Call to Action Pennsylvania, Catholics for Social Justice, Pittsburgh Area Pax Christi and the Association of Pittsburgh Priests are seeking permission from a judge to file a friend-of-the-court brief in defense of the HHS mandate.
The four organizations criticized the Diocese of Erie, which has filed suit to overturn the mandate, for “join[ing] the attack on an important legislative effort to provide universal health care — a vital human right that Church teaching has supported for decades as a natural right possessed by all people as a matter of social justice.”
Not surprise by Call to Action and ultimately I guess not really by Pax Christi. Pax Christi had already been invested in a piece of social justice while ignoring other pieces such as the assault on life. They have gone from deemphasizing the pro-life effort by trumping it with something else to actively attacking it. Joining with a friend-of-Herod brief to support the assault on conscience eliminates any credibility they ever had.
CWN Via Sancte Pater
3 comments
The inclusion of the Association of Pittsburgh Priests just shows that some people need to be reminded of their promises every now and then. Not only did they promise obedience, but they also promised to uphold the Faith.
I don’t understand how people can say that the Church is in error on essential moral teachings and then still be Catholic. That seems so illogical to me. It would be like saying I’m an atheist who believes in God.
Ken
Very true, but it should be made clear that there are probably only a handful of ordained priests of the Diocese of Pittsburgh who are members of the “Association of Pittsburgh Priests”, which describes itself as a group “of ordained and non-ordained women and men who act on our baptismal call to be priests and prophets.” In recent years only two ordained priests seem to have made any sort of public comment identifying themselves as members of that group. One is a retired Pittsburgh priest and the other is a priest from Greensburg, PA (although his name doesn’t appear on the diocesan web site as either a parish priest or a retired priest. He’s also identified as chaplain of a school for exceptional children in Greensburg, but his name can’t be found on that institution’s web site either.) Other members of the Association include at least one woman who participated in the ‘Agape Boat’ event back in 2006. You get the picture. I wouldn’t be surprised if those “four organizations” have overlapping membership on the order of 95%. Thirty five or forty people ain’t very impressive, but if those same people sign on as members of four organizations, and those four organizations band together to form a “coalition”, well then you’ve got something the reporters can pay attention to.