June 9, 2017

Letters to the Editor

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Church leader is wrong with his thinking on federal budget, reader says

This is in response is to the article “Catholic leaders find proposed federal budget largely fails the moral test,” in the June 2 issue of The Criterion.

I strongly disagree with Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Fla., chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic and Human Development, who said, “It’s not just about deficits.”

I think the bishop is wrong. It seems to me he works for the Church, a tax-free enterprise, and no matter what, he will keep his position, paycheck, car, etc.

What does he care that a federal budget runs into the red year after year, no loss to him and his paycheck? He doesn’t have to worry about his business being outsourced, hours cut, or being laid off.

I believe our Church leaders need to stop and see the opinion of most people in the U.S. No more of this just throw money into programs, and hope they work. Some of them do not work, and as such are being discarded.

I can say this having come up the hard way—being on welfare and food stamps—when our family needed help. But it was not for decades, and my father worked even harder to see us independent of the governmental handouts.

Sadly, that attitude seems to not be in vogue, as some folks are now generationally dependent, see no reason to change, and feel entitled to the labor and  good fortune being provided to them.

I am not an uncaring person, as that is not what my Catholic parents and Irish heritage taught me. I will help you, and  show you how to put your shoes on, but you have to be the one to run.

It seems to me this attitude of just spend some more money was the downfall of one of last year’s election candidates. It didn’t work, did it?

- Thomas Walsh | Avon

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