Punditry

Much of the HHS mandate debate has been sidetracked on the issue of contraceptive use by Catholics. As if less-than-faithful Catholics invalidate the rights of faithful Catholics.  The 98% figure bandied about by the Obama Administration and their excusers has been pretty well debunked, notably by statistician and SF writer Mike Flynn.

Regardless the percentage of Catholics who either use contraceptives or have a contraceptive attitude seems to be  rather high and more than likely involving a majority of Catholics.

While the issue of contraception and sterilization is tangental to the issue of the HHS mandate and its trampling of religious freedom, it is not tangental to the life of the Church.

The attack on conscience in regards to contraception and sterilization did not originate from the Obama Administration.  The attack came from within the Church in the confessional and elsewhere.  Consciences were deadened by those who misrepresented the Church’s teaching and promoted the idea of an individualist conscience divorced from being informed by the Church.  It was not that the majority of Catholics who dissent on contraception and sterilization  had thoroughly looked at what the Church taught and then rejected it. Rationalization working from sin to excusing of the sin is nothing new and these difficulties are magnified in the sphere of human sexuality.  It is certainly a great evil that those who sought advice about this were often lied to.

One of the things you often hear Catholics complain about is about the lack of teaching in homilies concerning contraception.  This is often said as if homilies that addressed this would have fixed the problem.  You will also hear complaints about the same thing in regards to bishops, Catholics schools, etc. There is certainly some truth to the complaint and a lot of blame to go around.

Lacking a time machine there is little use in critiquing the past  other than evaluating failure with a goal correcting the problem. We must understand this history, but not dwell in it.  The fact is the current situation involves a lot of dissent on the subject and the contraceptive attitude is a disaster for families and thus the society.  The fact that such a large number of Catholics are in objective sin and receiving Communion is a horrible fact that must be more than just lamented.

The pro-life battle has in some ways been much easier and one where a growing number of people are coming to the truth of abortion.  The same problems involving teaching about contraception and sterilization  were also true for abortion as it was largely ignored from the parish to the diocese to the bishop’s conference.  But the natural law understanding of what abortion truly is is able to be more easier understood and passed on.  Plus reinforcement from science and the ultrasound makes the argument against abortion stronger.

While there is also the natural law argument against contraception and sterilization it is much more difficult to understand and there are a lot of factors for this cultural and otherwise. With marriage under attack from so many quarters it is easy to see why the two ends of marriage also get lost in the shuffle.  The denial of final ends contributes to this confusion. But even the consequences of the embrace of contraception can be noted in a business journal such as the article Time To Admit It: The Church Has Always Been Right On Birth Control.

Right now fertility is seen as something to be controlled or fixed. Like so many things problems are to be solved with either a pill or surgery.  Children are seen as the negative weight on a cost/benefit scale.  A family is seen as a zero-sum game where an increase of children throw the equation out of balance. Pleasure and materialism is to be maximized and children are seen as a threat to this. The contraceptive culture only reinforces this as time goes on.

The real question is what can be done about the current situation and how can we teach Catholics and thus the world the truth of the Church’s teaching?

I’m only  just another pundit blogger and I don’t pretend to have all the answers about this, or any real answers other than a general direction of what must be done.

Just introducing contraception as a topic in homilies is not going to change things.  The USCCB issuing another document about contraception is not going to change things.  They issued a very good document on the subject a couple of years ago, but very few Catholics actually read these documents.  There has to be a more fundamental change that is not going to happen overnight.  Since this is a topic that is not easy to grasp and one which the culture constantly contradicts we as Catholics must do everything we can to teach the truth at every level.  At the parish, RCIA, every level of Catholic schools, and most importantly individual Catholics living the faith.  Faithful Catholics must be ambassadors for the Culture of Life providing a sign of contradiction. Sure the self-appointed fertility police will continue to smirk and ask parents “don’t you know what causes that” when they see more than the socially allowed family size.  Future Catholic educators and others who teach and live the truth will be grown from such families.

The U.S. Bishops have been very good in reaction to the fallout from the HHS mandate.  I hope they also see this as an opportunity to evaluate what can be done in education Catholics and the culture about contraception and sterilization  and really about what marriage is as everything else flows from it.  The term “A teachable moment’ is often thrown about as a cliche.  But even a cliche can point to the truth in which it arose.  I hope this does become a teachable moment and that we use our talents to take advantage of it to live and teach the truth of the beauty of the Natural Law and Church teaching.  For many the issue of contraception has become  a settled issue with little reflection.

This debate is going to awaken some consciences to ask “why does the Church oppose contraception and sterilization?” Part of my Lenten discipline this year will be to fast and pray for those individuals. The prayer of a righteous man avails much, well in my case I just hope God amplifies my meager efforts.

Last night on Sunday Night Prime with Father Benedict Groeschel on EWTN he had Archbishop Dolan on as a guest and of course they talked about the lack of exceptions for religious institutions with the Health and Inhuman Services mandate.

One interesting piece of information is that Archbishop Dolan talked about his meeting with the President in November of 2011 after the initial ruling by HHS.  He said he was given three assurances that the exemption would be opened up and specifically President Obama said that protecting the consciences of religious people was his “highest duty.”  The Archbishop walked out of that meeting expecting a change.

So did President Obama lie to Archbishop Dolan’s face? Probably not and at the time I would guess he was considering expanding the exemption to some degree.  Considering just how pro-abortion his administration is they were not going to let the President go “wobbly” on this.  Though if the President is as Machiavellian as some people would assert, then telling an Archbishop the opposite of the truth stopped any opposition that could have been built up prior to the Feb 2012 announcement.

When the President called Archbishop Dolan the news that they were not changing a thing the Archbishop’s reaction was of course to ask him why he had flip-flopped on this.  The Archbishop asked rhetorically “Do we have to get permission to follow are faith?”

This reminds me of the meetings between the New York bishop’s conference and state politicians about the then upcoming same-sex marriage laws and how they were given assurances that it would not pass.

There is a reason we pray “Put no trust in princes.”

Al Kresta in reaction to the press conference Friday from the President said “a press conference is not a policy.” Ed Haislmaier & Jennifer A. Marshall wrting in the National Review Online relate what actually happened Friday.

The bottom line is this: “Accordingly, the amendment to the interim final rule with comment period amending 45 CFR 147.130(a)(1)(iv) which was published in the Federal Register at 76 FR 46621-46626 on August 3, 2011, is adopted as a final rule without change.” [Emphasis added.]

Translation: The Obama administration Friday afternoon put into federal law the very regulation that drew objections from almost 200 Catholic bishops, some 50 religiously affiliated colleges and universities, 65 North American bishops of Orthodox churches, numerous other Jewish, Evangelical and Lutheran leaders, and even some liberals — and without changing so much as a comma.

Or in other words “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from Obamacare, till all be fulfilled.”  Thus sayeth the god-King.

From this point forward, any changes to this regulation have to go through the formal regulatory process all over again.

The administration admits as much in the preamble to these regulations when it states that Treasury, Labor, and HHS “plan to initiate a rulemaking to require issuers to offer insurance without contraception coverage to such an employer (or plan sponsor) and simultaneously to offer contraceptive coverage directly to the employer’s plan participants (and their beneficiaries) who desire it, with no cost-sharing. Under this approach, the Departments will also require that, in this circumstance, there be no charge for the contraceptive coverage.”

Thus, instead of delaying final regulations until they could be revised to reflect the prospective changes President Obama outlined Friday, the administration went ahead and locked into regulation its original position, accompanied by a (non-binding) promise to revisit the issue.

The President famously  promised an “aggressive” diplomatic drive and face-to-face talks with Iran’s leaders  as a way to resolve conflicts.  Of course actually talking with U.S. bishops prior to his supposed “compromised” that was severely compromised was not required.  Maybe if the USCCB develops a nuclear weapons program they would get some more serious consideration.

How this will all end is hard tell at this point.  Right now there is a game of chicken being played between the Obama Administration and Catholics (and well-wishers from other faiths and groups).  Neither have blinked yet and are still racing towards the other.   I see no evidence in the Presidents character for him to back down or admit any mistake – a common politician’s failing.

Despite renewed statements of concern by Catholic leaders, the Obama administration is done negotiating and will finalize its plan requiring insurance companies to provide free contraception to women working and studying at religious institutions, President Obama’s chief of staff said Sunday.

Jacob Lew told “Fox News Sunday” that the compromise offered last week to address objections by the Catholic Church is clear and consistent with the president’s “very deep belief that a woman has a right to all forms of preventive health care, including contraception.”

“We have set out our policy,” Lew said. “We are going to finalize it in the final rules, but I think what the president announced on Friday is a balanced approach that meets the concerns raised both in terms of access to health care and in terms of protecting religious liberties, and we think that’s the right approach.” [Via Creative Minority Report]

So the President is an allowed a “very deep belief” and Catholics are not allowed a deeply held conviction, in fact teaching,  backed up by the whole history of the Church extending back to the book of Genesis.  Pro-choice once again means choice for me, but not for you.

It is also illustrative in how they form the argument as a women’s health issue.  What they are actually advocating for is both contraception and sterilization coverage for both men and women.  Yet almost all the arguments made take up the “women’s health” issue.  This is of course the pregnancy-as-discease focus where men are just carriers of the disease and women the victims.  They are not only calling this a right, but including in that right the demand that employers contribute to it agains their own consciences.  More evidence of the erosion of rights where everything is a right except what is in the Bill of Rights.  Rights that are wrong would be delicious irony if it wasn’t so bile-tasting going down.

In my view I believe that massive pressure must be maintained against the Obama Administration regarding this, but the President and his administration is not going to resolve this in a satisfactory way.  Most likely legislation such as the “Respect for Rights of Conscience Act” (HR 1179/S. 1467)” bill is what will be required. Quite a sad commentary that we need legislation  for something explicitly stated in the Constitution. So this is where most of the effort should be placed to get this through the Congress and then the Senate.  The Congress part should be rather easy, less so the Senate where of course it will be framed by the media as anything but a religious rights issue.

The other path to overturning this is overturning the Obama Administration by voting him out of office.  I wish this was as sure a deal as so many commentators say it is, but I have grown wise enough through bitter disappointment to no longer ever assert with any confidence such an outcome.  Too many times I thought no way could some politician get reelected only to see them reelected.

As Mark Shea writes “Resist the Tyrant”.

*Appropriately received this image in an email today.

I can’t believe how tone death the White House is. I had signed the petition at the White House site regarding the HHS mandate. Today I got an email from By Cecilia Muñoz, Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council assuring me how great the compromise is.

This is what I can hardly believe. They actually included statements from Planned Parenthood and NARAL about how great the compromise was. I never use profanity on my blog, but I am sorely tempted here. Do they understand nothing? Do they truly think people that signed this petition would be satisfied with statements from those groups? Talk about living in a bubble.

Oh and note to the Catholic Health Association when they use your statement along with Planned Parenthood and NARAL you really need to rethink what you are doing. Shame on them for promoting Obamacare in the first place and double shame to give the compromise any backing whatsoever.

Jimmy Akin writes that the supposed compromise from President Obama is even more evil.

The new policy mandates that insurance companies offer free sterilization, contraception, and abortion-causing drugs as part of their policies. According to President Obama himself:

Under the rule, women will still have access to free preventive care that includes contraceptive services — no matter where they work. So that core principle remains. But if a woman’s employer is a charity or a hospital that has a religious objection to providing contraceptive services as part of their health plan, the insurance company — not the hospital, not the charity — will be required to reach out and offer the woman contraceptive care free of charge, without co-pays and without hassles.

Got that?

That’s worse than before.

Under the previous evil policy if you worked for an exempt organization—say, a church—then your employer could offer you an insurance plan that did not include sterilization, contraception, and abortion drugs.

Now there will be no such plans.

It is hard not to infer bad will on the part of the President. This is a Potemkin Village of a compromise, one that if you actually look at it you realize that there is nothing there. Worse it is a masquerade hiding something even worse than the original HHS mandate.

Plus you really have to wonder what magical land of economic theories he believes in. Though I guess he is economically consistent since none of his economic ideas are part of reality. I doubt that there is even a multi-verse where money is not fungible or that businesses take a economic hit and don’t pass it along to the consumer in some way.

By the logic of his economic ideas we could end hunger by having grocery stores simply provide free food.

This is also very insulting that he thinks we are so stupid that an economic gimmick is going to salve our consciences. The only thing they care about is for people to get contraception and sterilization at a perceived lower cost and if freedom of religion gets trampled along the way, oh well.

Back to Jimmy Akin:

The idea that it will be insurance companies that pay for such services is just a shell game. Where are insurance companies going to get the money to pay for these services? They aren’t the Federal Reserve. They aren’t empowered to create money out of nothing the way the Federal Reserve is.
If they’re going to pay doctors, nurses, and pharmacists to provide these things then they are going to pay for them with money they got from someone else.

Who else?

Why! The very same churches, church-related organizations, and individuals who are otherwise paying.

The USCCB has issued a statement that is very diplomatic in terms. Some thing this is a cave, but I trust Archbishop Dolan much more that that. Sure I would have liked a statement that was less diplomatic and I certainly would not call this a “first step in the right direction.” It is a first step, but a first step backwards since the compromise is even worse. A generous interpretation is to see the administration working towards a compromise, but I think seriously they only want a pretense of a compromise.

This probably will provide them with enough cover and I would be very surprised if the liberal Catholics who objected to the mandate would now withdraw their objection. I wish my skepticism to be proven wrong here.

This simply can’t not stand and must be fought tooth and nail and prayer and fasting.

Update: Their is now a more complete and much better statement from the USCCB. Via Te Deum laudamus! They say “Rescission of mandate only complete solution”, I would go farther and say repealing of Obmacare is the only complete solution since this it was caused such government overreach in the first place. We need to go farther than providing religious groups and an exemption, but allow every American employer to follow the dictates of his conscience.

Ladies and gentlemen, I feel your pain. Ever since Santorum was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1994, I have regarded him as a particularly off-putting character. But the strength of the feelings that Santorum evokes pretty much explains why the former Pennsylvania senator, even at this late stage, could put a serious fright into Mitt Romney, and, just conceivably, could take him down.

To educated liberals of almost any description, Santorum is an abomination. It’s not just that he’s a pro-life, anti-gay, anti-contraception Roman Catholic of the most retrogressive and diehard Opus Dei variety. It’s his entire persona. With his seven kids, his Jaycee fashion code, his nineteen-seventies colonial MacMansion in northern Virginia, his irony bypass, he seems to delight in outraging self-styled urban sophisticates: the sort of folks who buy organic milk, watch The Daily Show, and read the New York Times (and The New Yorker, of course). [Source]

First off I am surprised he used the term “educated liberals”, doesn’t that go without saying for them?

Wow, if you wanted a paragraph example to showcase blatant anti-Catholicsm this is an appropriately vile example. Traits of abomination include being a faithful Catholic and actually having more than one or two children. Understanding the reality of the natural law and homosexual acts of course makes you “anti-gay” and beyond the pale. Strangely abomination even includes I guess wearing sweater vests which I guess is s a crime agains hipsterism.

That he uses the word abomination is also indicative. An abomination is something that causes extreme disgust or hatred and this article is full of hatred. Proving once again Catholics are not one of the protected groups when it comes to so-called hate crimes. Tweet something that outrages homosexual activists during the Super Bowl and you are suspended, write some nauseatingly anti-Catholic piece and you will have no such worries.

But of course a faithful Catholic are an abomination for modern liberals. The Church’s teaching on marriage and every teaching that flows from it such as its opposition to divorce, contraception, homosexual acts drives them crazy. That the Church’s teaching has inner consistency across the board is also greatly annoying to them since what they advocate in inconsistent at every level. For the modern liberal you are allowed to be Catholic just as long as you dissent where they want you to consent. They never call our liberal Catholics for hypocrisy and actually belonging to a Church whose teaching they hate, but yet are outraged at Catholics who actually follow Jesus and his Church.

Faithful Catholics are an abomination because they refuse to live in an Obama Nation of moral relativism and consignment of their consciences to a political correct filter where you can only object to what they allow you to object to.

Now I have my problems with Sen. Santorum in the areas he is not a faithful Catholic such as his support of waterboarding, but articles like this are growing as they see his outside chance being slightly less an outside chance. If Sen. Santorum actually gets the nomination or wins more primaries we will see a media blitz against him that will surpass what we saw done with Sarah Palin. How long till Andrew Sullivan starts questioning whose the real mother of their youngest child. Another liberal abomination is actually allowing a child with down syndrome to live. We read lots of dire predictions in the press about anti-Mormonism with Gov. Romney, but of course we will not see the same type of articles on anti-Catholicism since it does not meet their template since it exposes them instead.

The recent decision by the Obama Administration considering the lack of religious exemptions is indicative of the dismissiveness of liberals to conscience concerns of religious believers. Believe what you want, just don’t act on it is the new religious tolerance. They had no idea about the fallout that this would entail because they just can’t imagine anybody actually being upset about this. No doubt the author of this piece has no idea how offensive it is.

So far much of the HHS debacle has been focused on the Catholic church and contraception along with people on both sides of the political divide believing that this is an assault on religious freedom.

Beyond the violation of religious liberty concerns there are some more mundane ones.

Though how we got here in the first place is simply because of Obamacare. Even if a religious exemption is returned concerning the mandate, this law is still intrusive. Every employer should have the right to choose or not choose a health care plan. If they choose a health care plan then they should had every right to choose how extensive it is as to what is covered. Employer supplied health care can in no way be seen a right. Access to basic quality health care is a universal human right and their are many prudential avenues in regards to his. Employers historically first started offering health care coverage as an incentive to draw people in the jobs market. The repercussions is that it is one more thing that people don’t realize the full cost of since they only pay some portion of it. If individuals instead got payed more and had to shop on the market for their own healthcare plan, this would have had the tendencies to drive down costs as their would be a limit to what people would pay out of their own pockets. For example LASIK surgery is relatively inexpensive and prices have come down due to the fact that it is not normally covered by insurance plans.

The biggest problem is that we are having the Federal Government dictating to both health care insurers and employers. This is just simply insane. Even without the moral concerns about the HHS mandate, people should be very upset about the government involvement. Though should we be surprised that a government which regulates the flow of our toilets and what kind of lightbulbs we can buy is going to intrude into every part of our lives? I wish it was indeed a nanny state since at least nannies can be fired.

Part of the debate is also indicative about how little people understand economics and the umbrella of “free” seems to mean about anything. Insurance companies are not benevolent organizations that increase coverage without increasing costs. Medical insurance rates like life insurance rates are based on factors that the majority of insurers will not be drawing expenses from their plans. Contraception itself is not healthcare and those who use contraceptives use it on a continuing basis and thus there are constant costs involved in covering them. Health insurance providers don’t have access to some cheaper version of contraceptives and coverage has a tendency to keep costs the same or to increase them. So “free” contraceptive coverages means everybody pays more, but individuals are reducing personal costs by making others pay for their use. Though this is a scruple that too many have no problem with. Add in also paying for the elective surgery of mutilation, otherwise known as sterilization, and you have increased insurance costs.

It is also ironic that talking point about so many people using contraception and yet they can not see the economic effect of so many people hitting on their health plans for it.

Legislatures apparently have a thirst for irony that can’t be slaked which is apparent by the naming of bills such as Obamacare being known as the “Affordable Care Act”. Raising costs for everyone of course makes things more affordable.

A government that is going to dictate to employers is of course also going to dictate to religious institutions since for them it is always the goal that matters and not the means. The Obama administrations specifically wanted to have contraception covered, including sterilization and so-called Plan B, so they found a way. The Constitution and of course religious liberty be damned.

I wonder what might also be the side effects of this. The government claims average cost of $600 per female contraceptive user. So will insurance companies demand women use Depo-Provera shots as a cost reducer? Or will there be increased pressure for sterilization that despite the initial costs might be cheaper than contraceptives during a normal lifetime of use? I can think of the example of Oregon refusing to pay for someone’s medicine, but willing to provide suicide medication. Maybe private insurers could not get away with this, but big government wants to take this over anyway and they would have no such qualms.

From the unbelievably dense episcopal files is retired New York Archbishop Egan self-congratulatory statement about his handling of sex abuse case. He actually rescinds an apology he made before in regards to sex abuse. Well in response I am also rescinding the little respect I had for him in the first place.

Mark Shea links to s Michael Brendan Dougherty documented post on the subject.

“I never had one of these sex abuse cases.” he said, before adding  pompously, “If you have another bishop in the United States who has the record I  have, I’d be happy to know who he is.” He also claimed that the Church had no  obligation to report abuse to the civil authorities.

These are lies, strutting around with pride.

The Church is required to report abuse, according to laws on the books  since the 1970s.

Bishop Egan ran a diocese that was notoriously dangerous for children.  Contrary to his claim, during his twelve-year enthronement at Bridgeport, Egan  repeatedly failed to investigate priests where there were obvious signs of abuse,  according to The Hartford Courant. His diocese had to settle the cases and  awarded victims some $12-15 million in damages.

Here is just one incredible case of negligence. According to  the Hartford Courant, in 1990, Egan received a memo about “a  developing pattern of accusations” that Rev. Charles Carr of Norwalk had fondled  young boys. Egan kept Carr working for another five years, only suspending him  after a lawsuit was filed, and then in 1999 making him a chaplain at Danbury’s  hospital.

How about another? The Connecticut Post also  reported that early in his reign, dozens of people came forward  to accuse Rev. Raymond Pcolka of Greenwich of sexual abuse and violence against  children. Egan claimed that the accusers were never “proved” to be telling the  truth. Well, Egan never even bothered to interview them and kept Pcolka in  ministry.

First you have to wonder if he realizes he says this in public. Even if your own ego is through the roof you might just evaluate how something you say is going to be tossed about by the media. The Cardinal instead proves why we had the abuse crisis in the first place.

“If you have another bishop in the United States who has the record I  have …”

Unfortunately I can point to many examples of bishops with the same record and they also had to pay out millions of dollars in damages to victims.

When the Cardinal says “I never had one of these sex abuse cases.” I guess he is correct since he had more than “one” of these cases.

There have been some great Cardinals for the Archdiocese of New York and Cardinal Egan has been the exception to prove the rule.

“Today, virtually all American women use contraception at some point in their lives.”

Nice to know the reasons HHS Secretary Sebelius gives for violating the 1st amendment of the Constitution. They had to balance voiding our religious rights with people getting their contraception paid for by people who consider it an intrinsic evil. Funny how whenever our rights come up to a balancing equation, the scale seems to be weighted against us. You can balance one persons rights against anthers and if you are doing so then you know on one side it is not a right. We have a right to free exercise of religion, not a right to forcing employees to buy specific coverage. You can not balance the rights of an employer with the wants of an employee. Though this whole situation is partly a result of employee healthcare plans partly paid for from the company they work for. This artificially keeps costs up since there is not the pressure to lower costs if each individual was in the market for their own health care insurance.

Plus you know any article that starts with the line quoted above is going to be bad. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” unless there are those in that religion that go agains their faith. You have religious freedom just as long members of the faith are perfect. Darn as a Catholic and a sinner I guess I lose out on that free exercise stuff.

The religious exemption in the administration’s rule is the same as the exemption in Oregon, New York and California.

Wow listing those states make me feel much better. Hey if blue state big government jerks are doing it, it must be okay.

And the president and this administration continue to support existing conscience protections.

At least the ones they haven’t rolled up yet since President Bush left office.

But birth control can also be quite expensive, costing an average of $600 a year, which puts it out of reach for many women whose health plans don’t cover it.

Well she even lies about the cost. As even Planned Parenthood notes the cost of the pills are between $15 – $50 a month which would make the average to be less than the maximum $600 a year she quotes. But again the cost has nothing to do with it. The Constitution is not a document with a graded pay scale attached to it when as to when it can become violated.

[Source]

As Catholic Vote reported:

Three years ago, 26 prominent American Catholics signed an online petition in support of Kathleen Sebelius’ nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Some of the signers are having second thoughts, but many are also doubling down in defending the indefensible.