I have been writing recently about questions of religious liberty and the relationship of the Church and the State. For instance, I have mentioned the case where the State of Illinois stubbornly refused to exempt Catholic Charities from immoral adoption practices, forcing them to get out of the adoption business rather than violate their Catholic principles. I predicted that it would probably get much worse, and our U.S. Bishops – and even the Holy Father – have been expressing grave concerns about new threats against religious liberty. I hate to say “I told you so” – because I would love to have been wrong about this – but it just did get worse. Much worse.
In a very recent and shocking development, President Obama’s secretary for Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius (an excommunicated Catholic), issued an uncompromising statement that any organization (including religious ones) that provides health care to its employees must also provide coverage for all forms of contraception and sterilization which have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. This is an extremely serious problem for the Catholic Church, who has always taught that the use of contraception is sinful and a grave moral evil, and that deliberate sterilization is always morally impermissible. That teaching comes from the “natural law” Christ built into our nature as man and woman, and can not be changed or compromised. To make things even worse, some of those contraceptives approved by the FDA (and thus to be mandated for coverage) are “abortifacient.” This means that they cause a very early abortion of the developing child.
If her decision stands, that would force the Church into a serious dilemma: She could certainly not provide contraception for her employees, but to deny health care coverage to employees would not be economically just. Further, there is some question whether or not they would even be allowed the option of eliminating health care coverage altogether, under new health care act provisions that require most employers to provide coverage.
Secretary Sebelius specifically announced that agencies such as the Church wanting a religious exemption would not receive it, and have only one year to “comply.” This is about more than just contraception: it is about the state taking away the right of citizens to live out their religious beliefs. The Obama administration’s utter disregard for the belief system of the Catholic Church to which one quarter of Americans belong; for the First Amendment; and for the conscience rights of American citizens is absolutely stunning. Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York and head of the U.S. Bishops’ conference, called this decision “unconscionable” and further stated that “in effect, the President is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences.”
For more on this issue, please see the Bishops’ website at usccb.org/news/2012/12-013.cfm and usccb.org/news/2012/12-012.cfm.
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