Joining a chorus of Catholic bishops, theologians, priests, and social justice leaders, nearly 90 Georgetown University faculty and administrators have called Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) to task for his misuse of Catholic social teaching in defending his budget, which hurts the poor. The group sent a letter to Rep. Ryan in advance of his appearance on the Catholic campus on Thursday morning to give the Whittington Lecture.
In their letter to Ryan, the scholars make clear they are not objecting to his speaking on campus, but rather his recent comments defending his budget on Christian grounds.
“Our problem with Representative Ryan is that he claims his budget is based on Catholic social teaching,” said Jesuit Father Thomas J. Reese, one of the organizers of the letter. “This is nonsense. As scholars, we want to join the Catholic bishops in pointing out that his budget has a devastating impact on programs for the poor.” Reese is a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.
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The scholars also gave the Representative a reading assignment: “The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church,” which was commissioned by John Paul II and published by the Vatican.
Signing the letter were over a dozen Georgetown Jesuit priests, numerous members of the Theology and other departments including History, Government, Philosophy, School of Foreign Service and School of Nursing & Health Studies.Rep. Paul Ryan's spokesman, Kevin Seifert, sent this email in response to an inquiry about the Georgetown Faculty Letter from The Huffingtonpost:
"Chairman Ryan remains grateful for Georgetown's invitation to advance a thoughtful dialogue this week on his efforts to avert a looming debt crisis that would hurt the poor the first and the worst. Ryan looks forward to affirming our shared commitment to a preferential option for the poor, which of course does not mean a preferential option for bigger government."
My guess as to what Paul Ryan will look like once the Jesuits and other scholars at Georgetown are finished with him.
What I know about logic and reasoning, I learned mainly from the Jesuits many years ago, and they taught me well. The gaps in my knowledge are due to my own lack of seriousness and inattention in the days of my youth. Still, compared to the some logic and reasoning skills on display today, I see that I owe the Jesuits a great deal.
Picture from Wikipedia.
H/T to Charles Pierce at The Politics Blog.
UPDATE: I am eating my words. No one made mincemeat of the Granny Starver. Yes, there was a Q&A from written questions from the audience, which only served to give Ryan a longer forum to unload his bullshit. You can watch at C-SPAN, if you have the stomach for it. Very disappointing. Give back the American dream? The American dream is dead and gone. Bush put the nails in the coffin. Back to Charles Pierce's mantra: "Fck the deficit. People got no jobs. People got no money."
UPDATE 2: Where was the Republican concern about the deficit when Bush launched not one, but two off-budget wars? How crazy is that for a fiscal policy?
