The following comes from an August 14 essay on the website for the Institute on Religion and Democracy.
With Paul Ryan announced as Mitt Romney’s running mate for vice-president on Saturday, many are speculating about the role that Ryan’s Catholic faith will play out in the election. Ryan’s Catholicism could well be the necessary linchpin in consolidating the GOP’s social conservative segment, a constituency that has offered tepid endorsement of Governor Romney up to this point. Ryan possesses potent social conservative credentials with his strong pro-life record and his defense of traditional marriage
What could give social conservatives concern, however, is Ryan’s sanguine comments and lifelong fascination with the atheist philosopher Ayn Rand. Rand was a proponent of “Objectivism,” a philosophy accused of lacking compassion, being insensitive and condemnatory of the poor….
Ryan, a noted budget wonk, has publicly praised Rand on numerous occasions. In remarks he made before a meeting of the Atlas Society in 2005, a group dedicated to her philosophy, Ryan said, “I grew up reading Ayn Rand and it taught me quite a bit about who I am and what my value systems are, and what my beliefs are. It’s inspired me so much that it’s required reading in my office for all my interns and my staff.”
Ryan, who chairs the powerful House Budget Committee, attends St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Janesville, Wisconsin and is the architect of the controversial “Path to Prosperity” budget. After the budget’s release, the cuts to Medicare and other entitlement programs prompted Catholic officials to criticize Ryan’s budget as not in keeping with Catholic faith, intimating that Ryan’s devotion to Ayn Rand motivated the cuts in programs for the poor.
And pounce they did.
Father Thomas Reese, a priest at Georgetown University [and former editor of America magazine] was heavily critical of Ryan in an interview with the Huffington Post. “I am afraid that Chairman Ryan’s budget reflects the values of his favorite philosopher Ayn Rand rather than the gospel of Jesus Christ,” Reese said. “Survival of the fittest may be okay for Social Darwinists but not for followers of the gospel of compassion and love.”
Ryan has disagreed with the assessment of these characterizations, telling National Review “Liberals have accused me of not being a good Catholic,” Ryan said. “It’s important to try and elevate the tone of this dialogue to a more civil tone — discussing how we exercise prudential judgment as lay people in the Catholic Church in public life. I’m delighted to have the conversation.”
According to political commentator Robert Costa, “He [Ryan] is a strong believer in the power of civil society, not the federal government, to solve problems. Community leaders and churches, he says, can often do more for the poor than a federal bureaucrat who scribbles their names on a check, sustaining dependency.”
Ryan would later go on to deliver a speech at Georgetown amidst the controversy where he said that, “Simply put, I do not believe that the preferential option for the poor means a preferential option for big government.” He also remarked:
“Look at the results of the government-centered approach to the war on poverty. One in six Americans is in poverty today– the highest rate in a generation. In this war on poverty, poverty is winning. We need a better approach.
“To me, this approach should be based on the twin virtues of solidarity and subsidiarity–virtues that, when taken together, revitalize civil society instead of displacing it.”
In an interview with National Review, Ryan was offered an opportunity to clarify his position on Ayn Rand. “You know you’ve arrived in politics when you have an urban legend about you, and this one is mine,” Ryan said, referencing the claim that his political philosophy is entirely dependent on Rand.
He insists that his political views are shaped more so by his Catholic faith.
“I, like millions of young people in America, read Rand’s novels when I was young. I enjoyed them,” Ryan said.
“They [Rand’s novels] spurred an interest in economics, in the Chicago School and Milton Friedman, but it’s a big stretch to suggest that a person is therefore an Objectivist.”
“I reject her philosophy,” Ryan told National Review. “It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person’s view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas.”
To read entire story click here.
Click here to view August 12 interview with Father Jonathan Morris on FoxNews about the Ryan candidacy.
Click here for full text of Ryan speech at Georgetown.
That the liberals within our own ranks would attack a conservative Paul Ryan is to be expected. Anyone who believes as he does that the role of government in the war on poverty has been a monumental failure leaves himself wide open to the charge of being a social Darwinist. That massive transfers of wealth from the productive sector to the inner cities have been an unconscionable waste of resources can no longer be denied. These policies in the name of compassion have had in many cases the exact opposite effect by destroying poor families, disincentivizing family formation, and promoting illegitmacy, which has now reached catastrophic levels in some minority communities. The unintended consequences of all the noble intentions engaged in by people of faith and good will are now obvious. To raise people out of poverty requires not more and more welfare but a growing economy. To continue the social justice model of pumping resources into hopelessly dysfunctional communities is a sure loser. The “social justice” Catholics will vote to reelect Obama. Expect the attack on the Romney-Ryan ticket to continue unabated.
Anton:
“That massive transfers of wealth from the productive sector to the inner cities have been an unconscionable waste of resources can no longer be denied” — This expresses very well the core of incompatibility between Rand’s objectivism and Catholic social teaching. Whose resources are being wasted when the gap between opportunities for rich an poor widen and accelerate despite government assistance to the poor and elderly?
Francis:
I assume you are quite comfortable in continuing the death spiral our dependent permanent underclass finds itself in. Just how many more trillions of the people’s taxes are you willing to gamble that perhaps, some day, the ghettos will spontaneously spring to life again, their men will give up the gangsta lifestyle and marry the women they impregnate, rather that abandoning them to the tender mercies of the welfare state. Keeping an entire segment of our urban population on the government dole is not compassion but the essence of cruelty. Representative Ryan may in his younger years have toyed with the ideas of Ayn Rand (I am no fan of hers!) as have many others, but he is politically a fiscal conservative who believes in the power of the free market. The road chosen by the Obama administration is leading us deeper and deeper into debt. One need not be a Milton Friedman to understand that a fifteen trillion debt load is unsustainable. Our compassion should extend to future, yet unborn, gemerations who will be saddled with these obligations. Disregarding for a moment the monstrous population-control policies of this president and his hardc left supporters, on a practical level, we cannot afford another four hears of budgetary stalemate.
I noticed how Francis did not respond well done Anton, for liberals compassion is government dependency..
After hearing some of Paul Ryan’s speeches and some videos about him, I knew he did not “buy into” everything Ayn Rand said as some were trying to say.. I believe his philosophy is similar to mine, “Never do for someone else what they can do for themselves.” It is degrading to their dignity for one thing. We should stand on our own two feet, and take help only when we cannot do it ourselves. Help each other out when it is really necessary. I was raised on the story and raised my children on the story of the Little Red Hen that is similar to the philosophy of St. Paul,”He who refuses to work should not eat.” Note he said “refuses” not “can’t”. I have seen blind people do things some able-bodied people will not do. It puts them to shame. My husband and I always made our daughters earn their allowance. They were only given money on special occasions, usually by other relatives, and I was taught not to live above my means. I hate to pay interest, so does Paul Ryan. The more I hear about this man, the more I like him. It seems to me that St. Paul, that Great Lion of God, as Taylor Caldwell called him, is Paul Ryan’s mentor in actuality. Perhaps Paul Ryan does not even know it.
Anne T.:
Should “He who refuses to work should not eat” apply to children and single mothers? I doubt that Paul Ryan would say that, but this is the impact of the budget he composed, and he has to know it.
Francis, have you ever heard of the Church? The Church taught the govts of this world about feeding the poor. The govts took over this charity and turned it into a cash cow for themselves, along with a tool to attack God and the Church by hooking it financially with abortion and sodomy. Ryan, it seems to me, is all about moving in the direction of wisdom and away from the direction of the folly of the democrats and their gullible and errant episcopal groupies.
Many a single mother has had to work and did a good job at it. Also, they need to after irresponsible fathers.
Correction: Make that “need to GO after irresponsible fatherrs”. When there are reports of sports figures bragging about how many groupies they have been with, especaily if they are married, one knows something is wrong. If some of these women are made to work and some of the men made to pay child support or adopt the children out, they will not be so eager to chase (seduce) one another
Honestly, Anne, you talk as if these fellows have wages to garnish, or careers, or futures at all. Go after the Dads, indeed. Ever hear of blood, or turnips?
Having been born wealthy, healthy, intelligent and privileged, Ryan has not personally experienced what it is like to be poor, sick, disadvantaged, uneducated, or elderly. Rather than develop compassion for the poor and elderly, he has chosen to follow the philosophy of a narcissistic Russian adulteress madwoman who lacked compassion and insisted on its opposite. He is one otherwise admirable Catholic whose compass needs repair. It is excruciating to imagine how seniors may be hung out to dry if this man’s willingness to break the social contract of returning to seniors the benefits of the significant monies we seniors paid into on a mandatory basis all the years we were working.
Maryanne Leonard, I am a senior and not the least bit afraid of Paul Ryan’s ideas. According to Wikipedia after his father died when Ryan was 16, he worked at side jobs such as the grill at McDonald’s and as a fitness trainer. He got into fitness training because his father died of a heart attack. What makes you think that all the rich Democrats who came from “privilege” like Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer and many others are going to understand the poor any better? Yes, they understand the poor all right, they would like to get rid of them by abortion. President Obama is the one who got rid of the Mexico City Policy against abortions in Mexico, and you know what he is doing over here. They also put in programs that discourge fathers from staying with their families and marriage penalty taxes. As one Republican put it many years ago, it is immoral to tax the married more. He was right.
Fatherless families create poverty, too, by the way.
I agree Anne…This nit picking always wanting a perfect Candidate is asking of something of the impossible. Put the monster next to Ryan and still the monster is still way worst. The monster to me is Obama! No more excuses, we need to get Obama out! Our current Vice President is still way worst….
It is a fallacy that we have many poor in this country. We have many lazy people that are supported by the working class. Maryanne and others like her are responsible for us being under the boot of Obama and his ilk all in the name of a great evil called “social justice”. Do you think it is more moral to give a person food stamps or help them save their soul by not aiding in the murder of their own child? That is the wrong choice made by so many Catholics who elected this president. AND THEY FIND FAULT WITH PAUL RYAN????? God help us.
anita I applaud your comments! My family and I are the struggling middle class, the people who are feeding off our system, which I came across with, are low class, they use curse words, party on the weekends, almost always are drinking their daily star bucks, taking contraception, and have fancier cell phones with all the upgrades. There is nothing wrong with that if they were earning that on their own! How is that considered being poor. A few drive BMW’s. How do they do it? I don’t get it. The ones I know personally who get plenty of government assistance, can afford to take yearly vacations, fly to visit relatives throughout the country or internationally. They feel entitled, how do they do it? They get free lunches for their kids at school too. We always paid for our lunches and as much as we struggle and can’t afford to fly to visit family as often as they do, I often wonder my husband is working like a dog to make sure I continue being a stay at home mum to make ends meet, while he pays for others who say they are poor, to benefit from the middle class hard work, so they can continue voting for the Obama’s of the world. Well that is how I view it because that is how I experience it.
Maryanne, if you’re so worried about seniors, you should be worried about the $700 billion stolen out of Medicare to help fund Obamacare by the current administration; not to mention the unaccountable “death” panels who will decide what seniors get or don’t get for health care. Remember Tom Daschle’s comment, “Health-care reform will not be pain free. Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them.” As Mr Daschle then hurried and got his hip replaced.
From reading about the saints, many saints came from wealthy families.
MLeonard: What? Paul Ryan’s plan shows an intellectual grasp of the debt crisis and a balance of Catholic teaching on responsibility and accountabilty for our own actions.
Individuals, charities and churches are far better at caring for the poor than the federal government with all it’s immoral strings attached will ever be!
I work with the poor and I see women having babies by several different men. The women do not even know what it is to live a moral life. The men care even less; each going from one short-term relationship to another leaving in it’s wake children who will be raised without support or moral teaching. Who pays? You and I do…our taxes say, sure we will either pay to abort your babies or pay you to have them, so you don’t have to worry about working…or thinking!
There was a time that the norm was that a woman would not think of having a sexual relationship outside of marriage, let along a string of them! (yes, I know there were always exceptions) Obama’s mentality says: go ahead and live an immoral life…we will take money from working people and give it to you so that you can abort or have multiple children outside of marriage and never look back.
Welfare should be for those who can’t work, not for those who won’t.
Pray, evanlegize and vote moral people into office.
He is a pragmatist who’s compass works just fine.Solving the problem of poverty(Christ said that would never happen)will NOT be as a result of throwing OTHER PEOPLE’S money at it.
A rich man buried Christ.
Once again…I repeat From reading about the saints, many saints came from wealthy families.
now is it really about the poor or is it jealousy or envy towards the wealthy? Just wondering…
One photo op has convinced me that Ryan is the man. This photo is floating around now, picturing Ryan in camo holding up for display the fine whitetail rack, with his bow and arrows laid across the carcass. Gits my vote, it do.
JLS, that is one more reason for me to like him since I took archery in high school. I was fooling around with a suction-tipped bow and arrow that I had bought my grandson a few years ago. I though I could no longer hit the broadside of a barn, but I hit the target. That was a few years ago. Quite an accomplishment for someone with trifocals who has not used a real bow and arrow since high school. I think I had more fun with that set than my grandson did. So let’s hear it for Paul Ryan the archer. Perhaps he will turn out to be a real “Robin Hood”.
Maybe he will “steal” some of the money going to those rich abortionists and give it to the poor, so their children can really live.
Friend up in the Rockies is all het up to use his bow on an elk this season. Also, my bro left his bow here … hmn, wonder if I could hit anything with it … have to find an arrow first though. There is a great little book by a solid priest, which evangelizes through his lifelong custom of bow hunting and fishing. The Catholic Church is neither opposed to hunting or defensive warfare against a tyrannical govt (to wit, Cristeros, Vandee, etc).
What does it say about your capacity for discernment that you give your vote on the basis of a photo op? John Kerry pulled a similar stunt for the 2004 election.
Here is what it says, Francis: Second Amendment Rights.
The second amendment is a fine thing, but it has nothing to do with being a Christian or a Catholic. Our faith is in God, not guns.
Now back to that question about discernment,…
Francis, “spears and pruning hooks” each have their place in God’s graces. Guns and other weapons are a necessary part of life on earth. Francis, if you are afraid of what you’d do with a weapon, then you need to seek remedy. Many there are who are not afraid of what a weapon in their hands could mean. Often it means life and well being when without one, it would mean death, mayhem or impoverishment. There is a reason it was named the “Colt Peacemaker”.
JLS:
If you are afraid of what you’d do without a weapon, then you need to seek remedy.
You still haven’t answered what kind of Christian discernment relies on a photo op, or thinks the Second Amendment has anything to do with faith. Your “spears and pruning hooks” is a blasphemous perversion of “spears into pruning hooks.”
And, by the way, there is no Second Amendment right in Vatican City. As Benedict implored: “Every person is called to disarm his own heart and be a peacemaker everywhere.” (address to disarmament conference).
Francis thank God you attitude did not dominate the men at Tour or Lepanto or your precious social justice would not exist
I understand that you are concerned about men being dominated. God is not a dominatrix. Faith is not submission or un-manliness but surrender to God alone.
It is likely that some of the warriors at Tour or Lepanto put their faith in their weapons first. But all the stories of Charles Martel and the Christians at Lepanto indicate they were devout, and attributed their victories to God’s favor. They prayed before and after battle. Most likely the Moslem forces prayed before and after battle as well. The leaders put their faith in God first, in their weapons second.
I don’t refuse to bear arms. Rather, I say it takes more manly courage and valor to hold faith in God first rather than faith in guns first. The man who prays before battle and gives thanks for his survival afterward is more likely to keep his wits about him. I think you said earlier that you were a Legionnaire; what do you think?
Perhaps I have been wrong about you Francis, I never prayed before combat then again that was before my reversion… You are correct I would say most of the men at Tours and Lepanto were Faithful Catholics and would have prayed before and after battle…The Legion (when I was serving) was hardly filled with men of Faith, many were from the former Soviet Bloc, however when I was in the Balkans many of the Serbian regulars were devout Orthodox, I can say that my reversion back to the Church started with their witness the Faith….And finally it does take authentic manliness to go God’s will no doubt about that…..
What is there to discern between Ryan/Romney and Obama, Obama has proven to be an enemy of the Catholic Church and compete incompetent when it comes to the economy, I am sure you give the typical nuanced answer, that Obama is not really all that bad… I also just learned that letters to families of our servicemen/women killed in combat no longer receive a condolence letter from the President, it now comes from the Secretary of Defense, why is that? does he hate the military that much, I believe he does along with the entire country as it was founded.
Canisius:
I don’t know where you get your information. What I remember from about a year ago was the change that soldiers who committed suicide in the field are now honored. In the past, they were not.
Kind of the opposite to what you heard. Perhaps we live in different worlds.
I was told by a colleague at work whose nephew was killed in Afghanistan, this is pretty much first-second hand, not from some right wing blog. Yes we do live in different worlds, mine was forged by abuse, struggle, hate, anger and the knowledge of knowing that reality is the world is a pretty awful place. Also that liberals are incapable of acknowledging objective truth or evil even when it stares them in the face
Canisisius, you are choosing to stay in the area of the world that is filled with abuse, hate and anger. This world is a vale of tears, but there is a Kingdom of Peace with a Prince of Peace and a Queen of Peace. Ask them to take you there (you don’t have to die.) You can always return to the awful place if you want to.
Sorry K I respectfully disagree I would have to die to be taken to a place of peace, and that just how it is for me…
Francis,just go ahead and vote for Obama-your rationalizations and holier than thou postings are off-putting to say the least.
JLS, I must be missing something. Why would posing for a picture with a dead animal make anyone more likely to vote for someone? I am more interested in Congressman Ryan’s views on issues affecting seniors and the middle class. We don’t need lower taxes on corporations and the wealthy. The top 1% of our country already has 43% of the wealth in our county, a record high. And their increasing wealth has come at the expense of the middle class.
PA, without the Second Amendment there would be no seniors.
PA you are just another uninformed liberal, we have the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world I want you to explain to me how a person who acquires wealth hurts someone in the middle class, I really want to hear your explanation…
I think that was a joke.Lighten up.
Canada has 15% tax on our corporations TOPS and our economy is booming.We have the strongest economy IN THE WORLD,unemployment low and people make a decent wage.Minimum wage is10.25 $, and going up-your politics of envy is Marxist and we know how that little experiment worked out don’t we?
Paul Ryan knows and lives up to the “Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition” in entirety better than some Bishops, Priests and Nuns.
Based upon his public life and public work, he takes the entire CCC into consideration, not picking an choosing only parts of it like some of the USCCB committees on the budget, social justice crowd, etc.
“This catechism is conceived as an organic presentation of the Catholic faith in its entirety. It should be seen therefore as a unified whole.” (CCC pg 11)
As with all of us, his actions speak louder than words. And he is a good, moral man with a great sense of values.
Paul Ryan’s Diocese Bishop was on EWTN a few months ago, and stated that Ryan knows his religion and lives up to the Catholic Faith.
and the Biblical I would hope……together we have the wholeness of the faith….The Word of God with the church…stronger impact! FEAR THE LORD! BE HOLY! The Church always calls all faithful to that especially our Pope asks of His priests…..like JLS quoted before….our Pope asked them to be Holy!
Fr. Reese, Georgetown Univ. and America magazine says it all right there, except of course, we could add in Joe (foot-in-the-mouth) Biden that always wants to jam his rosary down some one’s throat, when they bring to his attention, that he is NOT a Roman Catholic, Pelosi that knows more than the Pope, Kerry etc.. I have not read any of Ann Rand’s books, etc. that I know of, so I cannot speak about her or her beliefs, but, I can say that Maryanne Leonard is way off base with her comments as she also seems to believe that the US should control our lives without us taking care of our own selves the way that the early settlers did at the beginning of this country’s early growth. FDR with all of his socialist programs set the stage for our downfall and Sen. Ryan is trying to get this country back on track once again, which will be very difficult to do as we are getting lazier and lazier and with the American Church not wanting to do what Jesus has told us to do: feed the poor, shelter the homeless, etc. and He was talking to us, not to Caesar!! The more money that we give to the government, the more that they will waste. Name one socialist program that is being run correctly in our country. +JMJ+
Does Father Thomas Reese believe in the Catholic principle of subsidiarity? Paul Ryan does.
Joel and JMJ:
Give Fr. Reese some credit! If you were to meet him personally, you would quickly realize that he is a lot smarter and more aware than you may think. I’ve never met you personally, but I’m sure that Fr. Reese understands subsidiarity better than you, me or Paul Ryan.
Subsidiarity as a principle is completely outside materialism or capitalism. It absolutely is not on the same wavelength as Rand or Friedman.
Sudsidiarity means helping at the local level. Fr. Reese, as is Obama, is for big government.
Yes, subsidiarity means helping at the local level. That doesn’t say anything about the appropriate size of government nor about how to pay for the help which rightly should be offered at the local level. The trap political conservatives like Paul Ryan characteristically fall into is thinking that by starving and disabling the federal government they somehow serve subsidiarity.
In our case, a globalized mass-market economy has created social issues which are beyond the financial resources of many local communities and local charities. Therefore, subsidiarity demands larger-scale financial support. Local charities should perform these functions whenever possible but they cannot provide the financial backing for all of them.
Many of the Church “Social Justice Crowd” only take into consideration part of the Church teaching – which makes it wrong.
Paul Ryan takes everthing into consideration for accuracy of teaching as directed by the Church Magisterium.
Social Justice must be a unified whole and must also include – – –
SUBSIDIARITY # 1883, 1885, 1894, and 2209,
along with COMMUTATIVE JUSTUCE # 2411 -“without which no other form of justice is possible”
to be a complete social justice package.
BEWARE – – – When these are missing from any Catholic Social Justice missive, they are teaching falsely to forward their own political goals.
“ This catechism is conceived as an organic presentation of the Catholic faith in its entirety. It should be seen therefore as a unified whole. ” (CCC pg 11)
In addition, we must always be concerned with ENVY, Coveting our Neighbors Goods, and ‘Thou shall not steal’ which are also included in the CCC.
We must remember that the USA is approx $16 TRILLION dollars in debt, and those debts must be paid according to Commutative Justice.
PETE, I agree with you. Paul Ryan has the correct understanding of SUBSIDIARITY.
The USA is beyond being able to pay its debt. It is only a question of time before default. Our standard of living will drop drastically.
Smart and faith require agreement; this is where Reese the Jesuit wanders off the trail.
Fr. Reese; never saw a tax, federal program or intitlement that he doesn’t like…lives up to his socialist SJ credentials. He along with most of his order are lost…hence the old saying “Lost as a Jesuit in Holy Week.”
JLS, don’t get discouraged, but what really made me laugh today was a story in the s.f. chronicle about paul ryan’s past, including the fact that he used to drive the oscar myer “wienermobile” (which in my childhoold i thought was like the coolest car imaginiable!), and then him posing for shots to show off his muscles.
ah, we must never forget our youth will always come back to haunt us – or make us laugh at oursleves!
My daughter’s friend works for hot dog on a stick, she doesn’t like the uniform but like her parents said…at least it’s honest work and we are not milking off the system!
my mom worked her whole life, and, as you say, was horrified by some of the people who sat around and collected welfare checks and had more children.
i swtill thank GOD for my dear mother’s work ethic, which was quite contrary to that of so many women around her who did nothing and expec ted someone else to foot the bill
I’m thinking of adopting fifteen or twenty children and collecting the $1500 each per month for each one … That could buy a lot of lotto tickets. Also, it could pay the salaries of a couple of professional children handlers. I’m beginning to see the obama regime in a new light.
max God bless your mum
My understanding is that Hot-Dog-On-a-Stick pays considerably more than your average fast food joint. Your friends daughter should think of her uniform as a badge of honor!
That’s cool to know Tracy…
Finally, max, we have agreement … that the Oscar Meyer Weenermobile was the coolest car ever.
I listened to Paul’s first interview since he was picked as Mitts running mate. Topic got on the discussion of Ayn Rand. His interest in Ayn was in her views on economics not philosophy. He is a strong Catholic, and is pro family. She was an athiest. He is as close to the real deal as we can get. I only wish that he was the pick for president. He tells the truth and is trying to save medicare and Obama continues to lie to get the votes and has taken from us religious freedom which is part of the HHS mandate. We need more Paul Ryan’s in our government —those who are willing to tell the truth and want to turn America back to what it once stood for –Freedom and Justice for all including the unborn and most vulnerable.
I agree from his speeches I have heard. Paul Ryan clearly says that our right to life and other rights come from God and nature and not the government, just as the Declaration, Preamble and Constitution declares.
Maybe Ryan reads to learn, and not to imitate. That is much of what I did in college, and continue to do now. Although I have not read Rand, I would think her work would represent a formidable persona that one runs into in the persuasive quarters of this world.
Who says Paul Ryan is imitating? – The guy who wrote the article? JLS, I didn’t think you believed everything you read. A Priest from Georgetown who’s pals with the Huffington Post crowd and worked on the heretical American Magazine is not worth the paper he writes on.
PETE, several bloggers over the past months have opined that Ryan is a Rand groupie simply because he reads or has read her books. I’m trying to point out that simply reading a book does not make one a groupie of that author. There is a deeper problem in a lot of Catholic education, in that the students are taught to follow whatever they read or are told. Ryan apparently does not fall into this abyss of false education.
How condescending.
Why does Cal-Catholic act as a platform for the liberal agenda by printing such malicious garbage?
Shame on you!
Thank you SoCal I agree, it comes off that way. Especially on the gay agenda, there are some “over doing it, giving the gay agenda too much publicity! “…..Lets give more publicity to those who are fighting the good fight, they need that support and we need to set a more positive tone of support towards those who really are fighting the good fight which the media is giving them less publicity!
For the same reason one studies one’s enemies, namely so as to win the war.
JLS it’s good to know what the enemy is doing but you have to admit that the enemy usually gets more publicity and thus creating the norm and causing scandal and desensitizing of sin. It’s all on how it’s presented, if it seems like they are for the enemy, well one has to wonder why on earth is it on a Catholic website….just saying….
It’s amazing how many people, who say that they are Catholics, think that they are doing something wonderful by encouraging the government to take care of the the poor. As Catholics, it is OUR responsibility to take care of the poor. When the government takes care of the poor, only about 35% of our tax dollars go to the poor after the overpaid bureaucrats take their cut. When WE give to the poor, 100% of the money goes to the poor.
Yes John you are correct…also if we give complete 100% control to the government, control over, take care of whom they want to consider to be poor, that would include the ideology of anything goes, of who’s in power especially the Democrats and not limited to….free contraction, free abortions, after all the poor, poor medicare system (so they like us all to believe) are so miserable, so incompetent, so hard to deal with, that limiting their population would be a justice, so that is why free contraception and free abortions are an answer to their pity on whom they consider to be poor.
Amen to that! I don’t ever recall Jesus commanding Cesar to use the taxes he collected to help the poor. But he did repeatedly admonish his followers to do so. I have been told that conservatives give much more to charity than the liberals ever do. You will however, constantly hear liberals admonish the proverbial “rich” to give more, more, more.
That’s true Tracy.. : )
Catholics should give DIRECTLY.Professional Catholic Charities in Canada and the US are constantly embroiled in anti-life scandal.
Like Pope Benedict,I am SICK of “Professional Catholics”.I give to the Pope’s PERSONAL charity and THAT’S IT.
I’d rather entrust my money to the Mennonite Relief Fund which ts non-political and PRO-LIFE..Other than that I pick a Catholic Orphanage SOMEWHERE and can be assured every dime is spent wisely.
Maryanne Leonard, your attitude reflects the whole social justice crowd…charity, to have any Christian meaning at all must come from our own personal sacrifice and not conveniently from someone eles’s pocket. The intrusion into personal liberty and freedom to follow ones faith are directly attributable to governmental takeover of what has always been the Church’s responsibility. And people who love these dehumanizing programs like welfare etc. always accuse those that find these socialized institutions terrible to human dignity of being cold and unfeeling . There is just no getting through to people so lacking in common sense and insight.
Good grief… How could anyone have Aquinas AND Rand as “mentors”? That seems more than odd.
Rodda, I would love to have a short list of your mentors!
Francis, do you remember the social stigma of having children out of wedlock? It was a great form of birth control wasn’t it? A guy knew that if he got a girl pregnant he was going to have to marry her. In my graduating class six girls got pregnant that spring…of those six (all got married, of course) five couples are still happily married. Once welfare became a guaranteed income for unwed mothers, it virtually ended the age old tradition of living with the cOnsequences of our actions and actually rewarded bad behavior. It prohibits fathers from their necessary place in the home and fosters selfish irresponsible behavior in him as well! who suffers? The children, as usual. You just do not get it!
yes the children are the ones caught up in all that liberal minded mess. I loved hearing about men taking charge and doing what was right and marrying the woman they impregnated. I recall once in the news, I think it was CNN or one of those liberal news media, reporting about a man who impregnated many woman, he had a lot of children from many different woman…they were angry at him for not using condoms….wow. That was their solution….geeze, we don’t want the liberal media to take over our kids, their solution is condoms, birth control and for some reason that solution still is not preventing pregnancies, are not preventing abortions nor STD’s….instead we have a bigger problem in welfare! Go back to traditional values, men marry the first and one girl they impregnated and did what was right! Better yet, learn to be chaste …the church needs to be that strong encouragement, For some reason that seemed to have avoided many of the issues we see today……..What happens today, was rare and probably unheard of during the innocent years of this country….I’m sure it happened but it was minimal..more children probably lived and abortion was not the ultimate solution.
Traditional values are to marry the first girl you impregnate? No. Abstain until marriage. Be faithful to your spouse. Do not use birth control.
k of course but you are dealing with sinners, we are all sinners, there are still people having sex before marriage, and as I have expressed on my last post and many in the past being chaste is the right way, BUT if that was their weakness and some one got someone pregnant, it’s not time to move on to the next, it is time to man up and do the responsible thing! GeeZE k I hope you felt better correcting me, haven’t you read enough of my posts to know my intentions of what I wanted to convey! Well anyhoo… : )
Anonymous:
By “graduating class” I assume you meant high school, not college.
I also remember that many of my high school friends’ fathers worked minimally-skilled manufacturing jobs and yet were able to provide for their families. Among my generation and my children’s generation, it is not possible to do that on one semi-skilled man’s income, unless that family lives outside the USA (a common condition for “illegal” immigrants). While I agree entirely that personal responsibility has eroded, killing support to women and children will not fix the situation.
Like you wrote: “who suffers? The children, as usual. You just do not get it!”
In a society of psychopaths, Francis, “killing support for women and children will”, as you say, “not fix the situation”. In a society of charitable souls, killing the govt support of women and children will move the society to stop serial marriage and single parentage, and thus problem solved. How to morph society from psychopathic to charitable? The Pope has delivered the answer, which is that the bishops should become holy. Today they as a group are anything but holy; mainly they are money rather than holy.
JLS:
I believe you’ve repeated “the bishops should become holy” far more often then the Pope did, and unless you can quote him in context, there’s no reason to believe that he intended this to be the panacea for all that ails us.
In contrast, I’ll quote him from near the end of an article he published “Europe and its discontents,” where he writes
This is hardly the recommendation of a man who would countenance dismantling the social network as proposed by Rep. Ryan.
Yeah, but social doctrine from the Church’s view has practically devolved into socialism and tyranny. Bishops need to give money to Caesar instead of taking it from him. Then maybe they can also begin giving souls to Christ instead of taking souls from Christ.
Bravo JLS!!!!!!!!!!!
“…social doctrine from the Church’s view has practically devolved into socialism and tyranny” doesn’t sound like a faithful Catholic perspective. To the contrary, it sounds at best like “cafeteria Catholicism,” picking and choosing neo-liberal materialist-friendly doctrines, and rejecting doctrines which are not.
“Bishops need to … begin giving souls to Christ instead of taking souls from Christ” sounds like a no-confidence vote in the Church hierarchy. Are the bishops really taking souls from Christ?? How is this any different from Call to Action, other than which political affiliation determines the areas you pick and choose for your “faithfulness”?
All in all, I don’t know how to measure whether Paul Ryan is a “better” Catholic than Joe Biden. Of the two I think Ryan looks more Catholic. Maybe this is what we as Catholics would want: A public figure who, regardless of what he actually does, at least presents the appearance of Catholic faithfulness, that others might follow. But if we step verse-by-verse through the Lord’s Prayer, the Sermon on the Mount, or the parables, comparing candidates’ behavior to Our Lord’s words, both conform in some ways and not so much in others.
Hi editor, did iforget to put me email on my last post? I’ll be glad when my computer is fixed. Typing with one finger is for the birds! Ha
Don’t feel bad, Dana, my husband types with one finger all the time. I have offered to teach him how to type. I have a good typing book with “the quick brown fox jumped over the fence.” I am sure I left something out because there is no “z” there, but at my age it is hard to remember it all Ha! Ha!
Hi Anne: It’s also missing “a”, “g”, “l”, “s”. and “y”. It’s off the main topic, but a phrase that contains all the letters at least once is called a pangram. The one you are talking about is usually given as “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”, or some slight variation. Of course there are many MANY pangrams. Another one is “my girl wove six dozen plaid jackets before she quit”.
Scientists and physicians have just found an anti-biotic resistant form of gonarrhea. There are many articles about it on line. One of the articles is called “Superbug: Gonorrhea soon untreatable”.
If Jesuit Father Thomas Reese, a frequent speaker at the annual Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ REC dissentfest is against Ryan, every true Catholic should be for Ryan!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
All of you who are condemning my comments have misunderstood me. I am not talking about charity for seniors, I am talking about paying back the money we put into the system in return for a promise that we would be given it back when we retired. This is not charity – this is living up to the social contract that all American workers make with the United States government. If the benefits we have been taxed to pay for are denied us, it is nothing less than theft. Charity is another subject altogether; this is a contract that Paul Ryan proposed to break. We Republicans need to own up to the truth; denying seniors the benefits they worked for, paid for, and trusted in is a completely different subject. Our money would be ripped away from us to pay for government excesses, including high living and wild expenditures on the part of government employees. I repeat: our money. Debate charity at another time; shutting off benefits from social programs for seniors that SENIORS PAID FOR in TRUST is robbery, and it is criminal to let old people die if they can’t pay for life-saving medical treatments they are entitled to. Obamacare would do the exact same thing and is also criminal. Let’s think clearly, people.
The money that today’s seniors paid in taxes was paid before they become seniors, just as today’s taxes pay for today’s benefits. Ryan’s “plan” is to freeze the benefits and inflate government out of the problem. Then the problem becomes that of the old and poor. Some rotten Catholic, he is.
The first stone is cast.
Brian S., have you ever heard of taking care of your own health and well being, or do you prefer govt to do it for you?
JLS:
Your life would be sweeter if you understood that MaryAnne and Brian are not writing about whether they will take care of themselves or whether the great and perfectly Catholic JLS can take care of his own health. They write about Christian charity, and about Ryan’s disregard for seniors, driven by his zeal to protect “property rights” of the wealthy. A genuine Culture of Life always puts Life ahead of property.
Do you truly think that my mother, in her 90’s, should be taking care of her own health? I visit her and help with her meals and housework, and other members of my family and our parish help as well. Fortunately, she is in quite good health for her age because she lived a healthy life despite surviving in Europe through two world wars and a more severe depression than the US experienced. She was good about “taking care of her own health” as you put it. But now I can’t do her cardiology work-ups for her, I can’t manage her medications, and I certainly can’t do the cancer or heart disease research or develop the medications which are critical to her health. These roles are appropriate to government and government-funded agencies.
I’m sure you are capable of taking care of your own health, and you’re such an ornery guy I don’t think you’d let a government agency do it for you. But the people who depend on the programs Ryan is trying to de-fund have no choice than to accept help or suffer.
Maryanne it’s not condemning that you have perceived but it’s dialoguing. Sorry that you have taken these comments in a negative light but lets just agree to disagree…respectfully..
Philosophy and economics are inseparable. Each of us has a philosophy regarding our own personal economic situation, and the choices we make about how to earn, spend or save our money and other resources are utterly inseparable from our personal philosophy. Trying to pretend our philosophy is something apart from our economic choices is laughably insupportable and reflects poor thinking at best, or deliberate obfuscation at worst.
ML: first of all the Ryan plan does not change or steal anything from seniors who have paid in…no one over the age of 55 (from the time it would be enacted, which it hasn’t) would have any change in their medicare benefits. For those younger; they can opt to keep medicare as it now stands or opt for plans that are almost identical to the ones Nancy Pelosi and others in congress enjoy right now. Obama has already stolen $716 billion from medicare to pay for his obama care which includes contraception, abortion and euthanasia…he claims he only took it from providers…where on earth does he think we will continue to find providers when he does that? 30% of current providers are planning to leave medicine w/his plan already in force…with the immoral stipulations in his plan 2/3 of Catholic providers say they will leave. So where are you going to get the care you think is going to be provided by obama’s form of govt. insurance or medicare? And if you have children or grandchildren, Lord help them…they will be working and payng the majority of thier income to the federal govt. does that sound moral to you? But for heavens sake make sure you get whats coming to you…
there is nothing “laughable” about the government taking money from hard working folks and wasting it. That is immoral.
The United States government has already issued an analysis of the Ryan plan, and has stated that it will cost the average senior aged 65 or over today to pay an additional $6,400 out of pocket if his plan to radically change Medicare were to be implemented. The statements that attempt to deny this fact are political rhetoric and not supported by independent analysis of the facts. I am a lifelong Republican and admire Ryan as a man and as a Catholic and agree with the majority of his political views but do not agree with his economic views which amount to robbing seniors to keep the wealthy wealthy. I will not vote for Obama but urge Republicans to see the facts for what they are and insist that Romney distance himself from the proposed but failed Ryan Plan.
Maryanne you can’t see that if you don’t vote for Romney that you have given Obama a chance at winning? Just saying..
Maryanne: I understand your frustration and confusion. There is no easy way out. As it stands, the Ryan plan will not balance the budget for many more years, but the first step must be taken. That medical care will continue to cost more and more every year is a given. It has done so for as long as I can remember (I am 83). As a first step, we must cancel the lease Obama has on 1600 Penn Ave. I am glad to see you are not about to give this man another four years. Deo gratias!
Maryanne, maybe Ryan Plan will cost seniors more because there will be more seniors than under the obama plan.
JLS good one! Obama is OK with Euthanasia….anyone who does not value life, what can we expect? Only more destruction.
You neglect to mention, Maryanne, that Mr. Ryan’s proposal would be OPTIONAL — that is, those under 55 could choose to “privatize” their Medicare or keep the traditional plan. Medicare for those 55 and older would not be touched at all by Mr. Ryan’s plan. Either way, we must do something. Here is how Mark McKinnon explains it on the Daily Beast:
“Both the Romney/Ryan and Obama plans end Medicare “as we know it.” The program is running out of money as fewer people pay in than receive benefits. In just 12 years, Medicare’s hospital trust fund is predicted to become insolvent. And for the next 17½ years, 10,000 baby boomers will reach age 65 every day. So, it’s really just a question of when the end comes—for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—and what happens next.”
How about those opposed to more govt taxing for medical care all take a day off work on the same day?
An interesting story regarding Paul Ryan showed up in the current Rolling Stone magazine. Apparently Rage Against The Machine is another of his “mentors” though RATM is understandably not too happy about it! Tom Morello writes: “Paul Ryan’s love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades.”
What, I wonder, is the average Medicare dollar amount per Medicare covered persons? How many Medicare covered people do not use it? How many do? What, that is, are the stats?
Should tax dollars be spent on Medicare treatment of, say, extreme obesity and its complications? On the complications of alcoholism? Sexually transmitted diseases? Drug addiction, both prescribed and other?
Funny story.
The Holy Father, as seen in his recent making of cardinals from conservative bishops, is gearing up for a serious onslaught against the Church by the forces of evil, as embodied for example in liberals and the obama administration, lackeys of G. Soros. So, Francis, you can continue wetting your pants over history or you can join the fight with or against the Pope, the fight that is ongoing now.
I understand the predicament we are in…I do..I have come to the realization that we will never have a perfect candidate, there will always be something we may not like but I beg everyone to use reason here, OBAMA has got to be fired from his job as President and Biden too….We don’t need this administration to lead again…it will be torture..I know it won’t be perfect but what is? Our Lord is perfect, we aren’t but we must let go of what we babble on and look at the moral issues at hand for now, those issues in which matter to our faith because we honor God. Abortion is a NO, re-defining marriage is a NO etc etc…..Religious freedom and less government dictation, no more socialism, please….AVE MARIA purissma sin pecado concebido…Jesus have mercy, Lord hear us! Lord forgive us…
Maryanne , I agree lets think clearly , starting with your first post and the fallacious reasoning how can Ryan be without compassion for the poor and elderly and still be “otherwise admirable Catholic whose compass needs repair”.?. I think that with a 16 TRILLION dollar debt he is making the best case to save medicare and the economy ,his compass and his Catholicism seem to be just fine.
Brian S, as I posted to Maryanne , look up Flemming v Nestor , you are not always guaranteed what you think you are , it is often a tax , not a benefit . As far as his Catholicism is concerned I think that he is a more of a faithful Catholic then Pelosi, Biden , etc , look at his positions on social issues vs theirs. Also remember he deals with and represents a great number of non Catholics, he is Congressman Ryan, not Fr. Ryan he seems to have worked well with the opposition dealing from just the numbers .