These positions have been advanced in "Faithful Citizenship," a pamphlet issued by the administrative board of the U.S. Catholic bishops. This pamphlet, one learns from Mr. Califano (not from our local priest), has been sent to 20,000 parishes "to encourage priests, liturgists and parish councils to undertake activities to bring 'Catholic assets (to) the public square.'" Where Mr. Califano is decorously careful is in dealing with the church/state question. No religious group in America is supposed to argue in favor of any one political party.
On the other hand, Mr. Califano correctly says, you cannot expect a religious association to decline to adopt a position merely because (like abortion) it is associated prominently with one political party. What Mr. Califano does is dance around that subject, because he wouldn't want to find himself on the other side from Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. So the net effect of his advice to American Catholics is: Wake up to your parishioners' moral obligations in respect of public policy. And if you don't know what these are, ask your nearest bishop.
Now here is Mr. Califano's transcription of the bishops' statement on civic responsibilities of Catholics:
Health care is a fundamental human right. (The derivative question immediately arises: What does "fundamental" mean? Government-guaranteed?)
Affordable housing is in the same category.
The minimum wage should be "more than doubled."
Everybody has an inalienable right to a quality education (even if you have to attend a non-public school to get it?).
The death penalty should be abolished.
Debt relief should be granted to poor nations. (That of course is another way of saying that aid should be given to poor nations.)
Now these are thoroughly defensible positions, but the question before the house is: Are they in any arresting way, Catholic positions? Is Mr. Califano saying, or for that matter, are the Catholic bishops saying, that in order to be a Catholic compliant in the faith, one must favor doubling the minimum wage, abolishing the death penalty, and making government the primary health provider?
If the Catholic Church is going to get choosy about what constitutes tolerable political behavior, it would obviously begin by putting pressure on Catholics engaged in promoting the welfare of the Democratic Party to rush forward to be shriven. Would they, traveling the road to penitence, bump into American Catholics who oppose a government-ordained rise in the minimum wage?