 Father Harry's "Buseness"
Last week, I received the following information from the Archdiocese. It bemoans the recent Health and Human Services Ruling of the Obama Administration compelling Catholic Institutions to provide sterilization and contraception services as part of required health care. Virtually every National Catholic entity along with the National Conference of Catholic Bishops has criticized or condemned this ruling, as a violation of religious liberty and our consciences. Cardinal designate Archbishop Tim Dolan of New York stated very astutely that the one year grace period granted merely gives time for us to figure out how we will justify violating our conscience (which we will not do). You can do a couple of things in response to this misguided ruling.
-Pray for our nation to recognize both the evil of the ruling and to recognize that the ruling is a violation of the civil and religious rights of many of its citizens. And pray that it can be reversed before its final implementation.
-Contact our national legislators to let your views be known, asking them to push for a reversal of the ruling.
Religious Liberties Threatened
On January 20th, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a stunning and extremely disappointing final rule mandating that contraception and sterilization be included at no cost to the insured in all health care plans. The very narrow religious exemption was unchanged from the interim final rule, only offering a year of "grace" to comply.
This means that most Catholic ministries would be compelled to provide and pay for "services" (i.e., sterilization and contraception, including some abortifacients) that are a clear violation of Catholic teaching. It rests on the appalling notion that the federal government can tell religious ministries what is religious. In this case, it says that a ministry is not religious if it serves or employs people who are not members of that religious body.For us, it is precisely our faith that calls us to "serve the least of these" without regard for their religious affiliation. We serve the poor, the hungry, the sick, the homeless, and educate children "not because they are Catholic, but because we are." In short, the decision of the Administration is bad morality, bad policy and, for that matter, bad politics.
The threat to our religious liberties is very real and challenging. The government should not be forcing us to choose between putting our faith into action and violating our consciences. Likewise the Administration's action poses real threats to the Church's capacity to offer adequate health care coverage for those who serve in our charitable and educational ministries in ways that reflect our teaching and moral principles.D This decision tries to force us to choose between these two principles. The rule would go into effect for religious employers in August 2013 and employers' new policies would have to be implemented by January 2014. The purpose of the year is supposedly to allow us time to comply, but in fact we have a year to reverse, repeal or change this unjust mandate.
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