Public employees in Wisconsin are getting support from Milwaukee Catholic Archbishop Jerome Listecki.Cap Times
On Wednesday, Listecki issued a statement calling for Wisconsin legislators to abide by a "moral obligation" to fully consider the "legitimate rights" of public employees.
BizTimes posted the statement from Listecki, who indicated he was speaking on behalf of the bishops throughout the state:
"The Church is well aware that difficult economic times call for hard choices and financial responsibility to further the common good. Our own dioceses and parishes have not been immune to the effects of the current economic difficulties. But hard times do not nullify the moral obligation each of us has to respect the legitimate rights of workers.
"As Pope Benedict wrote in his 2009 encyclical, Caritas in veritate:
‘Governments, for reasons of economic utility, often limit the freedom or the negotiating capacity of labor unions. Hence traditional networks of solidarity have more and more obstacles to overcome. The repeated calls issued within the Church's social doctrine, beginning with Rerum Novarum [60], for the promotion of workers' associations that can defend their rights must therefore be honored today even more than in the past, as a prompt and far-sighted response to the urgent need for new forms of cooperation at the international level, as well as the local level. [#25]'
To their credit they did put the rest about workers can be in the wrong too.
So was Listecki actually showing his support for unions? I'm leaning toward yes.
8 comments:
While I do think that, yes, he was showing support for unions, I believe the headline is misleading and the lede unsubstantiated and possibly incorrect.
He at no point says that these particular unions are in the right or that unions are always right or that unions' stances should be considered above all else. There's so much subtlety in these carefully crafted statements and, as usual, it seems it was all lost on the good folk in the MSM.
I agree with Kat.
Not only that, but the Dems fled to Iowa. Can they be fired and prevented from entering the state? I soooo wish I lived in Wisconsin right now, you all are like the Conservative HOTBED of America.. I wanted to write about this but didn't want to steal your thunder.
Fled to Clock Tower Inn in Rockford according to Jon Erpenbach when interviewed on WIBA Radio News. Listen to WIBA Vicki McKenna's show on now. Pray for Bishops to condemn the sinful stands of the unions.
Clock Tower, hm? That's a rather nice place. $100/night or so. I do hope we taxpayers aren't footing the bill. :)
If this all weren't so ridiculous, I think I'd actually get quite upset with my representatives. Well, I'll try to vote them out again this year, but it probably won't do anything, as usual. I love Madison.
This isn't just a calm protest for rights. It's looking and sounding more like a mob. The following is first hand information. I've been at the capital every day, almost all day since Monday.
The union protesters are jamming elevators, banging and pounding on glass windows, vandalizing bathrooms and trashing the capital all over the place. Not to mention all 13,000 of them inside the capital yelling, waving signs, and banging drums, and police standing in every doorway. It's looking more and more like a mob.
It IS a mob. Obama sent them, Trumka instructed them.
Badger Catholic- just stumbled on your blog through links. I will defiantly be returning there's some great reading to do here along with thinking. Oh, and I'd agree w/ Kat, too. And re: what Ben said we need to remember the end doesn't justifies the means.
Thanks Angie. I'm hearing more and more that the statement was probably written by the exec dir of WCC(who is a liberal) and that Listecki edited it adding the part completely ignored by activists in the media:
"It does not follow from this that every claim made by workers or their representatives is valid. Every union, like every other economic actor, is called to work for the common good, to make sacrifices when required, and to adjust to new economic realities.
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