Last night a visiting priest did the mass at my church, St. Benedict's in Seattle. Interesting man if only because of his homily (sermon).
In it, he reminded Catholics that as a church, as a faith and as a philosophy, Catholics believe in and practice Social Justice.
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(This is the part where we don't get distracted by the issues where my church practices hypocricy or doesn't practice what they preach on some Social Justice issues like same-sex relationships and sex in general. For the sake of this discussion, let's please stick with this priest's argument.)
He reminded us that Health Care is a Social Justice issue. At that point many of us wanted to applaud, but restrained ourselves to see where he was going.
He went on to say the Catholics make up 24% of the electorate in this country.
He was mystified as to why we Catholics aren't making our voices heard. In his mind, this is not a political issue, but a Social Justice issue. It is not and should not be thought of as conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. It should simply be thought of in terms of Social Justice and Catholics should be fighting for it.
Further, he argued that this "public option" is a compromise.
Catholics should be in favor of and fighting for Universal Single Payer (or some such equivelent) Health Care that takes care of everybody - not just Americans who pay.
Now all that felt good to hear, but I bring it to your attention because I think it marks a shift in the American Catholic Church's thinking. I suspect we're going to see more and hear more of this sort of argument from the church, the priests and the bishops.
And, I think it should be welcomed, nurtured even.
That 24% of the electorate is a powerful block and much of it consists of swing voters who shifted this last time towards President Obama.
It's easy for many liberals and progressives to take for granted that Universal Health Care is a Social Justice issue. But clearly, it is not as apparent to people in the middle and the right. So, tactically, it seems to me that it makes more sense to appeal to those concerns to those who care about them - or claim to.
Thanks for listening.