Saturday, October 27, 2012

The Act of Love

Guess who!
If we don't love the poor and do all we can to improve their lot, we're going to go to hell, the Catholic archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles J. Chaput, recently said. It's not pretty, but it is real. And not just if you believe in hell, but if you care about the future of the country, of civilization.

We actually are a people of compassion, and we happen to believe that people who want to serve their neighbors out of love of God and humanity are a necessary thing for our neighborhoods, for civil society, for the life of our nation. And perhaps it is largely out of a fear that there are not enough of those people that so many of us have fallen into a reflexive, default position that the government must provide.

But the government can't give love like a woman who has devoted her life to Christ, forgoing marriage and children so that she can serve; American history was built on the service of Catholic sisters, running hospitals and schools. The government cannot provide palliative care like them. Our default position must be ensuring such women have the space and latitude to serve.
Yes, that is unmarried childless Catholic loon Kathryn Jean Lopez, offering us a tasty meal of word salad for no compensation whatsoever.

9 comments:

Dan Coyle said...

Yikes, she's really sad and borderline delusional, isn't she.

Substance McGravitas said...

YES.

She says later that she was in Rome to receive a message to all women from the pope, and I haven't got the heart to figure out whether this meant she was involved in something important or was just with all the other nobodies on a pilgrimage.

I can imagine the message from the pope though: "Ladies? Ewwwww."

M. Bouffant said...

The government cannot provide palliative care like them.
Beyond grammar pedantry (What an editor/product of Catholic education, huh?) their highest function is palliative care? Mother Teresa mopping the brows of the dying instead of doing something to insure they wouldn't die young & in pain because of the conditions in which they're forced to live, or maybe deciding that rubbers should be handed out to prevent AIDS, contraception or not?

And of course the sick, dying, poor or otherwise wretched only want/need "love," not food, shelter or even clean drinking water.

GAHHHH!!! Enough (I'll be out throwing a rock through a stained glass window if I give this much more thought.) let's get to the real stuff: Did you feel it? Are you OK? Has the tsunami hit yet?

I s'pose if you aren't "OK," you won't be answering soon. Hope you & yours don't need palliative care.

Dr.KennethNoisewater said...

The government gives lousy blowjobs too. Still, I think the government does some things pretty well.

tigris said...

The government cannot provide palliative care like them. Our default position must be ensuring such women have the space and latitude to serve.

I was not aware the government position was to get the good, kindly Catholics out of health care, I thought it was to help people afford to go have the good sisters beat the sickness out.

Substance McGravitas said...

And perhaps it is largely out of a fear that there are not enough of those people

Does she ever meet her workmates or what?

Smut Clyde said...

If she believes that the palliative-care hospice movement is somehow a uniquely catholic institution then the stupidity and historical ignorance are too deep for words. Still, you knew that.

I can easily believe that in the US the catholic church has managed to grab a near-monopoly of end-of-life care and is now claiming that it couldn't happen without them. US exceptionalism!

M. Bouffant said...

The government gives lousy blowjobs too.
Gov't. workers may be a different story.

Smut Clyde said...

I can see why M. Bouffant's visits to the local social-assistance offices are greeted with such trepidation on the part of the staff.