, because of Governor Sebelius' efforts, abortions in Kansas have declined by 10% during her time as governor.

The governor has had disagreements over public policy with leaders in her Church. Yet their disagreement has never been over the morality of abortion, but over what prudential policy is best in dealing with abortion in Kansas. In the United States, it is the legitimate role of government officials to make the prudential decisions about how to implement moral principles in the public square.

Attention to a range of urgent issues is required in order to build a consistent culture of life. As the U.S. bishops said in their 2007 “Faithful Citizenship,”

Affordable and accessible health care is an essential safeguard of human life and a fundamental human right. With an estimated 47 million Americans lacking health care coverage, it is also an urgent national priority. Reform of the nation's health care system needs to be rooted in values that respect human dignity, protect human life, and meet the needs of the poor and uninsured, especially born and unborn children, pregnant women, immigrants, and other vulnerable populations.

We hope that all Americans will join Governor Sebelius in making this vision a reality. And we hope that people of all faiths will join us in offering our prayers for Governor Sebelius as she prepares to undertake this new leadership role.

Ambassador Elizabeth Frawley Bagley
Professor Lisa Sowle Cahill
Nicholas Cafardi (retired Catholic law school dean and FUS board member)
William D’Antonio
Professor Miguel H. Diaz
Michael Duffy
Julia Dowd
Professor Joseph Fahey
Professor Richard Gaillardetz
Fr. David Hollenbach
James P. Joseph
Christopher Korzen
Steven Krueger
Professor Douglas Kmiec
Delores Leckey
Eric LeCompte
Kari J. Lundgren
Professor Jerome Maryon
Fr. Thomas Massaro
Professor Vincent Miller
Professor David O’Brien
Fr. Thomas Reese
Maria Riley
Professor Stephen Schneck
Margaret O’Brien Steinfels
Dr. Patrick Whelan

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Katherine,

Your post is identical to the one I read on The Catholics United 'site on Sunday. They inserted an additional line of text after your first paragraph which might be valuable to your visitors:


The statement, posted at Catholics United's Catholics for Sebelius Web site (www.catholicsforsebelius.org), reads as follows:

Catholics In Alliance also picked it up.

Paul Bradford, Pro-Life Catholics for Choice

Anonymous said...

Oh brother.......

Unknown said...

Katherine,

Thank you for making the addition to your post. Have you had a chance to visit the Catholics for Sebelius website?

Paul Bradford, Pro-Life Catholics for Choice

Katherine said...

Yes. When asked my views on the Sebelius nomination, my response is "I stand with Sam Brownback"

Anonymous said...

Excluding from your list all nametag Catholics--that is, those that do not affirm ALL the teachings of Christ and His Church but who for whatever whimsical or deceptive reason wish to tote around the Catholic label--how many names do you have left?

Anonymous said...

Sam Brownback is now reported as saying he supported Sebelius to get her out of Kansas. Personally, if this is true, I don't like the political move. Now she will bring her anti-life onslaught on the entire nation.

Do you still stand with him Katherine?

Katherine said...

Do you still stand with him Katherine?

Why wouldn't I?

More interesting is the meltdown on the Right wing over this.

Anonymous said...

George Bush is still the worst president this country ever had.

Anonymous said...

Hey Betty, can you provide a little more insight into your comments? You seem to be making a lot of statements with no back up.

What is it that you think makes Bush the worst president? Was it because of his supreme court selections? Was it because our country was not attacked since 9/11?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous,

Boy, you didn't lose any time rushing to defend Bush. It's over, dude. Move on. YOU LOST!!!

Anonymous said...

Did Bush stop abortion? No!

All he did is get us into this economic mess, the Iraq war and veto the children's health care bill.

Anonymous said...

Apparently, Betty can't forget Bush as she brought him up. I merely pointed out a couple of facts.

Bush was a spend thrift but Obama so far with 9000 or so pork items makes Bush look he was fiscally conservative.

Yes, I only lost money but the unborn children lose their lives with the anti-life legislation being enacted. The real losers are the children.

Bush stopped abortion just like Obama got all of the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Oh that's right, he is going to increase the troop count in Afghanistan.

Hey Anon: Do you support legislation that makes abortion more easily available?

Some of you folks can actually discuss issues intelligently but others of you don't seem to even try.