Archbishop: Obama Needs To Stop 'Intruding Into Internal Life Of Church'

[_Abyssinia]

Obama Declares War on Freedom, But Freedom Will Triumph

lifenews.com/2012/03/16/obama-declares-war-on-freedom-but-freedom-will-triumph/
White House: Colleges Also Forced to Institute HHS Mandate

The White House announced today that colleges and universities will also be forced to join religious employers in instituting the new HHS mandate that requires them to provide coverage for birth control and drugs that may cause abortions.

The nation’s biggest abortion business is already applauding the decision, as it means insurance companies will pay for drugs Planned Parenthood dispenses, providing a taxpayer-funded windfall for the abortion giant.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards said in a statement, “For many women, especially college students, birth control is not only a health care issue, it is a financial issue. Covering birth control with no co-pays means college students will not have to choose between paying for tuition and books, or paying for basic health care like birth control.”

“The proposal released today make clears that the Obama administration is fulfilling its promise that women will have access to birth control coverage, with no costly co-pays and no additional hurdles, no matter where they work,” she said.

In the proposal

the Obama administration put forward today, HHS noted three options for self-employed firms and asked for public comment on them. One option has them providing coverage for birth control and abortion-causing drugs, a second has them paying for the benefits indirectly, and a third option would have the state health insurance exchanges created under Obamacare provide the coverage — all at taxpayer expense.

lifenews.com/2012/03/16/white-house-colleges-also-forced-to-institute-hhs-mandate/
Catholic Bishops Call For Prayer For Religious Liberty

usccb.org/news/2012/12-049.cfm
HHS Info Contradicts FDA on Plan B’s Abortifacient Nature

lifenews.com/2012/03/16/hhs-info-contradicts-fda-on-plan-bs-abortifacient-nature/
** World Over 03 15 12 Religious Freedom HHS Mandate Bsp Lori, Fr Sirico w Raymond Arroyo **

youtube.com/watch?v=aGozQ28KKAc
Republicans urge HHS to warn Washington state over abortion coverage mandate bill

foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/16/republicans-urge-hhs-to-warn-washington-state-over-abortion-coverage-mandate/#ixzz1pK0QFKtn

 

[_Abyssinia]

What do you think about this?

Guess What? Parts of the HHS Mandate Aren’t Unconstitutional

Says who? First Amendment Scholar and Bishop of Los Angleles Thomas J Curry

patheos.com/blogs/yimcatholic/2012/03/guess-what-parts-of-the-hhs-mandate-arent-unconstitutional.html

Some people on the comments section on the blog do not agree with him. Which parts of the HHS mandate does Bishop Curry think are constitutional and which parts aren’t? And what of the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act - how does that comply with the HHS mandate as it currently stands?

 

[_Abyssinia]

HHS announces comment period on mandate accommodation

catholicnewsagency.com/news/hhs-announces-comment-period-on-mandate-accommodation/
The Latest Mandate Announcement: ‘We Need a Process to Get Past November!’

At 4:15 p.m. this afternoon, the Obama administration issued its latest pronouncement on the HHS mandate, in the form of an Advanced Notice on Proposed Rulemaking

(ANPRM). So what did the administration have to say on this late Friday afternoon?

Basically, it was a thinly veiled attempt to punt the entire issue into 2013, thus allowing the president to continue his doublespeak on the issue — pretending that he is interested in protecting religious liberty with pronouncements about a forthcoming concession while the policies he actually implements go in exactly the opposite direction.

More: nationalreview.com/corner/293747/latest-mandate-announcement-we-need-process-get-past-november-james-c-capretta
**HHS Issues Statement Confirming Outlines of Contraception Mandate ‘Accommodation’ **

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had no formal response, but a statement from Sister Mary Ann Walsh, the conference spokeswoman, reflected Church leaders’ growing impatience with the administration’s handling of the controversy.

“I am surprised that such important information would be announced late Friday of St. Patrick’s Day Weekend and as we prepare for the fourth Sunday of Lent,” said Sister Mary Ann.

“The bishops will begin analyzing it immediately but now is too soon to know what it actually says.

…

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty’s Senior Counsel, Hannah Smith also questioned the timing of the latest HHS statement, but for a different reason. The administration has sought to dismiss the cases filed by the Becket Fund, a public interest group, arguing that the specifics of the “accommodation” will soon be worked out, thus eliminating the basis for the legal challenge.

“The timing of this announcement is also suspect. The Administration knew that the Becket Fund’s response to the government’s motion to dismiss will be filed in federal court on Monday. This delay tactic is designed to disrupt those arguments because the administration knows it won’t be able to answer them,” Smith said.

“We do not need any more rule making. We do not need any more comment periods. We already settled this with that one original rule: The First Amendment,” said Smith, in a statement released this afternoon.

“The Administration’s action is just another delay tactic,” said Smith. “It’s not that complicated. Grant a wide enough exemption to honor the conscience of millions of Americans. The First Amendment demands it.”

ncregister.com/daily-news/hhs-issues-statement-confirming-outlines-of-contraception-mandate-accommoda
NYT: Contraception, Against Conscience

nytimes.com/2012/02/22/opinion/why-ewtn-wont-cover-contraception.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print
Why You Should Want to Stop the Obama Abortion Drug Mandate

lifenews.com/2012/03/16/why-you-should-want-to-stop-the-obama-abortion-drug-mandate/
**Obama Administration Partially Caves on Abortion/Contraception Mandate **

ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/obama-administration-partially-caves-on-hhs-mandate

I don’t see how this admin can be trusted -when Obama went to Notre Dame he said conscience would be protected. It was said that no taxpayer funds would go to abortion in ObamaCare, that was also false.
Radio: ACLJ: Battling Pro Abortion Obama in Court

aclj.org/RadioPlayer/battling-pro-abortion-obama-court/player
More bad news for Obama’s woo on women: 57% oppose forced religious contraception coverage

jillstanek.com/2012/03/more-bad-news-for-obamas-woo-on-women-57-oppose-forced-religious-contraception-coverage/
Punting on the HHS Mandate & Campaign 2012

James Capretta over at NRO has a good piece

on the latest “accommodation” on the HHS Mandate.

…

There’s nothing conciliatory about this. They’re just punting until after the election so that this won’t be an election issue and President Obama can keep his majority Catholic vote while wooing single women who won’t vote unless they’re worried about something really important like their birth control.

[In the meantime, there’s apparently nothing to accommodate individual business owners who for reasons of conscience or religion might not want to be forced to buy insurance that covers contraception.]

catholicvote.org/discuss/index.php?p=28247

 

[Bubba_Switzler]

On the substance of the bishops’ challenge to the administration’s diktat, Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Connecticut (whom Dolan had earlier named the chairman of an Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty), has been the key figure. Hewing closely to the Catholic theory of religious freedom laid down by the Second Vatican Council and Blessed John Paul II, Bishop Lori has insisted on the indivisibility of the first liberty. Religious freedom, in other words, has both personal and corporate dimensions; both individuals and institutions enjoy the right of religious freedom. Thus any attempt to solve practical problems, such as those which the mandate poses to Catholic institutions and to conscientious Catholic employers and employees, by splitting the difference (i.e., the bishops’ defending their institutions but leaving individual Catholics to fend for themselves against Leviathan) would not only be pastorally irresponsible; it would mean an abandonment of Catholic tradition. Lori’s thoughtful defense of the indivisibility of religious freedom in recent months, and during the Administrative Committee meeting, was one key in forging the unified and principled position the bishops took in “United for Religious Freedom.”

nationalreview.com/articles/293743/after-united-religious-freedom-george-weigel

Wow! Sounds like there is unanimous agreement among the bishops that there will be no seperate peace with the Obama administration.

 

[LisaA]

That’s easy enough: get the government the hell out of health care! Why should we require, by the force of federal law, Jehovah’s Witnesses to cover blood transfusions?

This is a canard. There is no comparison. How many Jehovah’s Witness hospitals and colleges and social services agencies are there? …??? Not arguing with you Bubba S but the use of these remote and irrelevant comparisons are just red herrings.

Yes there are individual Jehovah’s Witnesses who are inadvertently paying for policies that cover blood transfusions. But there is no mandate that all people MUST buy a policy that covers blood transfusions for free. Further, there is a complete difference in the situation. A Jehovah’s Witness may demand no blood transfusion for himself. In our Catholic faith we are against the products the HHS Mandate covers because it destorys OTHER’S lives. The lame theory that well if you don’t want to have an abortion don’t have one but you shouldn’t be able to tell others they can’t have one, cannot stand up to any logical argument because we are not focused on the pregnant woman but on the baby.

That being said I agree if somewhere out there is a Jehovah’s Witness hospital then they shouldn’t be forced to provide blood transfusions. And I bet they don’t.

Lisa

 

[jwinch2]

hancaquam.blogspot.com/2012/03/another-blow-from-bo-to-our-religious.html

 

[_Abyssinia]

The unspoken side of the Obama birth control mandate

stophhs.com/stop_hhs_mandate/the-unspoken-side-of-the-obama-birth-control-mandate/
HHS Issues New Rule on ObamaCare Scheme to Fund Abortion Insurance

nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2012/03/hhs-issues-new-rule-on-obamacare-scheme-to-fund-abortion-insurance/
After ‘United for Religious Freedom’

The bishops’ road to unanimity and the path ahead

nationalreview.com/articles/293743/after-united-religious-freedom-george-weigel

 

[Alan55]

This is a canard. There is no comparison. How many Jehovah’s Witness hospitals and colleges and social services agencies are there? …??? Not arguing with you Bubba S but the use of these remote and irrelevant comparisons are just red herrings.

Yes there are individual Jehovah’s Witnesses who are inadvertently paying for policies that cover blood transfusions. But there is no mandate that all people MUST buy a policy that covers blood transfusions for free. Further, there is a complete difference in the situation. A Jehovah’s Witness may demand no blood transfusion for himself. In our Catholic faith we are against the products the HHS Mandate covers because it destorys OTHER’S lives. The lame theory that well if you don’t want to have an abortion don’t have one but you shouldn’t be able to tell others they can’t have one, cannot stand up to any logical argument because we are not focused on the pregnant woman but on the baby.

That being said I agree if somewhere out there is a Jehovah’s Witness hospital then they shouldn’t be forced to provide blood transfusions. And I bet they don’t.

Lisa

I agree that the Obama administration’s policy is all about market power, which is why arguments about Jehovah’s Witnesses and Amish don’t go to the real issue. The religious liberty issue is secondary to the impact of a conscience exemption on the market for health insurance.

 

[_Abyssinia]

Gimmicks Won’t Resolve HHS Mandate’s Religious Liberty Assault

blog.heritage.org/2012/03/17/gimmicks-wont-resolve-hhs-mandates-religious-liberty-assault
Time’s Up for Religious Freedom

catholicvote.org/discuss/index.php?p=28265
Citizens Prepare to Rally for Religious Freedom Across the U.S.

ncregister.com/daily-news/citizens-prepare-to-rally-for-religious-freedom-across-the-u.s
Toss individual health insurance mandate, poll says

Most Americans want the Supreme Court to invalidate at least part of the landmark health-care law that was passed in 2010, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The law’s individual mandate remains a key sticking point, with one in four hoping the court will strike down the provision but leave the rest of the law intact.

More than four in 10 — 42 percent — want the high court to throw out the entire law, 25 percent want to do away with the mandate alone and a similar proportion wants the justices to uphold the entire law.

washingtonpost.com/blogs/behind-the-numbers/post/toss-individual-health-insurance-mandate-poll-says/2012/03/18/gIQAaZtpLS_blog.html

Meanwhile, a Rasmussen survey

shows the number of voters who Strongly Support the law’s repeal is now at an eight-month high.

lifenews.com/2012/03/19/pro-abortion-obamacare-opposition-high-as-supreme-court-enters/
Free Sterilizations Must be Offered to All College Women, Says HHS

cnsnews.com/news/article/free-sterilizations-must-be-offered-all-college-women-says-hhs

It will not be free, every taxpayer will pay for it.
**Winning the Mandate Debate **

ncregister.com/daily-news/winning-the-mandate-debate1
Stand Up for Religious Freedom in San Francisco

christiannewswire.com/news/730419223.html
Pro-Abortion Groups Raising Big Bucks Off Obama Mandate

lifenews.com/2012/03/19/pro-abortion-groups-raising-big-bucks-off-obama-mandate/
The War on Men

nationalreview.com/articles/293740/war-men-kathryn-jean-lopez
Priests for Life Applauds Latest Lawsuit Against HHS Mandate

christiannewswire.com/news/3223819228.html

 

[_Abyssinia]

Showing Gratitude for Leadership in the Battle for Religious Freedom

catholicvote.org/discuss/index.php?p=28276
Evangelical leaders urged to mobilize against administration contraception policy

Colson on mandate: “If we lose this battle, we lose not only religious freedom, but every freedom [in] Bill of Rights.”

religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/16/evangelical-leaders-urged-to-mobilize-against-administration-contraception-policy/
New York Times: Quit the Catholic Church Over Mandate Opposition

lifenews.com/2012/03/19/new-york-times-quit-the-catholic-church-over-mandate-opposition/
’Dangerous Unconstitutional HHS Abortifacient/Contraceptive/Sterilization Mandate Hurts Women – Not Healthcare’ Says Dr. Alveda King

christiannewswire.com/index.php?module=releases&task=view&releaseID=19235
President Obama Fans Flames of Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rallies

christiannewswire.com/index.php?module=releases&task=view&releaseID=19238
Catholicism’s lesson on love

Catholic Princeton graduate defends Catholic teaching on contraception

nydailynews.com/opinion/catholicism-lessons-love-article-1.1041123
Contraception Mandate and Formal Cooperation

Christendom College Theology Professor Explains Moral Implications for Catholics

zenit.org/article-34467?l=english
Freedom of “Worship”?

The attack on religious liberty is a two front war. One front you know about, the other one you may not have noticed.

Language is the blunt instrument of choice with which the secularist left in this country bludgeons our freedoms. The secularist left has successfully used seemingly slight alterations in language to change the way ordinary people perceive an argument. Most people who pay attention to these things are very much aware of this tactic, as we have seen it so often.

This is nowhere more apparent today than in the President’s repeated use of the phrase “freedom of worship” rather than “freedom of religion.” They prefer and proffer this language change because “freedom of worship” is about something you do for one hour a week. “Freedom of religion” is about how you live in the other 167 hours of the week. The secularist left now in control of our government is content to allow one hour of free “worship” so long as they get to tell you how to live the other 167 hours. Of course, our Constitution does not guarantee us merely freedom of worship but freedom of religion. The first amendment is about all 168 hours a week, which is the whole point. The secularist left hopes that by repeated references to freedom of worship, you will eventually come to accept the diminution of your God-given rights.

ncregister.com/blog/pat-archbold/i-dont-want-freedom-of-religions

 

[Bubba_Switzler]

Contraception Mandate and Formal Cooperation

Christendom College Theology Professor Explains Moral Implications for Catholics

Once again, we are getting hints of a future climb-down which suggests that this is all nothing more than a grand bluff:

I don’t wish to give the hierarchy any encouragement to adopt that kind of a compromise. I do think that they could argue that if worse came to worse, the principle of double effect would apply, and their direct intent would not be that the policy holders use these benefits, but that simply that the direct intent is just to comply with requirements that employees have health insurance. And they can’t do anything about the bad part of that. So I think they could probably sooth everybody’s conscience in that way; but as I say, I don’t wish to encourage that. I think that a very determined, very public effort should be made to denounce this mandate for what it really is. And in that respect, the current debate has been good; I just want to see it sharpened up a little bit.

Ironically, he says, earlier: “Many of us have gotten a little cynical over the years…”

Yeah, no kidding!

 

[jwinch2]

A blog post from a good friend of mine and one of the RCIA team members when I came into the Church.

thisroamincatholic.blogspot.com/?view=classic

Passion Sunday, 2012

To: every Catholic bishop in the United States

Re: the HHS Contraceptive Mandate and
the failure of National Health Insurance

Your Excellency,

What if the U.S. Supreme Court were to fail to strike down the HHS mandate? At that point, some commentators narrow the possible response to only two alternatives for Catholic institutions: either PAY THE FINES or SHUT DOWN. This is wrong. There’s a third alternative— one that uniquely enables us as Catholics to give a true moral witness.

Question: The Federal Government/HHS commands that you pay for contraception, sterilization and abortion. What do you do?

Answer:

 A. Stop offering insurance, and pay the fines.

This answer is INCORRECT. If this is what you choose, then you will hand incremental but certain victory to the Culture of Death.

• The fines will be financially crippling. They will cause you to shrink your institutions, radically scale back your services to those in need, or disband your ministries altogether, and

• The fines will be used to pay for contraception-sterilization-abortion, thus resulting in the Catholic Church funding the Culture of Death anyway. Big fines are just another avenue of collection, and thus of collaboration and submission.

B. Shut down, sell off, or secularize the Church-related institutions (schools, hospitals, or charities) in question.

This answer is ALSO INCORRECT. Once again, if this is what you choose, it amounts to preemptive surrender.

• Catholic institutional self-extinction is exactly what the Culture-of-Death Statists wanted, to begin with. They want the State to have effective control of all human services, caring professions, and charities.

• The shut-down or sell-off option gives the Culture of Death a massive propaganda victory, allowing them to claim that the Catholic Church refuses to help the sick, assist the needy, and teach the next generation.

 C. Refuse to pay any fines OR to shut down, and simply continue our mission — even though the State’s next step will be legal prosecution: the overt political repression of the Church.

THIS IS THE CORRECT ANSWER. This is the glory of the Gospel and all of Salvation History.

We will worship God first and only. We will run our health, education, and social service institutions according to Catholic principles of Moral Law. We will continue to do this even if the HHS, the DOJ and the IRS haul us into court, throw us in jail, and forcibly seize Church-related properties, assets and institutions.

We will not choose either submission or self-extinction. Not willingly. We have to tell the Statists — we have to show them — that we’ll celebrate the Paschal Mystery in prison first, thanking God that we have been found worthy to suffer.

THE WORST OPTION: If you let the U.S. Supreme Court or the U.S. Congress craft a little opt-out for Church-related institutions only, you will be abandoning every person legally resident in the United States who will ultimately be forced to be an accomplice in this sin as payer, provider, or participant.

We cannot win this battle if we merely find some plausible way to finesse an inherently unjust situation.

If you settle; if you fudge; if you signal that in the end you would pay the fines or secularize our institutions — in other words, submit — we are absolutely, positively guaranteed defeat.

I beg you: do not submit. The only tactically sound, logically sound and morally sound response to the HHS and the Culture-of-Death Statists is this: the Works of Mercy and the Cross of Christ.

I pray for you. Please pray for me.

Venerable Pope Pius XII, pray for us.

Mit brennender Sorge,

Julianne Wiley

 

[Incomplete]

I totally agree with this.

 

[JimG]

A blog post from a good friend of mine and one of the RCIA team members when I came into the Church.

thisroamincatholic.blogspot.com/?view=classic

Thanks for the link. That is indeed the correct answer: Refuse to abide by the mandate, refuse to pay fines, refuse to shut down. Just conltinue with the institutional mission, as always.

 

[jwinch2]

Thanks for the link. That is indeed the correct answer: Refuse to abide by the mandate, refuse to pay fines, refuse to shut down. Just conltinue with the institutional mission, as always.

Agreed. The lady who wrote the letter, Julianne, is pretty amazing. She was on our RCIA team and was the person who taught make-up lessons for those who needed them. At first glance it would be easy to dismiss a small 60-something lady who sings off key and has a hard time holding a conversation because her hearing is bad, who is ill which makes her cough her guts out on a regular basis, etc. but it would be a major mistake to do so. She knows the catechism inside and out, has the lives of probably a hundred saints memorized, and knows the history of the Church pretty darn well. The best part is that her faith is absolutely rock solid. If more of us were as good of Catholics as she is, the Church and the world would be a better place. She is a an absolute rock star.

 

[Incomplete]

Agreed. The lady who wrote the letter, Julianne, is pretty amazing. She was on our RCIA team and was the person who taught make-up lessons for those who needed them. At first glance it would be easy to dismiss a small 60-something lady who sings off key and has a hard time holding a conversation because her hearing is bad, who is ill which makes her cough her guts out on a regular basis, etc. but it would be a major mistake to do so. She knows the catechism inside and out, has the lives of probably a hundred saints memorized, and knows the history of the Church pretty darn well. The best part is that her faith is absolutely rock solid. If more of us were as good of Catholics as she is, the Church and the world would be a better place. She is a an absolute rock star.

Not to derail the thread (so everyone else, please ignore this!) but I hope she knows you have that kind of opinion of her. (Well, maybe not the singing off-key stuff! )

 

[jwinch2]

Not to derail the thread (so everyone else, please ignore this!) but I hope she knows you have that kind of opinion of her. (Well, maybe not the singing off-key stuff! )

She does.

 

[Tigg]

Contraception Mandate and Formal Cooperation

Christendom College Theology Professor Explains Moral Implications for Catholics

zenit.org/article-34467?l=english

Okay, here we go…now it should get really interesting. From the article:

Now, the atmosphere of dissent within the clergy – especially the upper clergy – has diminished considerably over the long reign of John Paul II. We don’t have the kind of open dissent anymore that we used to. But still, the Catholic people are not regularly preached to or catechized about this. I don’t know what confessors are doing. I don’t know if these people even confess it anymore because they don’t personally consider it a sin, I don’t know. We do know that use of contraceptives in the Catholic part of the population is close to what it is in the non-Catholic parts of the population. But, 98% is preposterous. Not that many Catholic women are even in their reproductive years; it’s a ridiculous statistic pulled out of a hat. But it does point to a substantial pastoral mess.

And the mess can not get cleaned up until church teaching is explained, clarified and repeated until the truth sets in.

How in the world are disobedient and uncatechized Catholics ever going to understand formal cooperation with evil when most have even forgotten the basics??? They’ll need to start with Creation 101…

 

[Tigg]

A blog post from a good friend of mine and one of the RCIA team members when I came into the Church.

thisroamincatholic.blogspot.com/?view=classic

C. Refuse to pay any fines OR to shut down, and simply continue our mission — even though the State’s next step will be legal prosecution: the overt political repression of the Church.

THIS IS THE CORRECT ANSWER. This is the glory of the Gospel and all of Salvation History.

How awesome is this! And through the repression and suffering, we will do penance for sin…perhaps the Lord will once again show us His Face.

 

[_Abyssinia]

Congresswoman: We’re Not ‘Promoting Sterilization’ of College Girls, We’re Just Making It Free

cnsnews.com/news/article/congresswoman-we-re-not-promoting-sterilization-college-girls-were-just-making-it-free

But it won’t be free - insurance companies are not provide sterilization services for free. Every taxpayer will end up paying for sterilization services.
Virginia AG: If Obama’s Mandate Stands, the Gov’t ‘Can Order You To Do Anything’

cnsnews.com/news/article/virginia-ag-if-obamas-mandate-stands-govt-can-order-you-do-anything
Arizona Legislators Propose Religious Opt-Out from Mandated Birth Control Coverage

liveactionnews.org/politics/arizona-legislators-propose-religious-opt-out-from-mandated-birth-control-coverage/
Contraception isn’t healthcare, it isn’t even helpful: I would know

lifesitenews.com/news/contraception-isnt-healthcare-it-isnt-even-helpful-i-would-know
Not Like the Others: HIV, breast cancer, diabetes…and fertility

catholicvote.org/discuss/index.php?p=28309
Religious Left Kneels in Prayer for Obamacare

christiannewswire.com/index.php?module=releases&task=view&releaseID=19242
Clergy to Meet in Emergency Session During Supreme Court Hearings on Obama Health Care Mandate

The executive committee of the National Clergy Council will meet in emergency session, immediately across the street from the US Supreme Court, on March 26, the first day of oral arguments on health insurance mandates. The panel of church leaders will consider further actions in mobilizing their constituents across the country to resist intrusions on rights of conscience and constitutionally protected religious freedom.

christiannewswire.com/news/384219239.html
Birmingham Joins Nationwide Rally Against the HHS Mandate Friday, March 23rd

christiannewswire.com/news/3678919246.html
HHS Birth Control Mandate Has No Legal Precedent

lifenews.com/2012/03/20/hhs-birth-control-mandate-has-no-legal-precedent