I would agree, to be a true solialist and a strict catholic is probably not possible.
would i be right in saying you disagree with the idea of a National Health Service?
Britains NHS is not perfect, and relies heavily on a strong private sector, but all should have the right to free state health care. that should be a human right, and it is in britain, and im proud of it.
I won’t address the NHS or HealthCanada or Obamacare as that would be a massive derailment of this thread (if you want to start a different thread, I’d be happy to oblige, though).
The issue with the social assistance state is that it violates basic principles of social doctrine.
**134. **
Authentic social changes are effective and lasting only to the extent that they are based on resolute changes in personal conduct. An authentic moralization of social life will never be possible unless it starts with people and has people as its point of reference: indeed, “living a moral life bears witness to the dignity of the person”[250]. It is obviously the task of people to develop those moral attitudes that are fundamental for any society that truly wishes to be human (justice, honesty, truthfulness, etc.), and which in no way can simply be expected of others or delegated to institutions. It is the task of everyone, and in a special way of those who hold various forms of political, judicial or professional responsibility with regard to others, to be the watchful conscience of society and the first to bear witness to civil social conditions that are worthy of human beings.
- Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church
Nobody denies that a person should have access to health care. But, when such a thing becomes a governmental mandate, it strips people of their humanity. The wealthy are no longer called to personally perform corporal works of mercy (they are called, instead, to support higher taxes so that government can perform more). The poor are no longer called to be thankful for charity – rather, these things are called “entitlements”, meaning that they have the
right to something. Those who work within the government system are not encouraged to help people develop independence, rather they are called to maximize coverage of that system – and increase the dependency of people on that system.
And by the way, this should not be viewed as a defense of the American way of doing things. It is not.
We need to, as Christians, work on a system that is characterized by agape – charity. The rich need to feel not only obliged to pay taxes to support the poor, but to personally get out there and work with the poor, to see them as individual human beings each with their own inherent dignity. That is not something that can be done by proxy. (a/k/a the principles of participation and solidarity). Governmental policies that violate the principle of subsidiarity get in the way of creation of that type of society. And, although they are done in the name of the common good…do they
really benefit the common good?
**165. **
A society that wishes and intends to remain at the service of the human being at every level is a society that has the common good — the good of all people and of the whole person [347] —
as its primary goal.
The human person cannot find fulfilment in himself, that is, apart from the fact that he exists “with” others and “for” others. This truth does not simply require that he live with others at various levels of social life,
but that he seek unceasingly — in actual practice and not merely at the level of ideas — the good, that is, the meaning and truth, found in existing forms of social life. No expression of social life — from the family to intermediate social groups, associations, enterprises of an economic nature, cities, regions, States, up to the community of peoples and nations — can escape the issue of its own common good, in that this is a constitutive element of its significance and the authentic reason for its very existence[348].
- Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church
The principle is that each person in society, no matter at which “level” he is, personally work toward the betterment of all in that society. Government social programs allow this to remain at the abstract for too many people. And as a consequence, “the poor” aren’t Joe and Sally, they are an abstract concept. As are “the rich”, from the perspective of “the poor.” And that sets up social stratification that should not genuinely exist in an authentically Christian society.
**168. **
The responsibility for attaining the common good, besides falling to individual persons, belongs also to the State, since the common good is the reason that the political authority exists[355].
The State, in fact, must guarantee the coherency, unity and organization of the civil society of which it is an expression[356], in order that the common good may be attained with the contribution of every citizen. The individual person, the family or intermediate groups are not able to achieve their full development by themselves for living a truly human life. Hence the necessity of political institutions, the purpose of which is to make available to persons the necessary material, cultural, moral and spiritual goods. The goal of life in society is in fact the historically attainable common good[357].
But look carefully at the bolded part: what are the roles of the State in helping establish the common good? To guarantee coherency, unity, and organization of civil society. It does NOT say to provide health care, welfare payments, housing, and so on.
