Michael Gerson in the Washington Post takes aim at the administration’s demand that all employers who provide health coverage must provide for abortion, contraception and sterilization in their policies and all hospitals must perform these services:
The implications of Obama’s power grab go further than contraception and will provoke opposition beyond Catholicism. Christian colleges and universities of various denominations will resist providing insurance coverage for abortifacients. And the astounding ambition of this federal precedent will soon be apparent to every religious institution. Obama is claiming the executive authority to determine which missions of believers are religious and which are not — and then to aggressively regulate institutions the government declares to be secular. It is a view of religious liberty so narrow and privatized that it barely covers the space between a believer’s ears.
Obama’s decision also reflects a certain view of liberalism. Classical liberalism was concerned with the freedom to hold and practice beliefs at odds with a public consensus. Modern liberalism uses the power of the state to impose liberal values on institutions it regards as backward. It is the difference between pluralism and anti-clericalism.
A Catholic poster at Just One Minute, Cathyf, explains why the Church cannot back off on this fight:
Something that I’m pretty sure that non-Catholics have no idea about, and Catholics are mostly ignorant as well is the latae sentiae excommunication. “Officially, a latae sententiae penalty follows automatically, by force of the law itself, when the law is contravened… A latae sententiae penalty differs from a ferendæ sententiæ (sentence to be passed). If one commits an ecclesiastical offense for which a ferendae sententiae punishment is prescribed, the penalty will only take effect when imposed by the competent ecclesiastical authority.” In other words, a normal excommunication requires a Church trial, where you can mount a defense, get off on a technicality, bribe or threaten the judges, blah-blah-blah. But with the automatic excommunication, there is no judicial process, no requirement to get caught, no one but the person who committed the offense has to even know that it happened — boom — game over.
And paying for an abortion (“procuring an abortion”) is one of the eight automatic excommunication sins.
Obama, being a politician, believes that he can convince, bribe, threaten, etc. the Church into going along. But, sorry, there is no way a bishop is going to excommunicate himself for Obama. But, simultaneously, there is no way that a bishop is going to risk the shutting down of every Church school, hospital, social service agency, etc. in order to score debating points.
I would like to offer my sincere congratulations to various Catholic bishops around the country, for this decision of the Obama administration is a well-earned victory for them, for it is as much theirs as anyone else’s.
You see, when you allow membership in the Church to provide cover for politicians who then politically enable the Left to do actions such as this, you own the decision. It’s your church, you do as you wish, but to paraphrase Abigail Adams, I am somewhat amused that the vipers you nursed close to your chest have bit you. Next time, you might choose to take the painful act of excommunication or refusal of the sacrament to bring to heel a wayward politician, instead of letting everything just go–because as usual when that happens, everything somehow just goes.
To the timid Catholic bishops of America, I say “enjoy your victory”. Many happy returns.
And just to be clear–I’m sorry it happened. The thing to do now is to go forward and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
An online friend whose judgment I value suggests the Administration made this boneheaded move that satisfies their base while gravely offending the Catholic church precisely because they thought the Church would waste time trying this through the courts where it could not be resolved before the election. (It surely will not pass judicial muster.) They did not count on this rapid and fierce challenge.
‘rapid and fierce challenge’
I’m sorry – do you have some cites? I don’t think there is anything yet happening other than a bunch of chins dropping, then wagging.
I oppose this government, and it’s mandates, with all my soul.
Can you name another time when every Catholic leader in America publicly announced the church and all its institutions would disobey federal law? I do not recall such an event..ever.
To say “I don’t think there is anything yet happening” is to say, ‘Because I don’t know of anything happening, then nothing is yet happening’. Obviously not the case.
– time to visit the USA.
And Mr. Johnson, if you go here, http://www.catholicvote.org/discuss/index.php?p=25591, you will see that, so far, 126 American Bishops have wagged in on this.
I am pessimistic about the bishops becoming lions all of a sudden concerning this.
By the way, this is the death panel showing itself. Sarah Palin called that one, right on the mark.
Per Thom Peters Catholic vote blog (linked above) the rebellion is spreading:
“Updated: *131* Bishops (Over 70%) Have Spoken Out Against Obama/HHS Mandate”.
xcontra–they are most likely to dig in their heels until the regulation is changed and then praise him to the skies. I am not suggesting that even if the president folds the bishops will continue to oppose him.
Elizabeth Scalia,who blogs as The Anchoress notes:
“At the National Catholic Reporter Michael Sean Winters—furious on behalf of those Catholics who “took some punches” for the sake of President Obama—declares he cannot, in good conscience, cast another vote Obamaward. He now suggests that the bishops chain themselves to the White House fence in order to bring attention to the direct assault this administration is making against the church’s constitutional right to its own conscience—its right to be what it is.”
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2012/01/obamacarersquos-great-gift-clarification