From the National Catholic Reporter, an important question:
I read the America magazine interview by Jesuit Fr. Antonio Spadaro with Pope Francis with joy. There is so much in it to ponder and appreciate, yet the writing flows easily. But as I read, I wondered yet again, "Where are the U.S. bishops?"
The House Republicans, many of them energetically supported by our bishops, voted in a bloc to cut food stamps to stop waste, fraud and abuse. These same legislators favor a farm bill that increases crop insurance schemes derided for their multimillion-dollar chicanery.
Where are the bishops opposing this theft of food from the mouths of the poor?
And this is Wow. Just Wow:
... Perhaps the reason American bishops don't speak of poverty is that they are absent from the barren inner city, the suburban slums and rural misery, not to mention the destitution of distant lands. ... but I don't see them at the public health clinics or walking out with the fast-food workers or at the food stamp offices.
Amen.
Please click through and give this excellent editorial some traffic.
You certainly hear the U.S. Catholic bishops and cardinals barking up a storm when it comes to control over women's ladyparts or when a presidential election is approaching. And that seems to be the only time you hear them. Slapping down nuns, slut shaming women and telling you who to vote for. It is really a disgusting, political display. Except for Nuns on a Bus, we have never heard the Catholic church advocating for the poor, the sick or the elderly. They kicked those groups to the curb so they could join the authoritarians and misogynists in the tea party.
Thank God for Pope Francis. I hope he can re-focus the Catholic Church, especially the U.S. bishops and cardinals, away from right wing politics and back to a Biblical mission of charity, human decency and piety.