our bishops' conference is deeply disappointed ...

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Jan 31, 2006

USCCB President Bishop William Skylstad gives Congress a scolding about its budget:

In December, as President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, I wrote to you expressing serious concerns about provisions in the budget reconciliation bill. The proposed changes in Medicaid, child support enforcement funding, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and agriculture conservation programs, in particular, could have a negative impact upon the most vulnerable in our nation.

Our Bishops' Conference is deeply disappointed that the final budget reconciliation conference agreement coming once again before the House of Representatives includes provisions in these areas which we believe could prove harmful to many low-income children, families, elderly and people with disabilities who are least able to provide for themselves. Because of these concerns, we ask you to oppose the budget reconciliation conference agreement.

So imagine you're a congressman. How are you going to react to a moral reprimand concerning your budget priorities delivered by a bishop whose own diocese has filed for bankruptcy? Having been upbraided for not demonstrating greater solicitude toward "the most vulnerable in our nation," how will the admonishment strike you -- knowing that the bankruptcy in question was brought about, not by imprudently lavish charity on the part of the diocese, but by costs consequent upon the sexual predations of its clergy? With the beam of the Buggery Bill lodged firmly in the eye of the episcopacy, are you going to trust it to remove the budgetary mote from your own?

Tip to Rich Leonardi at Ten Reasons.