Pax Christi, Call to Action chapters plan to oppose diocese, back HHS mandate in court
CWN – August 09, 2012
Call to Action Pennsylvania, Catholics for Social Justice, Pittsburgh Area Pax Christi and the Association of Pittsburgh Priests are seeking permission from a judge to file a friend-of-the-court brief in defense of the HHS mandate.
The four organizations criticized the Diocese of Erie, which has filed suit to overturn the mandate, for “join[ing] the attack on an important legislative effort to provide universal health care — a vital human right that Church teaching has supported for decades as a natural right possessed by all people as a matter of social justice.”
The diocese’s opposition to the mandate “inappropriately inserts the Church into a civil dispute publicly viewed as partisan,” the organizations added.
One of the four organizations, the Association of Pittsburgh Priests, is not an official diocesan organization; rather, it is a self-described group “of ordained and non-ordained women and men who act on our baptismal call to be priests and prophets.” The National Catholic Reporter estimated in 1999 that 10% of Pittsburgh priests belong to the organization.
Additional sources for this story: Catholic groups oppose Erie diocese over health-care suit (Erie Times-News) www.goerie.com/article/20120809/NEWS02/308089903/Catholic-groups-oppose-Erie-diocese-over-health-care-suit
Amazing example of mis-applied principles. PAX CHRISTI., the peace of Christ is being denied to the unborn in this brief in favour of a health care plan that could be massaged into a better one. Recall it was rammed through with no discussion, before the People’s elected representatives could even read the thousands of pages. Then the presideent of the USCCB was lied to and dis-honoured by the POTUS over the Mandate. If this is 2012 Pax Christi in action, representing the “priestly people ” of Erie, well it is EERIE!