Monday, October 29, 2012
Another response to Friedman
From John O'Callaghan (Philosophy, Notre Dame), and following up on my earlier post, comes this response to Tom Friedman's recent piece on being "pro-life":
[MOJ readers might be interested in this] video of this feeding
clinic in Evansville, Indiana http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvxbAYmS2XI as
a kind of visual refutation of Friedman's slander against the pro-life
movement—that it does not care for anyone after birth. If we may be so
bold as to suggest that the Catholic church is the largest institutional
pro-life voice in the country, notice the crucifix on the wall, and the name of
the clinic. It's a Catholic hospital. The first formally constituted Catholic hospitals date from at least the early part of the 4th century. Apparently Julian the Apostate was so concerned about these philanthropic enterprises of the Christian church that served everyone, Christian and pagan alike, that he directed that institutions of the empire should be set up to rival them, and
perhaps even undermine them. (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07480a.htm)
Plus ca change… The Federal government has been involved in a
serious way in health care for what, maybe less than a century? But we
know no more than 223 years at the conceivable best. Businesses began
providing health insurance to employees in the latter half of the last century
as a competitive market advantage for acquiring labor over competitors. And Tom Friedman only lately heard about sugary drinks from the mayor of New York. All these exemplars of being pro-life. But Christians and the
Catholic Church have been caring for people throughout their lives, feeding
them, clothing them, educating them, visiting them in prisons, comforting them
in death for 2000 years, whether those they cared for were Christians or not.
And Tom Friedman would have the federal government tell Catholic
institutions they aren't Catholic enough or pro-life enough. Nice.
https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2012/10/another-response-to-friedman.html