A "circle of protection"

The United State Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) today reported that, as Congress began working on the FY 2013 budget and spending bills this week, the USCCB wrote several letters that reiterated the bishops’ ongoing call to create a “circle of protection” around poor and vulnerable people and the programs that meet their basic needs and protect their lives and dignity. The bishops’ message calls on Congress and the Administration to protect essential help for poor families and vulnerable children and to oppose measures that reduce resources for essential safety net programs.

The bishops reaffirmed the “moral criteria to guide these difficult budget decisions” outlined in a previous letter:

1. Every budget decision should be assessed by whether it protects or threatens human life and dignity.

2. A central moral measure of any budget proposal is how it affects “the least of these” (Matthew 25). The needs of those who are hungry and homeless, without work or in poverty should come first.

3. Government and other institutions have a shared responsibility to promote the common good of all, especially ordinary workers and families who struggle to live in dignity in difficult economic times…

Just solutions, however, must require shared sacrifice by all, including raising adequate revenues, eliminating unnecessary military and other spending, and fairly addressing the long-term costs of health insurance and retirement programs.

You can read more here.