"Bishops, Budgets, and Getting Moral Theology Right"

David Cloutier has a good post over at Catholic Moral Theology, called "Bishops, Budgets, and Getting Moral Theology Right," in which he is (respectfully) critical of a recent open letter by Rep. Paul Ryan's bishop, Robert Morlino.  Bishop Morlino said, among other things:

Making decisions as to the best political strategies, the best policy means, to achieve a goal, is the mission of lay people, not bishops or priests. As Pope Benedict himself has said, a just society and a just state is the achievement of politics, not the Church. And therefore Catholic laymen and women who are familiar with the principles dictated by human reason and the ecology of human nature, or non-Catholics who are also bound by these same principles, are in a position to arrive at differing conclusions as to what the best means are for the implementation of these principles — that is, “lay mission” for Catholics.

Thus, it is not up to me or any bishop or priest to approve of Congressman Ryan’s specific budget prescription to address the best means we spoke of. Where intrinsic evils are not involved, specific policy choices and political strategies are the province of Catholic lay mission. . . .

I think that Prof. Cloutier helpfully reminds us that "intrinsic" evils are not necessarily more "grave".  That said, I think I read Bishop Morlino's letter a bit differently than he did.  He wrote, among other things, that Bishop Morlino "suggest[ed] that Catholic teaching involves certain absolutes – such as the right to life and the right to private property – and beyond these, bishops have no competence to make moral pronouncements."  But, I didn't take Bishop Morlino to be questioning the competence (and obligation!) of bishops to make "moral pronouncements" about matters outside the "intrinsic evil" category (killing the innocent, etc.).  Instead, I took the Bishop to be saying that, when it comes to the identification and enactment of the best package of social-welfare and budgetary programs, the "moral prouncements" that it is appropriate for a Bishop to make authoritatively are going to be more at the level of principle and less at the level of conclusive evaluations of particular proposals. 

Of course a Bishop may and should remind Catholics -- including Catholic politicians -- that the Gospels and the Church's social doctrines speak to matters of taxation, budgeting, and spending, as well as to laws regulating abortion.  I didn't hear Bishop Morlino suggesting otherwise.  But, it seems to me that he's right to say that authoritative evaluations -- that is, a determination that it does, or does not, meet the criteria proposed by the Church's social teaching -- of something as complex as a ten-year budget plan is almost certainly going to depend on factual questions and predictions that a Bishop might not have the expertise to answer or make.

Does this mean that all specific policy proposals -- outside the intrinsic-evil arena -- are beyond evaluation or criticism by Bishops?  I guess I don't think so.  There will be situations, I am sure, where the policy in question is simply beyond any defense as a reasonable, good faith application of the Church's social teachings.  But, those situations are going to be pretty rare.