Catholic Professors to Boehner: Your Policies Are “Anti-Life”

75 professors from the Catholic University of America, Fordham University and other Catholic universities have written a letter criticizing House Speaker John A. Boehner. Boehner, a Republican who is from a devout Roman Catholic family in Ohio, is to give a forthcoming commencement address at the Catholic University of America. In their letter, prominent theologians and other academics take Boehner to task for the budget that he and other Republicans “shepherded through the House of Representatives” as it “guts long-established protections for the most vulnerable members of society” including the poor, the elderly and the disabled and grants tax cuts to the wealthy and to corporations.

As the New York Times notes, the 75 professors “call such policies ‘anti-life,’ a particularly biting reference because the phrase is usually applied to politicians and others who support the right to abortion.”

Catholic University of America is the national university of the Catholic Church in the United States and is sponsored by the nation’s bishops. The signers of the letter include faculty from Xavier University, of which Boehner is an alumnus, and the University of Dayton, which is located in Boehner’s home state of Ohio.

According to the letter, Boehner has indeed failed to uphold basic Catholic moral teaching. Here is an excerpt (with my emphases in boldface) from the letter, whose full text can be read via the National Catholic Reporter:

Mr. Speaker, your voting record is at variance from one of the Church’s most ancient moral teachings. From the apostles to the present, the Magisterium of the Church has insisted that those in power are morally obliged to preference the needs of the poor. Your record in support of legislation to address the desperate needs of the poor is among the worst in Congress. This fundamental concern should have great urgency for Catholic policy makers. Yet, even now, you work in opposition to it.

The 2012 budget you shepherded to passage in the House of Representatives guts long-established protections for the most vulnerable members of society. It is particularly cruel to pregnant women and children, gutting Maternal and Child Health grants and slashing $500 million from the highly successful Women Infants and Children nutrition program. When they graduate from WIC at age 5, these children will face a 20% cut in food stamps. The House budget radically cuts Medicaid and effectively ends Medicare. It invokes the deficit to justify visiting such hardship upon the vulnerable, while it carves out $3 trillion in new tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.

The letter ends by calling on Boehner to follow the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, with its “principles of the common good, the preferential option for the poor, and the interrelationship of subsidiarity and solidarity.”

The 75 professors have not called on Boehner to decline his address, or for Catholic University to withdraw its invitation. In 2009, politically conservative Catholics called on the University of Notre Dame not to grant President Obama (who is not Catholic) an honorary degree, because of his support for abortion rights. In 2007, Creighton University cancelled an appearance by writer Anne Lamott that was to be part of their annual Women and Health Lecture Series, due to her writing about helping a friend commit suicide.

Some of the signatories will deliver the letter personally to Boehner’s office tomorrow.

Photo by Medill DC

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Berny P.

12:55AM PDT on May 31, 2011

The Catholic Church is no bastion of sanity, but they are right on this issue.
NOW start applying the same priciple of decency ...to the rest of the church!

send a green star

Ainsley C.

12:41AM PDT on May 25, 2011

Isnt it wonderful to see the church in action against unfair treatment of the poor. it is about time it flexed its muscles some more against injustice.

Sam T.

2:55PM PDT on May 15, 2011

Wendy Tripp, when I was working on behalf of Planned Parenthood Action Fund we called Boner, "the tan guy who cries a lot." I thought you may like that. :) Also, for every $20 sustainer we called it the Boehner sustainer for the 20 years in office and we glued a tear drop on a poster of his face. I hope it at least makes someone smile! I know it made me smile.

Wendy T.

3:16AM PDT on May 15, 2011

I stopped even looking at this "man" a long time ago. Money, greed, golf, tanning and now casting aside the needs of so many needy people (including myself as I am on disability) will turn the USA into a Third World Country. I guess I and so many others will have to take a number for our turn rummaging in landfills for food and finding shelter from the elements to survive. Does this "man" not have an ounce of compassion for humanity? Like he and other extremely wealthy folks need MORE! Isn't there a point as to having too much wealth? He's disgusting as far as I'm concerned. Cry baby Boehner.

John D.

7:31PM PDT on May 13, 2011

Boehner will of course side with those who fund his campaigns. That's about as much morality as he has.

Arielle B.

5:11PM PDT on May 13, 2011

This is awesome.

caterina c.

2:19PM PDT on May 13, 2011

thanks for the article

Joseph B.

9:58AM PDT on May 13, 2011

I'd have to say about damn time.

Ernie M.

9:10AM PDT on May 13, 2011

maybe they should excomunicate him and all republicans that vote that way. Humm I wonder what would happen then?

Bette-Ann L.

7:25AM PDT on May 13, 2011

Samantha,

Did you hear the most recent garbage out of the mouths of idiots...."PP is unnecessary b/c Walgreens can give women PAP smears and Mammograms"...what a lovely little lie the transparency of which could be discovered by a toddler! Between picking up diapers for the child your father fathered (YUP) happens more often than you think, buying milk you can spread your legs open at the cosmetics counter while bearing your breats. Hey this really does save time and effort....while your "tests" are being done, remember the cosmetics counter where all this is taking place???? Well, can you imagine your thrill when the cosmetician finds just the right shade of undereye cover for the black eye your father, who impreganted his daughter, (remember him?) gave you when you....fill in the blank... heck why not go all the way....make it a drive thru that way she doesn't have to place the unwanted baby down while she's getting her "screenings". Women have to revolt, just like the 60's and 70's a full out WAR against the WAR on WOMEN!!!