Last week in San Diego, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger addressed the 2008 Catholic Health Assembly. While this conference of health ministry leaders from across the nation focused on “the future of compassion,” the governor and other elected officials of California have proposed a budget that neglects to show compassion for Californians by severely cutting health services for low-income families, seniors and the disabled.
The governor, in his address to the Catholic health leaders, made a commitment to affordable, quality health care for everyone in California. However, the discussion he is leading in Sacramento does not reflect these values and priorities.
We know that California is confronting a budget crisis of epic proportions, and in moments of crisis, moral considerations are often set aside. All major faith traditions agree that it is in moments of crisis that we actually discover our true values. While the political choices ahead are tough, the moral choices are clear and imperative!
A budget is a moral document, reflecting the values and priorities not only of the individual, but of a family, a community and a society. As Catholic leaders in San Diego, we believe that our values are an essential guide to personal and societal health and well-being. We call on our state leaders to remember the following values as they make difficult decisions – and we will pray that they be given wisdom, discernment and courage.
Reason: A responsible family creates a budget to make sure that their resources are sufficient for their needs. A healthy family contributes, each according to his ability, to make sure that the needs of everyone in the family are met. Reason tells us that we are each responsible for ourselves and we are simultaneously interdependent – responsible for one another. Reason also requires that we must examine every alternative and explore every possible source of revenue, including closing tax loopholes that let some people escape their fair share.
Compassion: In times of budget shortfalls, no one in the family is left out. Those who are most vulnerable and needy are cared for. Many scriptures call us to care for our neighbors – helping the widow, the orphan and the stranger. “Seek the lost . . . bind up the injured, and strengthen the weak.” (Ezekiel 24:16)
Fairness: Scriptures advocate a community where the needs of each person are equally valued and respected. We often balance our state budget in ways that unfairly impact working families and those who are poor – we have held back cost-of-living increases, foster-child protections, medical care, child-care allowances and many other programs. Each of these cuts can and do fall on the same family, the same child, the same person.
Responsible investment: The statewide budget should convey the message that government is responsible to the public and invested in the well-being of all people in our society. People of faith understand responsible investment to be essential for the common good.
Stewardship:If we cannot care adequately for our people under the proposed budget, we must ask the question – If saving taxes for those who are affluent is our only goal, then what have we become as a people? Healthy families and communities practice the art of compromise. California cannot become a state that only serves those who already have good incomes and social stability.
Let us pray that our elected officials are not afraid to do justice for every man, woman and child in California – which is their duty, their joy and their reward.
Sister Church, the Rev. Ratajczak, the Rev. Jennings and Sister Brown are leaders of the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice of San Diego County.
