1763

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a letter to Congress regarding policies to support women and families in a post-Dobbs political environment. It calls for “radical solidarity” with pregnant women, mothers, babies, and families, and calls out more than a dozen policy prescriptions to start to accomplish that:

  • Pregnant Workers Fairness Act: Require employees to make accommodations for pregnant workers.
  • Child Tax Credit: Remove minimum income requirement, ensure mixed citizen-immigrant families are included, make credit available the year before birth.
  • PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act: Make nursing and pumping easier and less stigmatized in the workplace.
  • Pregnancy Resource Centers: Provide a tax credit for private donations to these non-profits.
  • Paid Family Leave: Improve policy to be less burdensome for small employers and don’t penalize larger families.
  • Child Care and Pre-Kindergarten: Improve access to these programs and include faith-based facilities in the program.
  • Marriage Penalties: Improve tax code to remove financial reasons for couples to not get married.
  • Housing: Fund increased housing supply through National Housing Trust Fund and Low-income Housing Tax Credit, expand rental assistance, and oppose discrimination and racial disparities in homeownership.
  • Maternal and Child Health: Extend Medicaid postpartum coverage, address racial and class disparities in health care, adequately fund CHIP and Medicaid in US territories.
  • Nutrition: Strengthen SNAP, WIC, school lunch programs, emergency food assistance, and extend them to US territories.
  • Adoption Support: Make the Adoption Tax Credit refundable.
  • Environmental Policies: Pass the PFAS Action Act and methane regulations that disproportionately harm mothers and young children.
  • Immigrant Families: Apply all recommended programs to immigrant and mixed-status families.
1764

What, no pony?

1765

I’m glad to see that comprehensive and far reaching call. Hopefully, with an effectively Catholic Supreme Court, this will turn some hearts in the right direction.

I also appreciate Francis in Against War calling out for the end of the arms trade and for all military expenditures to be spent on the poor.

1766

The Lord shall provide the ponies.

1767

Lol. I’m sure they’ll get right on passing that.

1768

News I missed from October:

1769

If the Church was more like the stuff in Warrior Nun, it’d be a lot cooler.

1770

I imagine that in a Wooderson voice.

1771

Sadly I don’t think the “help the poor and immigrant types” are part of the Catholic faith the Supreme Court justices practice.

1773

RIP, Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI:

Frequently misunderstood outside the Church, people tend to think of him as a conservative enforcer. But what he really was was an intensely deep theological thinker and writer. He was in at the ground floor of the reforms of Vatican II, not opposed to them. He refined the Church’s critique of the modern world (with notable phrases like “the dictatorship of relativism”) but didn’t start it. He didn’t crave power, but rather wore it awkwardly, whether as Pope or as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, seemingly always wishing he could just go back to the academy to think and write and teach.

His stepping down was historic, and is likely to be followed by Francis and many of their successors, even though there are still many questions about what it means to have a Pope Emeritus (including how their funerals should be held, so now they have to figure that out).

I predict that for all the political freight that the world tried to throw on Benedict, Catholics will remember him fondly, if somewhat infrequently, standing in the shadow of John Paul the Great. His theological lectures, epistles, and books—including the important 1992 revision of the Catholic Catechism—will likely be the most influential of the late 20th century however.

1774

Or he could be remembered for other things

1775

Yeah, I think it’s B.

1776

AND he’ll be remembered for other things.

The last three popes have reigned over fairly distinctive periods in the sex abuse crisis. Even before he was pope, Benedict was investigating and handing out penalties for abusive priests. All too late, and still too little, but there’s a reason that the CDF is the dicastery that handles abuse charges in the Vatican, and it’s because Ratzinger was in charge there in 2001 and started to do the work. He called the investigations “our Friday penance.”

What went largely unaddressed by Benedict was the holding of bishops accountable, whether for abuse, negligence, or cover-up. That didn’t come until a few years into Francis’ reign. Again, much too late, and it’s implementation still leaves a lot to be desired.

Benedict was himself found responsible for negligence in four cases of priestly abuse that were reportedly brought before him when he was archbishop of Munich, according to a Church-commissioned independent investigation in 2020. Some of the findings were disputed, but the then Pope Emeritus used it as another opportunity to apologize and reflect on the Church’s and his own failings.

[O]nce again I can only express to all the victims of sexual abuse my profound shame, my deep sorrow and my heartfelt request for forgiveness.

There have been failures at every level of the Church for the last 100 years—including the men who sat in the chair of St Peter—that contribute to the sexual abuse crisis. That will certainly be part of Benedict’s legacy as much as JPII’s and Francis’, but it is only a part.

1777

Who among us hasn’t provided cover for child rapers?

1778

You can make your own judgment about his life; we were talking about how he’ll be remembered.

1779

Watching news the day before he died, the first thing the CBS reporter brought up was the sexual abuse scandal. Like it or not, for those outside the church that is the legacy of the last 25 years.

1780

I’m failing to see the distinction you are trying to make.

1781

Same.

1782

And that’s perfectly natural. Why would non-Catholics care about the new Catechism or liturgical accommodations for converts from Anglicanism or the debate over the role of the Latin mass? But for the record, this thread of discussion began with me saying how Catholics would remember Benedict. Obviously, that’s a large and diverse group, so it’s a massive generalization, but it’s a separate thing from what will stand out to outsiders or the media. The sex abuse scandal and Benedicts failures will be part of that for Catholics, too, but far from the end of the story.

1783

Well at least the Catholic Church became slightly less evil today so that’s a positive.