The Obama administration strategy is consistently to confuse people. That is how the bill we had to pass to find out what was in it came to be law.
First the president, using Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi well, insisted the Obama health-care revolution had nothing to do with abortion. Ultimately, as you know, they got Bart Stupak and other pro-life Democrats to buy into his health-care monstrosity by pretending that an executive order would fix the problem it had been insisting for months the bill didn’t have. Today he is consistent in that strategy.
The head of Democrats for Life was just on MSNBC and was already warm to the “accommodation” on the HHS mandate. She, of course, was also among those who helped put Obamacare over the top. Sr. Carol Keehan, who played a key role getting the bill passed, is back in the Obama fold, “pleased” with the “accommodation.” She has blessed the faux compromise — which White House surrogates and allies are making clear is no retreat — right alongside Planned Parenthood, which was instrumental in its conception.
There will be a lot of confusion. But don’t be confused, and don’t let people around you be confused. These last days have been instructive. As Rick Santorum just said: This is “about government control of your lives and it’s got to stop.” As Cardinal Wuerl put it this morning: This is about “basic freedom.” As Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez said the other day in a column: This new mandate moves us closer to what Pope Benedict XVI warned against in his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (“God is Love”): “The state which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself . . [is]. a state which regulates and controls everything.”
Religious liberty is not an “accommodation.” This fight is not over today. It has only just begun.
Excuse me, but exactly how is your religious liberty being restricted. Neither you nor any other Catholic is mandated to use contraceptives. The Church is free to continue rail against use of contraceptives (not that many Catholics are listening), and you are free to believe that contraceptives are immoral and will send users to Hell. Nothing is restricting this in the least. Under existing federal and various state laws Church organizations have had to provide include contraception in insurance policies that it provides and little was said. Now, you argue that it is the lack of co-pays that suddenly creates a First Amendment issue. But, the proposed solutions are not to just require co-pays but to eliminate any require that the policies provide access to contraceptives at all. In other words, the elimination of co-pays is just an excuse for the right-wing outrage machine to rev up its engines.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseReligious liberty is being restricted in that despite their personal religious beliefs and those of their church individuals are being required to provide a product that is anathema to them.
Would you require a Kosher butcher to sell pork?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOver at the Anchoress, I predicted last night that Obama would throw a bone to Sister Carol "Half my Brain is a Clinking Cash Register" and get her back on board. Guess I was right.
The Catholic Hospitals make a lot of money, and the religious orders which run them profit handsomely. They've strayed from basic tenets of Catholic teaching for years. As the saying goes, just follow the money. By the way, the Catholic Hospital Association members have enthusiastically endorsed Obamacare because it is letting them amass control over doctors and patients. The idea of Obamacare is to let the hospitals control medical care...and the government will control the hospitals.
We haven't yet seen the worst of Obamacare.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe Bishops should just excommunicate Keehan and make their lives easier. Keehan is an Obama shill and Democrat firster. She shouldn't be at the head of anything Catholic. It was no surprise that she would praise an Obama "compromise".
Of course, listening to the top of the hour news news on Chicago radio, they said that some Catholic leaders are welcoming the Obama compromise and are very pleased. What Catholic "leader" did they name? Carol Keehan; she's the "leader" they named. Way to go sister.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseConservatives should.stop calling this the HHS mandate, and start calling it the "Bart Stupak mandate." It was his cave on his purported pro life views that made this rule (and more to come) inevitable.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThat's why I'm calling this the "Stupak Mandate"....all in favor, say Aye!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhen will the professional pro-life movement awake from its self-delusion. Are there really any "Democrats for Life" in public life who'll hold fast? Not even "movement" D's seem to want to stand in the way of Big Brother any longer.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo now the governemnt is going to order a company to provide something for free! That is an unjust taking if there ever was one, otherwise known as stealing. This is no improvement. Plus it is as sham, the company will pass the bill on to its subscribers. Either way, it is wrong.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt is time for the "Catholic" Healthcare Assn to be ordered to take the name "Catholic" from its title.
The only Catholic leader I’ve heard of who supports this is Sister Carol Keehan. Her shilling for Obama is not unnoticed. She needs to go. It is time to demand that she step down from the Catholic Hospital Association. First, she ignored the Bishop’s concern on Obamacare and that it would force tax payers to pay for abortion, and now this. You can’t work with this sister who is so beholden to the Democrat Party.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse30 Pieces of Silver Keehan represents a charity that gets money from the State. Catholic that get funding from the state are State Charities and put crucifix on it. They are servants of Caesar andrender accordingly.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt is no different for Jewish charities.
Yes of course she needs to go. Any woman who would challenge the Bishops must go. Isn't that they way of the Catholic Church? No woman can challenge the male hierarchy.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseKLo, please call Archbishop Dolan asap. He seems more confused than anyone: "a good first step" is what he said today, "in the right direction."
This is the 2nd consecutive time Dolan has been duped, and he needs to grow a spine or shut up.
The Catholic hierarchy has put us on this branch and Obama is now prepared to saw it off, abetted by these cowardly priests and bishops. And, of course, Sister Keenan or whatever her name is, closing ranks with the abortion industry and giving Obama all the political cover he needs.
The Church must categorically and publicly denounce this "accommodation," or this is the worst and possibly final betrayal of our faith.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe mandate has nothing to do with women's health care or access to the services mandated. All of the services mandated can be obtained today and could be obtained before Obamacare was passed. This mandate is designed to force employers to pay for services they are religiously opposed to for the benefit of persons who want those services for free. This is tantamont to forcing a conscientious objector to serve in an infantry unit.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHey hey, ho ho, Sister Keehan's got to go!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSr. Carol Keehan, France, 1943:
"I'm very pleased with the agreement we've reached with the German and Vichy authorities who have graciously accomodated our request not to directly participate in the transportation of French Jews to the East.”
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseK-Lo,
I wish you'd be constently tougher on the Church. They are going to cave in to today's compromise. Catholic institutions have been collaborators of the welfare state since its beginning. I think that this might be due to the Church having been an official church in so many countries for so many centuries.
The Church was given the chance, in America, of fulfilling Christ's mission free of the burden of being entwined with the State. Through accepting government money in its hospitals, charities, and universities, it has largely failed to do so.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs Rick Santorum just said: This is “about government control of your lives and it’s got to stop.”
Abandoning attempts at federal marriage amendments and anti-abortion laws would be a step in the right direction here.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCalling Fr. Jenkins. The Keehan-Dionne Chapter of "Catholic" Shills for Obama needs your support!
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@mwl8787 Respect for the office and the man is still due. Pray. Meanwhile, the bishops say this:
"...we note at the outset that the lack of clear protection for key stakeholders--for self-insured religious employers; for religious and secular for-profit employers; for secular non-profit employers; for religious insurers; and for individuals--is unacceptable and must be corrected. And in the case where the employee and insurer agree to add the objectionable coverage, that coverage is still provided as a part of the objecting employer's plan, financed in the same way as the rest of the coverage offered by the objecting employer. This, too, raises serious moral concerns.
We just received information about this proposal for the first time this morning; we were not consulted in advance. Some information we have is in writing and some is oral. We will, of course, continue to press for the greatest conscience protection we can secure from the Executive Branch. But stepping away from the particulars, we note that today's proposal continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions, and to threaten government coercion of religious people and groups to violate their most deeply held convictions. In a nation dedicated to religious liberty as its first and founding principle, we should not be limited to negotiating within these parameters. The only complete solution to this religious liberty problem is for HHS to rescind the mandate of these objectionable services.
We will therefore continue--with no less vigor, no less sense of urgency--our efforts to correct this problem through the other two branches of government. For example, we renew our call on Congress to pass, and the Administration to sign, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act. And we renew our call to the Catholic faithful, and to all our fellow Americans, to join together in this effort to protect religious liberty and freedom of conscience for all. "
SOURCE U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
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