Longwinded but insightful Catholic Bishops

From the readings, I found the document, "US Bishops Economic Justice for All", to be quite futuristic and progressive in its message. The second reading, "US Bishops letter to House and Senate" seemed a little backward in comparison, starting off with the pressing need to keep abortion out of the bill. A statement, which, as we've discussed in class, seems quite irrelevant considering that there is very little likelihood that such a consideration would be a pressing danger. I was not fond of how it seemed to be preaching about the topic of abortion before getting to the more relevant subject of equal opportunity health care for all. I'll try not to dwell on the negatives, however but focus on the positives. I was quite impressed, as I've mentioned, of the first (long) document we read. The call for positive economic development seems almost prophetic in light of today's conditions and just as relevant today as they were back in the 80s. One of my favorite passages from the document was from the first paragraph of Chapter 1, which in my opinion highlights the major themes present throughout the document. “We judge any economic system by what it does to the people and by how it permits all to participate in it. The economy should serve people, not the other way around.” This highlights one of the major problems that seems to plague our current condition in the United States. What I'm referring to is the reversal of roles between human kind and the abstract notion of economy which was originally created and intended to serve human kind. Now days, it seems that instead, human kind is forced to serve the interest of the economy, as though it were that of God it(him/her)self. The theme of the document seems to be very similar, in many respects, to the ecumenical document that Ed and I presented on last week, the Social Creed for the 21st Century (with the major difference being a great deal more words). Unfortunately, while the ideas expressed in the document are excellent, like many of the documents before it, there has a gulf between the strength of action and the strength of words. However, action is much more difficult than words and while the worlds may come from the US Bishops, it is up to all Catholics (and other Christians as well) to do their part to make the economic situation in the United States more open to people from different backgrounds, rather than simply the rich and the lucky.