It showed up in a letter from HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to advise the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Office of Migration and Refugee Services (MRS) that it would not receive a grant to continue its services for victims of human trafficking.
Instead the grant was given to a company that is not fully operational and is still hiring despite what is demanded of the contract. Not only that it appears that the people who received the contract are in no way prepared to receive it or in any way provide a smooth transition.
Apparently HHS rules about the benefits of experience and cost effectiveness can be waived. So can rules about being fully operational by a certain date. What can’t be waived is the new, albeit unwritten rule of HHS, the ABC rule – Anybody But Catholics.
We’ve seen this at the state level where Catholics are being excluded from adoption services and the same principals are being applied at the Federal level. A religious test of conformance to accepting homosexuality, contraception, abortion, etc is now a criteria in government. Liberal Christians and secular groups are fine – others need not apply.
In related news:
There was some just criticism of President Bush’s faith based office partly on what would happen with the office in a later administration. President Obama gave the Reductio ad absurdum when he appointed a self-proclaimed “spiritual activist, pastor and lesbian” Rev. Dr. Nancy Wilson to the Faith Based office.
I think none of my readers will be shocked to find out that she has has written what Thomas Peter calls a “600-word screed against Catholic teaching (and Archbishop Dolan in particular)” in the Huffington Post.
The thrust of her letter is that her church does great good and the Catholic Church a slave to evil dogma does great harm. We have a government official writing “Bishop Dolan, hit the restart button on the Gospel.” and –
“…like most threatening letters, [Arch]bishop [Dolan]‘s words actually pulled back the curtain on the hierarchy’s not-so-veiled efforts to impose Catholic dogma on all U.S. citizens.
Though what could you expect from an article headlined “Should DOMA Dogma Be Law?”.
Like most bigots she knows not what she rails against and does not make any distinctions. Technically I believe marriage between a man and a woman is part of the Natural Law and not directly part of divine revelation. Divine revelation including Sacred Scripture and Tradition of course supports the Natural Law but marriage is certainly not a Catholic dogma as she means it. While the Catholic Church is the greatest defender of marriage, this view of marriage is certainly not specific to only the Catholic Church.
But the word “dogma”is red meat for liberals as they dogmatically state that only the Church is dogmatic. As G.K. Chesterton said “There are two kinds of people: those who accept dogmas and know it and those who accept dogmas and don’t know it.” Though the dogma referenced is in the general and not the technical sense.
3 comments
Nothing like getting hit with a big, steaming handful of enlightened, inclusive tolerance and sensitivity.
Today, HHS. Egypt is just aroud the corner.
“A religious test of conformance to accepting homosexuality, contraception, abortion, etc is now a criteria in government.”
Children who are adopted should get adopted into better than average families since they are being separated permanently from their families of origin. So why should their minds be poisoned by intolerance? Is intolerance “in the best interests of the child” or in the best interests of the Catholic church