Are the Rev. Thomas J. Reese and 90 Georgetown University faculty members really taking Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, to task for supposedly hurting the poor and not being Catholic enough in his budget proposal (“Cross-referencing,” Inside the Beltway: Web, Tuesday)?
Instead of wrapping themselves in Catholic doctrine and Vatican encyclicals, Georgetown University and the Catholic bishops criticizing Mr. Ryan should look more closely at their own record on being Catholic enough. Georgetown is the same school that had a problem with crucifixes in its classrooms because those Catholic symbols “offended” the non-Catholics attending the school. The bishops are the same people who refused to pay their own nuns’ Social Security when the nuns retire - until public pressure was brought to bear.
When Georgetown quits bellying up to the public trough by charging the federal government $40,000 for master’s degrees in public policy for federal employees when those people can get the same degree elsewhere at a much lower cost, then it can talk about budget cuts and how they affect the poor.
Until then, Rev. Reese should allow Mr. Ryan to speak freely at the university. Maybe if he listened to what Mr. Ryan had to say rather than protest it before it is said, he would realize Mr. Ryan is saying what Americans need to hear: We have to curtail our spending on entitlements without taxing the people who are already contributing more than you.
ANN COMERFORD
Fairfax
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