Why We Do "Social Work," and Why it's Not Really That

As I wrote in a previous post, my suspicion is that the Obama Administration chose this fight to pick-and let’s not fool ourselves they are the aggressors here-because it’s touching on an unpopular teaching that many Catholics ignore in practice.  They saw this as an easy win, in other words.  They also suspected, I surmise, that since the Church has been hobbled by scandal over the last decade that She would be gun shy about speaking out strongly, especially on sexual issues.  You know how it's supposed to go; considering the situation it’s better to keep a low profile and not draw any more attention to yourself than you have to. 

I’m happy to say: Wrong Answer, on both counts.

In the end this is so much bigger than simply the birth control mandate, this is a gateway to other restrictions as, again, I pointed out previously.  The government is doing this by setting its own narrow criteria for what constitutes a religious organization.  So that only parishes, synagogues or mosques that serve only members of their own faith are religious organizations according to the HHS. Hospitals, schools, soup kitchens, food pantries or adoption agencies, to name just a few ministries the Church is involved in, that are religiously sponsored but serve the wider public are not.  These are social service organizations according to them and so under HHS oversight.

There is one small problem; for Catholics, and really all Christians, our “social outreach” is apart of our religious observance, for lack of a better term.  We want to be good citizens, this is true, but we feed the hungry, cloth the naked, educate the young, find homes for the orphan and care for the sick because Christ told us to-without distinction.  Jesus cured Jews and Greeks, helped Syrophoenicians and Romans.  He told us to love the foreigner as if he was a countryman; actually like a neighbor (this was the point of the Good Samaritan).  In the end love, which is a verb by the way, for those we can see is the measure of how much we love the God we can’t see (1 Jn 4:20).  We do not run these various “social service” organizations out of a sense of civic responsibility or humanitarian concern, but out of love of Jesus Christ.  It is how we extend the Eucharist we celebrate and receive on Sunday into a single motion of adoration and praise throughout the week.  When we do these works of charity for those in need, especially the least in society, we do them for Christ, indeed we do them to Christ (Mt. 25:31-45).

I am Catholic who is proud to say it, and am also proud of our bishops for not cowering in a corner, but taking a stand.  I am an American, and proud of it as well.  It’s sad that these two things have to be put at odds.  In the end, I bear the indelible seal of baptism in Christ, and He is my first allegiance. 

I still contend that this issue is bigger than simply birth control. But another hope I have that the faithful will take the time to investigate why the Church has held to this unpopular teaching, even as so many other Christian groups have let go of it in the last century.  We’ll take a look at this particular issue in more depth, while also keeping our eyes on the bigger picture