Michael O’Loughlin reports for America:

Catholic bishops say the G.O.P.-backed tax reform plan is “unconscionable” and “unacceptable,” pointing to “fundamental structural flaws” that they say “will raise income taxes on the working poor while simultaneously providing a large tax cut to the wealthy.”

In a letter sent to members of the House of Representatives, three U.S. bishops who head committees on domestic justice, international justice and Catholic education examined the tax proposal, which cleared a key procedural hurdle on Nov. 9, saying that the proposal did not meet moral criteria “centered on care for the poor and concern for families.”

The bishops charged that the G.O.P. tax proposal “appears to be the first federal income tax modification in American history that will raise income taxes on the working poor while simultaneously providing a large tax cut to the wealthy.

“It must be changed for the sake of families—the bedrock of our country—and for those struggling on the peripheries of society who have a claim on our national conscience,” reads the letter, signed by Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Fla., Bishop Oscar Cantú of Las Cruces, N.M., and Bishop George V. Murry, S.J., of Youngstown, Ohio.

You can read the full letter here.