The new cardinal hints that he’s done with being lied to by the president, and may move the fight to court:
The President invited us to “work out the wrinkles,” and we have been taking him seriously. Unfortunately, this seems to be going nowhere: the White House Press Secretary, for instance, informed the nation that the mandates are a fait accompli (and, embarrassingly for him, commented that we bishops have always opposed Health Care anyway, a charge that is simply scurrilous and insulting). The White House already notified Congress that the dreaded mandates are now published in the Federal Registry “without change.” The Secretary of HHS is widely quoted as saying, “Religious insurance companies don’t really design the plans they sell based on their own religious tenets,” which doesn’t bode well for a truly acceptable “accommodation.” And a recent meeting between staff of the bishops’ conference and the White House staff ended with the President’s people informing us that the broader concerns of religious freedom — that is, revisiting the straight-jacketing mandates, or broadening the maligned exemption—are all off the table. Instead, they advised the bishops’ conference that we should listen to the “enlightened” voices of accommodation, such as the recent hardly-surprising but terribly unfortunate editorial in America. The White House seems to think we bishops are hopelessly out of touch with our people, and with those whom the White House now has nominated as official Catholic teachers.
That certainly sounds like President I Won and his rigidly ideological underlings.
[T]he courts offer the most light. In the recent Hosanna-Tabor ruling, the Supreme Court unanimously and enthusiastically defended the right of a Church to define its own ministry and services, a dramatic rebuff to the administration, but one apparently unheeded by the White House. Thus, our bishops’ conference and many individual religious entities are working with some top-notch law firms who have told us they feel so strongly about this that they will represent us pro-bono.
So, we have to be realistic and prepare for tough times.
Seven states have already sued to overturn the mandate.
The issue is not sex and the single law student/activist or what costs what for whom. All of that is so much distraction and set-up. The issue is whether the government can use an unpopular and partisan law to dictate to private companies that they must give products away, and whether institutions religious and otherwise can be forced to pay for services that violate their beliefs. Another issue is the president’s own honesty, and the service he pays to his ideological cronies at the expense of basic constitutional freedoms. So the debate is about much more than what one 30-year-old students and her desire to de-Catholicize a Catholic university.
Yes. Birth control is simply the most recent smokescreen.
At stake: Does government have the power and authority to force:
- Private industry to provide SPECIFIC products/services for free?
- Religious/other insitutions to pay for products/services contrary to their central beliefs?
- Taxpayers to pay for private, personal lifestyle choices?
This is an all-out assault on the Constitution and our rights as citizens.
obama was willing to pick this fight in an election year. If this liar manages to win re-election, what else does he have in mind for us? Forced sterilizations? Limiting the number of kids we can have? What’s next in his evil mind? The republicans in Congress don’t seem to have the testicular fortitude to stand up to this would-be dictator. I’m glad the Catholic Church does. We must stand with them.
Consider these two cases. Red wine has been shown to help prevent certain heart diseases; contraception helps prevent pregnancy. Why only a mandate requiring paying for the latter? I guess because pregnancy is not a disease.
This stance is consistent with the Independent Payment Advisory Board deciding what treatments for people suffering from actual diseases will not be covered while mandating that Medicare pay for voluntary end of life counseling.
It is almost as if there is a government policy of combating life.
Please, do it, and quick. With incessant publicity!
September, 2012: “When asked if the destruction of the New York financial district by a WMD and the elimination of most of the Gulf Coast refineries by Iranian agents didn’t prove that his foreign policy had failed, President Obama lit a fart and claimed his opponents couldn’t do a bigger one.”