Posted on 12/28/2011 12:27:05 PM PST by NYer
Cardinal Donald Wuerl, head of the Catholic archdiocese of Washington, D.C. (AP Photo.)
(CNSNews.com) – Cardinal Donald Wuerl, head of the Catholic archdiocese of Washington, D.C., issued a warning last week against the implementation of an Obamacare regulation that would place many Catholic employers in an “untenable position” by requiring all health care plans to cover sterilization and abortion-inducing contraceptives, in violation of religious liberty and particularly Catholic moral teaching.
His warning coincided with a full-page ad by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which said the regulation, set to start on Aug. 1, 2012, could “severely curtail” Catholic health care providers.
Catholic institutions account for 12.7 percent of the nation’s hospitals, according to the 2009 American Hospital Association Annual Survey, with more than 5.6 million patients admitted to Catholic hospitals in a one-year period. An additional 1,400 long-term care and other Catholic health facilities are present in all 50 states, according to the Catholic Health Association of the United States. Also, there are about 70 million Catholics in the United States.
Wuerl, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Doctrine, sent out an e-mail action alert on Dec. 22 calling the Obamacare regulation “an issue of fundamental, national importance,” pitting Catholic religious beliefs against the Obama administration’s regulation.
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden react to cheers as they arrive in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, March 23, 2010, for the signing ceremony for the health care bill. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
The proposed “preventive services” mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires all health plans in the United States to cover without co-pay all FDA-approved contraception methods and contraceptive counseling, which include abortifacients and sterilization.
Developed by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the regulation would force health care providers to make available “emergency contraceptives,” such as ulipristal acetate (ella) and Plan B, which can act as abortifacients by preventing an embryo from implanting on the uterine wall. The mandate is set to take effect on Aug. 1, 2012.
“Until now, federal law has never prevented Catholic institutions, such as the Archdiocese of Washington, from providing for the needs of their employees with a health plan that is consistent with Catholic moral teachings,” wrote Wuerl, in his Dec. 22 e-mail.
“However, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is currently considering adopting regulations that would threaten that freedom,” he said.
The same day, the USCCB placed an ad in the New York Times and Washington Post with the heading, “Support Access to Health Care? Protect Conscience Rights,” which called upon Congress and the Obama administration to change the proposed regulation. More than 400 Catholic organizations nationwide signed onto the ad.
Catholics attending Mass. (AP Photo.)
“As written, the rule will force Catholic organizations that play a vital role in providing health care and other needed services either to violate their conscience or severely curtail those services,” wrote the USCCB in the ad. “This would harm both religious freedom and access to health care.”
“The HHS mandate puts many faith-based organizations and individuals in an untenable position,” reads the ad. “But it also harms society as a whole, by undermining a long American tradition of respect for religious liberty and freedom of conscience. In a pluralistic society, our health care system should respect the religious and ethical convictions of all.”
“We ask Congress, the Administration, and our fellow Americans to acknowledge this truth and work with us to reform the law accordingly,” the ad concluded.
Cardinal Wuerl said the regulation forces Catholic employers to “choose between violating the law and violating their conscience,” calling it an “unprecedented assault on religious liberty.”
“I encourage Catholics and others of good will to join the bishops,” he added. “No freedom is more precious and deserving of vigilance than this.”
Pope Benedict XVI. (AP Photo.)
Although the regulation includes a “religious employer” exemption, due to its narrowness it will not apply to Catholic schools, hospitals or charitable organizations. Only institutions with “the inculcation of religious values as its purpose,” or that primarily employs or serves persons who share its religious tenets, and is organized under the specific provision in the tax code that applies to churches will be exempt.
In a letter to the chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-Pa.), Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said, “a failure to respect conscience rights poses a serious threat to the goal we share of expanding access to health care.” Pitts held a hearing on Nov. 2 entitled, "Do New Health Law Mandates Threaten Conscience of Rights and Access to Care?"
“For under the new HHS mandate,” DiNardo continued, “Catholic organizations committed to their moral and religious teaching will have no choice but to stop providing health care and other services to the needy who are not Catholic, or stop providing health coverage to their own employees.”
In his letter, DiNardo offered his support for the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (H.R 1179 and S. 1467), which would permit a health plan to decline coverage of specific items and services that are contrary to religious beliefs of the issuer or recipient.
In September, Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to rescind the regulation, saying the mandate “poses a serious threat to our constitutionally protected religious freedoms.”
“While there is an exemption within the mandate, it doesn’t go far enough, forcing religious employers to either provide health insurance coverage that is inimical to their basic religious beliefs; to stop providing coverage to their employees; or, in some cases, to close their doors to the communities they serve. None of these outcomes is acceptable, and I will continue to fight to have this mandate rescinded,” Kelly wrote.
Without action by Congress or the administration the preventative services mandate will go into effect next year.
Catholic Ping
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Should read:
“Catholics to fire Obama, Repeal Obamacare!”
Ultimately the solution may be for the Church to divest herself of all health care and other social services and to drop health insurance coverage for all employees. Leave it all to the government. The Peace and Justice crowd will be pleased.
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The Catholic Church should abandon any wishful thinking that the 0bammunists can be persuaded to change. 0bama is a communist revolutionary who doesn’t care if millions die or if Christianity is eliminated. The Church should concentrate on getting its flock to vote against Demonrats.
Barack Hussein Obama in action against Christian churches.
Just one more reason this lying Muslim needs to be defeated in 2012.
U.S. Catholic Bishops: Cardinal Wuerl: Obamacare Rule Puts Catholic Employers in ‘Untenable Position,’ May ‘Severely Curtail’ Health Care Services
Unless each and every bishop has agreed to this, no one person can speak for all the bishops, certainly not the chair of a USCCB committee.
From the Code of Canon Law:
Can. 455 §1. A conference of bishops can only issue general decrees in cases where universal law has prescribed it or a special mandate of the Apostolic See has established it either motu proprio or at the request of the conference itself.
§2. The decrees mentioned in §1, in order to be enacted validly in a plenary meeting, must be passed by at least a two thirds vote of the prelates who belong to the conference and possess a deliberative vote. They do not obtain binding force unless they have been legitimately promulgated after having been reviewed by the Apostolic See.
§3. The conference of bishops itself determines the manner of promulgation and the time when the decrees take effect.
§4. In cases in which neither universal law nor a special mandate of the Apostolic See has granted the power mentioned in §1 to a conference of bishops, the competence of each diocesan bishop remains intact, nor is a conference or its president able to act in the name of all the bishops unless each and every bishop has given consent.
From Motu Proprio Apostolos Suos 22:
Taking into account that the authentic magisterium of the Bishops, namely what they teach insofar as they are invested with the authority of Christ, must always be in communion with the Head of the College and its members,(83) when the doctrinal declarations of Episcopal Conferences are approved unanimously, they may certainly be issued in the name of the Conferences themselves, and the faithful are obliged to adhere with a sense of religious respect to that authentic magisterium of their own Bishops. However, if this unanimity is lacking, a majority alone of the Bishops of a Conference cannot issue a declaration as authentic teaching of the Conference to which all the faithful of the territory would have to adhere, unless it obtains the recognitio of the Apostolic See, which will not give it if the majority requesting it is not substantial. The intervention of the Apostolic See is analogous to that required by the law in order for the Episcopal Conference to issue general decrees.(84) The recognitio of the Holy See serves furthermore to guarantee that, in dealing with new questions posed by the accelerated social and cultural changes characteristic of present times, the doctrinal response will favour communion and not harm it, and will rather prepare an eventual intervention of the universal magisterium.
I basically agree with what Cardinal Wuerl stated, but he stated it on behalf of himself. Unless each and every bishop concurred with the statement, he is not competent to issue it on behalf of the bishops' conference.
Not only does Obama”care” violate our FREEDOM OF RELIGION, it violates our Freedom of Choice, both of which are protected by the US Constitution.
Also, Obama”care” is designed to destroy all competition, and therefore violates our Anti-Trust Laws.
BTW, note that His High Poo-Bahness signed this anti-religion bill into law on Christmas Eve, 2009. Obama is truly an arrogant piece of work.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
Or the government could follow the Constitution
In Washington D.C. as a matter of fact but just for the record, the deal was that either the Catholics start adopting kids into queer "families" or lose federal dollars.
These people need to cry me a river and S T F U! ! ! !
Most of these so called “religious” groups all avdocated for passage of obamacare.
I’m sick and tired of these religious groups crying about issues after the fact claiming they were misled. F Them!!!!
That is my point, those are not "Federal dollars", they are American taxpayer dollars. The government have horned into an increasing number of areas, and then offer to return some of our own money if we follow their rules, which are anti-Christian rules.
If Catholic bishops play with Liberation Theology snakes they should expect to get bitten.
By the way, should that be Donald “Cardinal” Wuerl?
How do you fight/respond to insane, irrational behavior:
Options:
Ignore them.
Take them to court.
Gather public opinion against them
Vote them out of office.
Excommunicate them.
Remove them from office.
Take away their power.
Stand up to them like Gandhi did.
Stop paying taxes and cut the budget so that they have no money.
Ask God for his help and for justice.
Pray for them that they may see the Light and the Truth.
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Catholic Spine is growing, Alleluia!
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