KCMO Bishop denounces govt cuts to programs that serve the poor

[proud2BlibKansan]

Bishop denounces government cuts to programs that serve the poor, vulnerable

By Kevin Kelly
Catholic Key Associate Editor

KANSAS CITY - During the worst year of the Irish famine, a 10-year-old girl was found dead along the side of a road.
When townspeople took her body to her home, they found her father dead in his bed. At the foot of the bed was the girl's sister.

"Their name was Boland," Bishop Raymond J. Boland said at the annual Catholic Charities meeting May 13. "They were part of my family. The (coroner's) inquest came to the obvious conclusion that they starved to death."

But the true cause of their deaths was more sinister, the bishop said.

"That family had raised enough corn and wheat that year to feed many families," he said. "But their landlord under armed guard took it all to pay their rent."

Bishop Boland said that state and federal lawmakers in the United States are doing the same thing - slashing services to the poor while enriching the rich.

The Catholic Charities meeting, at Holy Family Church in Kansas City, north, was held the day that the Missouri General Assembly ended its 2005 regular session in which it slashed a variety of programs for the poor, including cuts to Medicaid which will remove more than 90,000 working poor people from the state health insurance plan.

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[cornermouse]

1. What did the Bishop expect?

Its not like the republicans ever made any secret of what they intended to do.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. It's one of the few things the church has done lately

that I think highly of.

[cornermouse]

3. Sorry.

I can't help but think about the way they did Kerry. It is quite probable that at least some of this could have been avoided.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. of course

you are right.

darn, I guess the church hasn't won my approval yet.

[usregimechange]

5. Thanks for posting, passing it on.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. You are welcome

It is mildly encouraging.

[chieftain]

6. Why can't those in the hierarchy that trashed Kerry see that

they are complicit in these draconian cuts for aid to the poor as well as the thousands of deaths and countless maimings in Iraq? When will they realize that abortion is not the only moral issue that politicians are grappling with?