Yes they are being pressured with the good old “do it or go out of business” threats. IMHO I think we should take their bluff and just stop providing services to non-Catholics and see what happens. When we get the nerve to follow what the Church teaches then things will start to turn around.Nobody is being pressured to do anything. The law doesn’t mandate that staff must violate their religious beliefs. Nobody is being required to use birth control. It is the individual employees that make the decision to use birth control, not Catholic Charities.
Nohome
I can see why you might say that, but from my perspective, it is odd to say, “Oh, you are starving. Are you Catholic? No? Well, I won’t help you.”This is why IMHO they should only hire Catholics and provide services to Catholics. Otherwise I think they should change their name and become secular in name also. They don’t follow Catholic teaching in many cases anyway.
They could do this or they could operate out of the Church, I mean offices in a church and operated by ordained staff. It wouldn’t even matter if the clients were not Catholic.This is why IMHO they should only hire Catholics and provide services to Catholics. Otherwise I think they should change their name and become secular in name also. They don’t follow Catholic teaching in many cases anyway.
Wishful thinking at best. You can’t even get Catholics to comply with Church teachings.Yes they are being pressured with the good old “do it or go out of business” threats. IMHO I think we should take their bluff and just stop providing services to non-Catholics and see what happens. When we get the nerve to follow what the Church teaches then things will start to turn around.
Morals do count and so does the teaching of our Faith. We need to be faithful in what we teach and practice.
Amen and amen!The National Catholic Register just put out an article on this, criticizing Church leaders for not even fighting some of this. This includes requiring Catholic hospitals to provide abortion producing drugs to rape victims in Catholic hospitals and requiring contraceptvie health coverage by Catholic organizations in New York and California. Catholics are being pressured under force of law to violate their religious beliefs, and I think that it will become increasingly obvious that it is necessary not to conform to such laws. After all, the Church is the kingdom of God on earth. Whether this would mean people going to jail or if it is possible to use alternatives, such as dropping employee health coverage altogether, for example, we will have to see. Catholics in such countries as China, communist Ukrane, and of course ancient Rome refused to obey laws violating their religion, and it may well be necessary to pay the price of doing this. No one like to suffer, but that may be the price of loving and obeying God.
Correct. In the California Catholic Charities case, the court ruled that Charities did not qualify for the religius exemption because evidence showed 1) Most of its employees were not Catholic, 2) Most of its clients were not Catholic, and 3) Catholic doctrine was not an integral part of the service provided to clients. That seems reasonable.The law in question does allow an exception for a fully Catholic organization that only employs Catholics, etc. Catholic Charities, however, employs and serves non-Catholics, so they don’t fall under the exemption that is built into this particular law, afaik. So what is happening appears to be a dispute about what is and is not a Catholic organization.
I wonder what Catholic Charities is going to do?
That’s what Catholic Charities of Massachusetts did regarding placing kids for adoption in gay homes.They just got out of the adoption business. Nothing much happened. Other agencies simply absorbed the extra kids and placed them in both straight and gay homes.Yes they are being pressured with the good old “do it or go out of business” threats. IMHO I think we should take their bluff and just stop providing services to non-Catholics and see what happens. When we get the nerve to follow what the Church teaches then things will start to turn around.
Morals do count and so does the teaching of our Faith. We need to be faithful in what we teach and practice.
True. Yet they stood their ground within the Faith and in the opinions od many that is what counts. We may not do evil to do good.That’s what Catholic Charities of Massachusetts did regarding placing kids for adoption in gay homes.They just got out of the adoption business. Nothing much happened. Other agencies simply absorbed the extra kids and placed them in both straight and gay homes.