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Labor Day statement focuses on health reform debate

Mark Pattison | Catholic News Service

Construction worker Mauricio Barrientos cleans adhesive off a concrete tile he installed at Queen of Apostles Church in Alexandria.

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Herbert Mul-key installs electrical conduits in the ceiling of the new entrance being built at Queen of Apostles Church in Alexandria.

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WASHINGTON – It is possible to bring Catholic values to the
ongoing debate over health care reform just as it was done
earlier this year in forging a four-way agreement on the
potential unionization of workers at Catholic hospitals, said
Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y.

“Leaders in Catholic health ministry, the labor movement and
the Catholic bishops sought to apply our traditional teaching
on work and workers and to offer some practical alternatives
on how leaders of hospitals, unions and others might apply
our principles as an aid to reaching agreements in their own
situations,” said Bishop Murphy, chairman of the bishops’
Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

The four-way document, “Respecting the Just Rights of
Workers: Guidance and Options for Catholic Health Care and
Unions,” achieved “a consensus among all the parties on a set
of principles, processes and guidelines for a respectful and
harmonious approach to let workers in Catholic health care
facilities make free choices about unionization,” Bishop
Murphy said.

The bishop highlighted details of the agreement in this
year’s Labor Day statement, issued annually by the chairman
of the domestic justice committee. Dated Sept. 7, Labor Day,
the statement is titled “The Value of Work: The Dignity of
the Human Person” and was released Sept. 2 in Washington.

As they were in “Respecting the Just Rights of Workers,” the
bishops are committed to bringing “the principles of Catholic
social teaching” to “each serious proposal” in the health
care debate, he said, and will stand firm for conscience
protections and against abortion funding.

Signing on to the unionization document were the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catholic Health
Association, the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees
International Union, which has been seeking representation
rights for workers in the health care field.

The “two key values” agreed upon by the four parties were
“the central role of workers themselves in making choices
about representation” and “the principle of mutual agreement
between employers and unions on the means and methods to
assure that workers could make their choices freely and
fairly,” Bishop Murphy said.

“Health care is an essential good for every human person,” he
added, but the church has to remain “resolute” on
“long-standing prohibitions on abortion funding and abortion
mandates,” while ensuring “freedom of conscience for health
care workers and institutions,” generally regarded as the
right to not participate in abortion-related activities and
other procedures in which they cannot in good conscience be
involved.

By the same token, immigrants, most of whom “work hard, pay
taxes, contribute to Social Security and are valuable members
of our society, … are denied access to health care
services,” Bishop Murphy said. “This should not happen in a
society that respects the rights and dignity of every
person,” he said, adding that immigration and other laws must
“guarantee fair treatment to the millions of immigrants in
our country who contribute to our economy and the common
good.”

Bishop Murphy also drew on Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical
“Caritas in Veritate” (“Charity in Truth”), calling it “a
major point of reference for us all as we give thanks to God
for the meaning with which God has endowed work as a
reflection of the dignity of every worker.”

He quoted the pope as saying: “The primary capital to be
safeguarded is … the human person in his or her integrity:
Man is the source, the form and the aim of all economic and
social life.”

Bishop Murphy also quoted what the encyclical says about
“decent work”: “work that expresses the essential dignity of
every man and woman in the context of their particular
society; work that is freely chosen, effectively associating
workers, both men and women, with the development of their
community; work that enables the worker to be respected and
free from any form of discrimination.”

Decent work, the encyclical continued, also “makes it
possible for families to meet their needs and provide
schooling for children, without the children themselves being
forced into labor, … permits the workers to organize
themselves freely, and to make their voices heard, … leaves
enough room for rediscovering one’s roots at a personal,
familial and spiritual level, … (and) guarantees those who
have retired a decent standard of living.”

Bishop Murphy said Labor Day is the time “to recognize the
value and dignity of work and the contribution and rights of
the American worker.” He also called on Catholics to remember
“those without work and without hope”

This year the observance comes at time when the country faces
a number of “challenging problems,” including the current
economic situation and worries about the future, he said, but
Americans “are still fundamentally an optimistic people,” who
are committed to working together to address the nation’s
problems and “build on the strengths of who we are.”

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