Illinois Grapples with Medicaid and Pension reform

As I noted in the Examiner article last night, there is good news and bad news from Springfield as they tackle a huge and burdensome - yet necessary Medicaid reform, plus $83 million in unfunded pensions - yet there is real horse trading going on here.

With Illinois nursing homes receiving a huge share of their operating expenses from the state medicaid coffers, accepting a lower reimbursement rate, offset by lower staffing requirements for registered nurses makes a compromise - the soul of politics - but also has the potentiality for patient care and safety.

So, how far have we really come from the reforms of two years ago? Perhaps, not as far as we'd like - or need to be.

Finally, it seems that Gov. Quinn may face the ire of unions protecting state workers as he offers a choice that is obviously no choice  - either workers take a reduced payout, or they take none at all! For some the offer may be softened because there is no increase in age eligibility as many advocates wanted, but to me it seems more like political sophistry.

In the rush to meet this Thursday's deadline, will the state Senate, like the House, throw the baby out with the bathwater?

Only time will tell!

Marriage Equality

First in my series on marriage equality - the issues, the challenges, and also the back story:

http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-and-the-gays-a-marriage-of-convenience

Sisters doing it for themselves

I covered the announcement by the Vatican of its nearly three year investigation of nuns in the United States for the Examiner, but I wanted to share some more thoughts, outside of a traditional news forum.

First, and foremost, this is less about what the sisters have not done, and more about what they have done: consistently and steadfastly upheld the message of the Gospel, especially in caring for those that have been on the margins of society and those that have been seen as less than deserving:. the poor, including the working poor, and gay and lesbian people, in particular.

If the American Catholic Church has taken a more liberal bent, it is undoubtedly due to the American traditions of freedom, and liberty, that the sisters have embraced in the apostolate; and as history as shown, often ahead of elected officials.

But, the move by Rome has also shown the spotlight on the Catholic male-dominated hierarchy and its patriarchal misogyny – one that has shown unease with women, even in the time of early Christianity, or as religious historian and scriptural scholar, Gerd Theissen refers to as “primitive Christianity”; a period when some male leaders were uncomfortable with the role of women, even those notable Biblical figures such as Lydia, Phoebe, Priscilla and others who contributed funds, and meeting space, to the growing church, especially after it left Judaism, and spread westward from Asia Minor.

Church history has shown that there were female deacons, powerful abbesses, as late as the middle-ages, and whose power was legendary and wide-spread.

But, when the diaconate was curtailed, only to be reestablished, in the late 1960s, it did not include women, thus creating a vacuum for many Catholic women, many of whom belonged to religious orders and who also had the education, training, and vocation to succeed in this role.

http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=26824

Chicago became a stronghold of dedicated religious women such as Sister Marjorie Tuite, who was a tireless promoter of peace and justice issues, and who championed women’s ordination (more on that later) and who spearheaded a strong movement for it.

As I noted in the article, much of the problem that the Church has with women is that it only has two models – virgins or whores – respectively the Blessed Mother, and the falsely labeled Mary of Magdala; leaving the spirit and lives of modern women at a drastic loss.

http://www.examiner.com/article/taking-it-from-the-top-american-nuns-face-vatican-rebuke

Many commentators, me included, have stressed the historical reality that the Catholic Church in America would not be possible without the dedicated work of women, notably those in religious life, the often black and white clad women who educated hundreds of Chicagoans.

Even a casual walk in Chicago neighborhoods reveal their work – block after block of schools, hospitals and charities all almost nearly staffed by their dedicated, and “cheap” labor.

Misericordia was the brainchild of one such nun – Rosemary Connelly - whose creative, and dedicated energy has made a huge difference in the way that we view children who are developmentally disabled, and how they can lead productive lives.

Rome has never been comfortable with American Catholicism, seeing it as too liberal, too worldly, and too free – but this aside, they have also never turned away the money that supports much of the Church’s efforts worldwide, both charitable, and educational.

While the average age of the sisters is around 70, and its numbers decreasing, they have also kept the wheels turning; as the shortage of priests have strained parish, and especially sacramental life.

American nuns now serve as pastoral administrators, a euphemism for lay pastors, in areas where a full-time priest is not available, teach in its seminaries, author its papers, and even serve as de facto associate priests in many poor and urban parishes as pastoral assistants.

As Charles R. Morris noted in his seminal work, “American Catholic: The Saints and Sinners Who Built America’s Most Powerful Church”, “The availability of nuns has been a major factor masking the growing shortage of priests. Nuns have longed since moved out of the elementary school system and into diocesan management positions as chancellor, directors of education, and . . . allow bishops to rotate priests back into parish work.”

Morris wrote those words in 1997, and now the shortage of priests has grown even more acute, and many parishes, Chicago included, are importing priests from other countries, such as the UK, Southeast Asia, and Africa to help stem the shortage, which much like that of the sisters, is due to attrition.

Ordaining women, either those that are members of religious orders, or simply women would stem the tide, but Rome has said no; and the late Pope John Paul II (who said that it cannot change because Jesus only had male apostles) told Catholics that they were to not even talk about it.

But talk has continued, even if hope might not spring eternal; and again the fear of women, has dominated the discussion.

I laugh when I re-read the words of the late Mary Daly, theologian, feminist, and scholar who said in “The Church and the Second Sex”, “Even the mention of the idea appears to suggest to some that hordes of women priests (all resembling traditional Mother Superiors) will descent like invading soldier ants upon the heretofore all-male stronghold, thus producing a cultural shock of titanic proportions.”

It does seem that the cultic priesthood is so fearful of women that holding them at bay, and telling them what to wear, when to sit down, and when to speak,  seems the norm.

But, while much ink – not to mention frequent flyer miles – has been spent on the so-called “visitations” to the American convents, the problem of pedophile priests is still present, with the spectacular news that 29 priests have been placed on administrative leave in Philadelphia pending investigation of charges, and Msgr. William Lynn on trail for child endangerment.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20120517_Prosecution_rests_at_landmark_priest_sex_abuse_trial.html

Now, the Vatican via the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is investigating another group of women – this time the Girl Scouts of America – with an official inquiry.

Despite the disbelief that many have, upon hearing this, the group has long been as noted by the Associated Press, “a lighting rod for conservative criticism” because of purported inclusion of a Planned Parenthood brochure, at a conference, that discussed HIV young people to lead safe sex lives; or organizational links to the Sierra Club, Doctors Without Borders, and Oxfam because “they support family planning or emergency contraception.”

http://www.dailytribune.com/article/20120510/NEWS04/120519947/girl-scouts-under-scrutiny-from-catholic-bishops

But, while the GSA notes that they take no position on contraception, or abortion, there seems to be guilt by association as far as the bishops are concerned.

All of which makes me wonder where the priorities are in a church whose moral authority has been compromised by decades long sexual abuse by its priests, and where traditionally Catholic countries, such as Ireland, have been rocked, and racked, by abuse; and whose adherents have had their faith nearly shattered by a systemic cover-up reaching all the way to the Vatican.

Welcome!

Some of you may already know me from my regular column on http://www.examiner.com/ where I cover Chicago and Illinois politics, and if so, I thank you for reading those columns and news articles.

With this blog you will still have the ability to read some, but not all, of the Examiner pieces, and also gain a more personalized, read subjective political commentary on local and state politics, not only in Chicago, but also for the state of Illinois.

This will also give me the ability to be more subjective, not only in my commentaries, but also on the subject matter.

Chicago offers, and has offered, some of the more famous, or perhaps shall we say infamous episodes, and incidents in American politics, from the smoke-filled rooms to the walnut panelled offices of the elite, we have seen it all, and it did not begin with our former governor, G-Rod, but rather, perhaps, born in the spirit of the prairie that predated the city.

Also, religion has been a prominent feature of Chicago, specifically Roman Catholicism, which has not only shaped the agenda, but trained many of the civic leaders from Richard J. Daley to Jane Byrne.

What the Cardinal of the Archdiocese of Chicago says, or doesn't say, makes news; and even a casual walk in our neighborhoods reveals deep pockets of piety in the parishes that not only dot the landscape, but offer geographic and social boundaries.

Race, specifically the lives of African Americans has shaped the political landscape, from the embattled administration of Harold Washington to the inheritors of his legendary life, and that of his cohorts, such as Jesse Jackson, both senior, and junior.

Still one of the most segregated cities in American, albeit lessened, black/white relations show the fissures of an often great society.

Another powerful part of Chicago politics is the gay and lesbian community, many of whom are the descendants of the immigrants that the great Jane Addams first saw, and heard, when she moved into her home on South Halsted Street, and who shared the Catholic faith, and fate of their ancestors.

Now, they, as their national cohorts have shown, are exerting a powerful influence on the city; and telling it how they want their lives, and rights, to be not simply seen, but legislated.

Our favorite son, Barack Obama, is president, and he represents not merely a new generation, but a new type of leadership, especially black leadership for the country; no doubt in large measure to his experiences in Chicago, and whose wife is an archetypal black Chicagoan.

These are just some of the people, and themes that I will explore on this blog, and I welcome you to read about this fascinating city, and its political movements.