If U.S. Republicans and Democrats
can promise to work together on economic policy -- an area where they
have legitimate differences -- they also must try to cooperate in
finding a health care plan that can serve the needy while respecting the
sacredness of human life, said an influential Jesuit journal.
"Authentic legal consensus is not at the service of relativism, but of
the passionate search for the truth in order to defend the real human
rights of all," said Civilta Cattolica, the Jesuit magazine written in
Rome and reviewed before publication by the Vatican Secretariat of
State.
An editorial in the magazine's March 19 edition, distributed to
journalists before publication, sought to explain to readers the
position of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on President Barack
Obama's health care plan, passed in 2010, and on modifications to the
plan proposed this year.
When the plan first passed, Civilta Cattolica hailed it as the "needed
and long-awaited beginning" of bringing greater justice to all citizens.
The journal also lamented the strong polemics that surrounded passage
of the program, and it described the contrasting positions of the U.S.
bishops and some Catholic health and justice organizations as a
disagreement over how best to put the Catholic Church's social teaching
into practice.
In the new editorial, the journal said the initial positive reactions,
particularly by the Catholic Health Association, were "hasty and
partial" as well as "not in harmony with the position of the U.S.
bishops, who expressed their judgment on the basis on the moral teaching
of the church, taking into account every aspect of the reform,"
including provisions for funding abortion.
In a footnote, the magazine said its initial article "expressed an
analogous judgment" to that of the Catholic Health Association.
The magazine said that in the eyes of the Catholic Church, the goal must
be health care for all accomplished in a way that also "guarantees the
protection of the unborn and of the consciences" of Catholics who want
to continue their jobs as health care workers, but cannot participate in
abortions or other procedures they and the church consider immoral.