An Open Letter To Fellow “Catholic” Paul Ryan

Dear Paul,

I hope you don’t mind the informality here. I’ve decided not to call you Mr. Ryan. When you’re working for the The People, and I’m one of The People, I get to call you whatever I want. Your official title now might be Speaker of the House, but to me, you’re still a public servant. You’re Paul, my employee on Capitol Hill.

And as one of your many bosses, I get to give you a question and expect an answer from you. Here it is:
WHY DID YOU TRY TO REPEAL THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT DURING LENT?

As another Catholic in your American Workplace, I’d really like to know.

Now ordinarily, I’d never bring up the religion of a legislator during any discussion about politics. But you started it, Paul. You’re the one who keeps bringing it up. You’re the one who keeps talking and writing about how your faith has spiritually influenced and guided your political decisions.

After last Friday’s failure and your lame excuses for failing, however, I’m starting to worry about your soul, Paul. In fact, I had a long talk with Jesus over the weekend, and He wants you to step down from your current job. Then He wants you to open a food shelf in Janesville, Wisconsin. He said that would be more in keeping with Church Teachings than what you’re trying to pull on the American People these days.

Hey, don’t blame me, I’m just the messenger. I think I can further explain why J.C. seemed so disappointed, though.

As a practicing Catholic, you must already know about Lent. You must know that it’s that 40 day period before Easter Sunday — and Easter is THE most triumphant Holy Day in Catholic liturgy.

Lent, then, is designated as a special time to recall (and figuratively imitate) the sacrifice Jesus made when He was in the desert for 40 days. Notice the words “supposed to.” Nowadays, though, Lent can also encourage you to transcend giving up into giving more.

So in 2017, Lent isn’t just about abstinence and fasting and giving up the chocolate and the booze and the fun you’re used to enjoying. It can also be about doing more, giving more. As in saying the rosary more often. Reading more spiritually illuminating literature like the Bible more often. Practicing more acts of Love and Kindness more often. Lent, in other words, encourages overall reflection and action about what it means to be a Catholic.

And Catholicism isn’t supposed to encourage hurting other people in the name of the Church… but that’s what you tried to do. Look, I’m no judge of the inner-workings of spiritual character, but I can’t help but wonder how your managed to misinterpret and misuse Catholic doctrine to further your own political agenda. Whatever were you thinking?

While the Lenten Season can still mean personal, individual sacrifice, Paul, you’re supposed to do the sacrificing. You’re NOT supposed to force other Catholics and non-Catholics alike to make sacrifices that you’ve decided they should make. It’s not all about you, Paul, and your GOP Visionquest to eliminate what you and your cohorts have dismissed as Obamacare.

But you actually wanted to repeal a law that gave affordable health care to millions of Americans. Before Friday, March 24th, you were getting ready to eliminate a law that provided life-altering — even life-saving — medical care. You were determined to repeal it, even when you knew that doing so might mean needless pain and suffering — even death sentences! — for your constituents.

In fact, the only reason you and the GOP gang canceled Friday’s vote was to save yourselves the embarrassment of a major loss. You knew you didn’t have enough votes in the House to pass the bill that would have gone to the Senate and ultimately would have destroyed Obamacare. That is, you didn’t stop the voting because you realized how much harm might have come to so many Americans if the bill had passed. You only did it for yourselves.

In political terms, you “chickened out.”

In spiritual terms, you cheapened your religious faith, big time.

You convoluted the teaching of the Catholic Church to rationalize your own unprecedented attack on the poor and infirm in the country. What would Jesus do? He probably wouldn’t vote for you, boyo, that’s for sure. But if somebody handed J.C. a copy of Father McGuire’s Baltimore Catechism, he’d surely smack you on the side of the head with it. Why?

Because of the pseudo-sanctimonious way you keep touting your religious values while continuing to legislate in ways that seriously hurt your fellow Americans. I’m referring to your articulate hypocrisy that sounds so thoughtful but is, in reality, extremely cruel and thought-less.

The best example of your two-faced “faithfulness” I could find comes from the interview you gave to the “National Catholic Register” on September 29, 2014. You were interviewed by senior editor Joan Frawley Desmond around the time your book The Way Forward : Renewing The American Idea came out. Remember? The headline announced “Paul Ryan on ‘The Way Forward’ and The Catholic Faith.” But the subheading emphasized your idea of Catholicism: “The chairman of the House Budget Committee discusses his new book and how his faith influences his approach to public policy.”

It was posted on 9/30/14, but citizens can still go online and read the entire interview and examine your unabashed hypocrisy in its entirety. For me, what jumped out was this following exchange.

Ms. Desmond asked,

“Much of your work has focused on deficit reduction. But in 2012, many were angered by the GOP presidential campaign’s suggestion that those who receive federal assistance are ‘takers’ rather than ‘givers.’ What have you learned from that experience? Is this about semantics or something deeper?”
Your Response?
“In my case, we miscommunicated, and we need to learn from that,” you replied.
“I got that wrong. We need to talk about how we can help people get to where they want to go in life when they are facing obstacles. Our goal should be to help make it possible to get them on their feet and to respect their struggles and challenges.”
Duh. Of course you got that wrong, Paul. If someone has cancer and the only thing that can save him from certain death are medical treatments that cost 200K a year and he can’t afford them, well, that goes beyond mere obstacle. Or being a “taker.”
In non-political terms, not being able to pay for that kind of help signals a true crisis. It goes way beyond mere obstacle or challenge or struggle into something else…something called a death sentence. And you were planning to give out such sentences to countless Americans in need —and feel good about it? And then pat yourself on the back because you misinterpreted your legislative actions as a form of Subsidiary — a precept of Catholic social teaching introduced by a German theologian that was featured in Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 Encyclical? And then console yourself with quotes from St. Thomas Aquinas and C.S. Lewis? Really?
Get a new catechism, dude.
How could any Catholic in his right mind think that anyone who wants to live and not die is a “taker?” You didn’t “miscommunicate,” Paul. You just revealed your calloused Republican agenda, that’s all. You wanted to take away medical and healthcare lifelines. Harsh, really, harsh.
If God’s work here on Earth must truly be our own, then decisive actions — not empty words — are what matters. But where you go to church shouldn’t matter, Paul. What matters here is how well you can serve a constituency that’s comprised of many religions and various income levels. So why not just do your job and leave the Catholic Church out of the unethical, hypocritical quagmire you’ve created for yourself?

Stop acting like the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church wants you to cater your legislation to the wealthy one percent. It doesn’t. And if you really want to get spiritually pro-active, stand on your own two feet. Stop being the handmaiden of that racist, sexist, fascist, hedonistic, sociopathic, iconoclastic demagogue who weaseled his way into the White House.