Acton Institute: US bishops’ conference downplays Catholic teaching on subsidiarity
May 27, 2010
In a May 26 blog posting, Samuel Gregg, director of research for the Acton Institute, criticized the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for downplaying Catholic teaching on subsidiarity.
Noting that several US bishops, including Archbishop Joseph Naumann, Bishop Robert Finn, and Bishop Walker Nickless, raised the issue of subsidiarity in voicing concerns about health care legislation, Gregg writes that
these and similar views expressed by many bishops were dismissed as “libertarian” by whatever’s left these days of the Catholic left – as if only libertarians could possibly believe that limiting government power and encouraging private sector and civil society solutions to genuine social and economic problems are good things. The truth, however, is that the USCCB’s professional social justice bureaucrats have a long history of playing down or even ignoring the implications of the principle of subsidiarity.
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Further information:
- What is the USCCB’s problem with subsidiarity? (Acton Institute PowerBlog)
- Dr. Jeff Mirus: Surprised by Subsidiarity
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Posted by: -
May. 28, 2010 11:36 AM ET USA
Gregg is undoubtedly aware that "the Catholic left" is well entrenched at the USCCB bureaucracy and will be into the dubious future unless some unlikely pruning is directed from the top. And you don't get to the episcopal top unless you're non-confrontational and "go-with-the-flow."
