Editorial

Forty years ago, Pope Paul VI wrote a powerful encyclical called Populorum Progressio (On the Development of Peoples). He called on Catholics to defend the lives and dignity of poor and vulnerable workers in our own society and around the world.

As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of that encyclical, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, N.Y., asks Catholics in the United States to remember Pope Paul VI's call to be in solidarity with workers. In a message for Labor Day 2007, Bishop DiMarzio - chairman of the Domestic Policy Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops - reminds us that the moral dimensions of work and workers' rights "are at the center of our Catholic social tradition."

Hard won gains. Bishop DiMarzio says: "As we gather this Labor Day weekend, we should not forget how our nation's economy and commerce, our standard of living, and even our time off are in many ways the hard won gains of workers organized into unions to bargain for decent wages, working conditions, and benefits, such as vacation time and health care coverage."

Although we have made much progress, he reminds us that there are too many people who still lack decent work or fair wages, who toil in terrible conditions, and have no real voice in their economic life. He points out that more than 40 million people in our country lack health care coverage.

Immigration reform failure. Bishop DiMarzio laments the failure to enact immigration reform this year. "We have to find a way to re-start the discussion, to re-engage the hard issues, to search for practical and realistic solutions."

He notes that there are some 12 million undocumented people in the United States, most of them workers. Our economy and communities depend on them to pick our vegetables, clean our offices and homes, and care for our children, among other jobs. "We have to find ways to . . . regularize their status for their sake and ours," he insists.

Signs of hope. As signs of hope, Bishop DiMarzio points to an increase in the minimum wage. The lowest paid workers finally received the first of three modest increases.

He also discusses the progress of a "small but courageous group of workers" called the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. They reached a landmark agreement with McDonald's Corporation and Yum! Brands, the company that owns Taco Bell, to address wages and working conditions for farmworkers who pick tomatoes in Florida. The bishop notes proudly that the Catholic Campaign for Human Development offered support to these workers, as did other labor and religious groups.

On this Labor Day, I would encourage us to recommit ourselves - even in small ways - to defend the lives, dignity, and rights of workers, especially the most vulnerable. As Bishop DiMarzio says, "This is a requirement of our faith."

(For the complete text of Bishop DiMarzio's statement, "Labor Day 2007: A Time to Remember; A Time to Recommit," go to the front page of the USCCB Web site, www.usccb.org)

Mary C. Uhler

Mailbag

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Research studies show abortion/breast cancer link

To the editor:

In correction of the letter by Dr. John Murphy (August 16 Mailbag) claiming a lack of medical data in support of the abortion/breast cancer link, numerous research studies are indeed available (www.abortionbreastcancer.com).

In addition to the cited studies, eight medical organizations have recognized that abortion raises a woman's risk of breast cancer, independently of the risk of delaying the birth of a first child (a secondary effect that all experts already acknowledge).

At least 49 other studies have also demonstrated a statistically significant increase in premature births in women with prior induced abortion and this linkage was also reported by the Institute of Medicine, an organization of the National Academies of Science.

These research studies and their strong conclusions are ignored by the media and many medical professionals, who sometimes even fail to provide information regarding the commonly known abortion/psychological sequelae link.

Thank goodness for our beautiful Catholic Church that has always proclaimed the evils of contraception and abortion. Now, as medical studies continue to support these truths, many of us realize how negligent we have been. May we all strive to learn to depend not on our own feeble minds, but to follow the truth of the Catholic Church.

Kay Ringelstetter, certified physician assistant, Prairie du Sac

Misplaced set of priorities

To the editor:

Michael Vick will probably go to jail for killing dogs. Meanwhile Planned Parenthood abortion clinics in Madison and nationwide get paid for doing the same thing on a year round basis to unborn humans.

On top of that, embryonic stem cell advocates including researchers at the University of Wisconsin clamor for taxpayer funding of their deadly experiments on the tiniest humans. Media outlets like the Wisconsin State Journal are on the sideline cheering them on.

What a grossly misplaced set of priorities!

Joseph Fogerty, Madison