Catholics: Changed HHS Mandate Is Old Wine In A New Bottle

Investor's Business Daily ^ | February 8, 2013 | IBD EDITORIALS

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ObamaCare: Faced with a string of court losses to those defending the First Amendment and religious liberty, HHS reworded its contraceptive mandate. But those who were fooled once won’t be fooled again.

While liberal Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, on these pages, and others have declared the new Health and Human Services regulations forcing religious institutions to violate their consciences as some sort of victory for the Catholic Church, any more such victories will surely mean the end of religious liberty in this country.

Certainly the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops does not accept what HHS calls an "accommodation" as a victory. It views freedom of religion as an absolute enshrined in the First Amendment of a Constitution that begins with "We the people." It does not see it as an accommodation to be reached with a bureaucracy guided by the language, "the Secretary shall determine." Current HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, or her successor, could "determine" something different down the road.

"It appears to offer second-class status to our first-class institutions in Catholic health care, Catholic education and Catholic charities. HHS offers what it calls an 'accommodation' rather than accepting the fact that these ministries are integral to our church and worthy of the same exemption as our Catholic churches," said Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The original HHS mandate exempted religious institutions but let the government decide what a religious institution was. A church would be exempt but a charity run by the church would not, for example, if it employed or served people of a different faith or no faith at all. Not much has changed, except for word games, in the revised regulations, in the views of the Catholic bishops.

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Bishops to K1

[ConorMacNessa]

Old wine? Make that Vinegar!



Keep Faith with the Fallen of Benghazi! Let the Obama Regime, for once, tell the Truth!

Fiat Justitia, Ruat Coelum!

Genuflectimus non ad principem sed ad Principem Pacis!

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[Mrs. Don-o]

Well, Cardinal Timothy Dolan got it right this time. I was a little afraid that he would make a deal just to narrowly shield Catholic institutions; instead he said that any employer (any!) and any individual (any!) who has a conscientious objection to this HHS Mandate pile 'o' crap shouldn't be forced to pay for it --- basically, the HHS should just withdraw their stupid mandate, period.

Good. A step in the right direction.

The lawsuits could turn out to be a bit of all right.

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[jafojeffsurf]

Good for the USCCB!

But it was simple really, Freedom does not come with strings. (Rules and Regulations).

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