“Whatever you do for the poor
you do for me” (Matt: 25)

Yesterday I read in the local newspaper that the Gov. Walker’s ® State government administration had received permission from President Obama’s( D) USA administration to cut health coverage to poor persons in Wisconsin. Today a friend called to say how in the beginning of the year health care coverage had been cut to people on disability, including dental care for her son who had lost his teeth in an assault.

Another Wisconsin politician Rep. Ryan ® is not well known for his budget that calls for drastic cuts in aide for persons in need. As a Catholic he even had the guts to justify his budget on Catholic Social Teaching. As many others pointed out his proposal for tax cuts to rich and to cut services for the old, poor and sick is just the opposite of Catholic Social Justice that states the main purpose of government is for the common good and to serve the needs of the poor.

The poor are easy targets for the rich and poor. Republicans and Democrats want to serve the wealth and declining middle class, where now they estimate that half the person in the US are poor or ‘near poor’.

I sent a letter to the editor of the local newspaper about this budget proposal of Rep. Ryan but it applies to the President’s approval health care cuts for the poor that Wisconsin Governor is making. I do not think the newspaper will publish it since I had a letter in recently. But here it is, below. I guess God’s politics are not Republican or Democrat.

“Dear Editor

I was glad to read about the controversy the 90 faculty members and Jesuit priests at Georgetown University caused by criticizing Rep. Ryan’s use of Catholic social teaching. (MJS 4/24/2012) As someone with 13 years of Catholic Jesuit education I believe I believe I have something to add.

In the 25th chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus tells a parable about the judgment of nations on the final day. Nations that fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed its people, and cared the sick and those in prison will be welcomed into ‘eternal life’. The other nations who did do these things will be sent to ‘eternal punishment.’

As a Jesuit student I too was attracted by the philosophy of Ayn Rand but saw how altruism or being “person for others’ as St. Ignatius of Loyola the founder of the Jesuits called it, was a better choice. The science of evolutionary biology is now teaching us that creatures like insects, bees and humans that are altruistic, sacrificing for the common good, thrive and survive longer.

Rep. Ryan recently apologized to the military commanders for saying they were not telling the truth when they told congress that our military budget was adequate (It is larger than the top ten militaries in the world). I think now he owes an apology to Catholics for his not recognizing that working for the “common good” is the main role of government in Catholic social teaching and should be at heart of the USA budget.”

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