Notre Dame’s Student Health Plan Will Cover Contraceptives, Abortifacients

[ProVobis]

Why do they call themselves a Catholic university? .

Many said they shouldn’t have even before this, but good luck with changing Notre Dame to a non-Catholic status.

 

[Havard]

The good news is…if God gave us “free will” then we have it and are using it, as planned.

We have the free will to offer these health plans to include all the students of many religions…
…and all students, including the Catholic ones, have the free will to say NO to contraception or having an abortion if they don’t want it.

Why do they call themselves a Catholic university? Does that mean it was originally funded by the Catholic church and all students used to be Catholic? (but not any more?)

.

Ugh, people please settle down with the bashing in this thread for a minute. (Not you, DaddyGirl.)

To answer the question about Notre Dame being Catholic: nearly all private non- parochial Catholic schools are run by boards of trustees. Notre Dame is a private non-parochial school school. This is the same whether you’re talking about Boston College or Franciscan U. of Steubenville. So how are they “Catholic”? Typically, they all were once owned and operated by some religious order or other, and at some point they all converted to private status for a number of reasons. Now, they usually commit to adhering to their founding Catholic mission, and they usually keep a certain number of seats open to members of the clergy, or an associated religious order. As to what authority the Church has over the administration of a particular institution: the local bishop cannot directly interfere in a private institution, but he does have the power to disallow the institution from calling itself Catholic if he believes such is necessary. The other means by which the Church could exert authority is if the member(s) of the religious order involved are given instructions by their Superior.

Now, as to this specific case. 1) The local ordinary is Bishop Rhoades. He has a working relationship with the University administration, and the University has done a lot of things to affirm its Catholic identity, so he’s not going to go for the nuclear option on them over this one issue. 2) My understanding is that the Superiors of the Holy Cross (C.S.C.) have been involved, however it’s unclear that this would change any particular decisions made by the board of trustees as a whole, who are not subject to them.

All in all, Notre Dame is a complicated case study, and the notion that they are simply fallen away and need to be cut off is ludicrously simplistic and defeatist. They just sued the current administration over the birth control mandate, and people want to revoke their Catholic card just because they decided to comply while their appeal is pending? Really?

 

[mkoopman]

The good news is…if God gave us “free will” then we have it and are using it, as planned.

We have the free will to offer these health plans to include all the students of many religions…
…and all students, including the Catholic ones, have the free will to say NO to contraception or having an abortion if they don’t want it.

Why do they call themselves a Catholic university? Does that mean it was originally funded by the Catholic church and all students used to be Catholic? (but not any more?)

.

All students of many religions? How is this relevant except by the Dictatorship of Relevance?

The truth of a matter of intrinsic evil is not determined by the religion to which a person subscribes.

The intrinsic evil in abortifacients and contraceptives is not made to be true because it is taught by the church. Mother church teaches that abortifacients and contraceptive use is disordered to the natural law, the will of God, and the dignity of persons because this is the truth.

Let me try that again, and then you tell me why an institution that calls itself Catholic should provide non-Catholics with an intrinsically evil matter? The provision and participation in the degradation of a child of God who is not availed of the graces of Baptism is a greater evil than to avail such material to one who is a member of the body of Christ. But, in either case, the direct material participation in intrinsic evil is a grave matter and can cause one to be eternally separated from our Lord. This is not a prudential matter.

These matters are not made true by the church teaching them. The Catholic Church teaches that these are matters of serious error because this is the truth. The church is obligated to teach the truth because God is Truth. The enemy is a liar.

 

[mkoopman]

Many said they shouldn’t have even before this, but good luck with changing Notre Dame to a non-Catholic status.

Notre Dame has a non-Catholic status because of the acceptance of the health insurance provisions that provide direct material support of intrinsic evil. When you purchase or have an abortion you excommunicate yourself by the nature of your action. How is the action of Notre Dame not such as to “excommunicate” the institution by the nature ot this action?

 

[ProVobis]

Notre Dame has a non-Catholic status because of the acceptance of the health insurance provisions that provide direct material support of intrinsic evil. When you purchase or have an abortion you excommunicate yourself by the nature of your action. How is the action of Notre Dame not such as to “excommunicate” the institution by the nature ot this action?

Excommunication doesn’t cut you off from being a Catholic. You still have to comply with Canon Law and such, meaning Sunday Mass, etc. It’s incumbent on the individual to resolve the excommunication as quickly as possible. I believe all excommunications (either automatic or not) are individual.

 

[mikekle]

Buying the health insurance isn’t the sin, it would be using the health insurance for intrinsic evil that it may cover.

Jim

Not really, because once you make that payment, they can use that money for anything they like, so in a sense, this would be contributing to something immoral.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Not really, because once you make that payment, they can use that money for anything they like, so in a sense, this would be contributing to something immoral.

You are not culpable for what a private business, in this case insurance companies, do with the money they make if it’s legal.

Just as you’re not culpable for the money the government uses from taxes, to pay for evils.

BTW, the premiums you pay, only pay for administration costs for the most part. Most of the money insurance companies make to cover illnesses, is through tax free investments.

Jim

 

[Havard]

Notre Dame has a non-Catholic status because of the acceptance of the health insurance provisions that provide direct material support of intrinsic evil. When you purchase or have an abortion you excommunicate yourself by the nature of your action. How is the action of Notre Dame not such as to “excommunicate” the institution by the nature ot this action?

This is a large institution, not an individual person. The individual trustees who chose to comply may have excommunicated themselves, but there is widespread dissent within the board and administration of the decision, and further, even the ones who favored compliance have said that they plan on reversing it.

 

[mkoopman]

This is a large institution, not an individual person. The individual trustees who chose to comply may have excommunicated themselves, but there is widespread dissent within the board and administration of the decision, and further, even the ones who favored compliance have said that they plan on reversing it.

I have been considering a reversal myself. Oh - MEA CULPA, you were speaking about a different but closely tied decision. My bad.

I felt it was thread worthy because it clearly addresses contraceptive matters. Besides, it ought to make you laugh out loud. IMHO