Posted on 03/26/2013 1:35:07 PM PDT by NYer
.- The EWTN Global Catholic Network is “extremely disappointed” by a Monday court ruling that dismissed as “unripe” its lawsuit against a federal mandate that could require the organization to violate Catholic teaching.
“Contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs are not healthcare. EWTN cannot and will not compromise our strongly held beliefs on these moral issues,” EWTN President and CEO Michael P. Warsaw said March 25.
On Monday Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn of the U.S. District Court in Birmingham dismissed the Irondale, Ala.-based organization’s lawsuit until new regulations are “created and finalized.” The March 25 court decision agreed that EWTN has standing to sue, but it sided with Obama administration lawyers who contended that the case is not ripe for review.
The lawsuit initially concerned federal regulations requiring employers to provide insurance coverage for sterilization and contraception, including drugs that can cause abortions. The mandate’s narrow religious exemption did not apply to many Catholic organizations. Violators faced staggering fines of $100 per employee per day.
The Obama administration has since revised the federal rules to require that insurance providers, not employers themselves, provide the objectionable coverage and pay for it out of the “savings” they enjoy from not paying for children. Critics have dismissed the change as an accounting gimmick.
The change also does not address the concerns of EWTN, which is a self-insured employer.
Government lawyers said that the mandate is in the process of being amended and there is “a significant chance” that these changes will “alleviate altogether” the need for judicial review.
Warsaw was doubtful of this outcome. He said that the government has made “promise after promise to amend its unjust rules.”
“As a result, nearly everyone, including the courts, is left waiting to see what the government might or might not do to address the serious issues of conscience that have been raised since the first set of rules were published over a year ago,” he said.
He said the judge did not rule on the constitutional issues he said were “at the heart” of the lawsuit. EWTN is consulting with its legal team from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty about possible options.
EWTN’s lawsuit cited the need to plan for any financial problems as a result of the mandate. It said there is a danger of third-party lawsuits attempting to enforce the mandate because the safe harbor provision it is presently operating under only protects it against lawsuits from the government.
The court said EWTN will not suffer sufficient hardship before the rules are changed to merit further judicial review, but it allowed that the case may be revisited after further developments.
Warsaw voiced gratitude for the prayers and support for EWTN and asked for continued prayers as the network considers its response.
Ping!
"And if you believe that, we're gonna get along just fine."
If anyone hasn't realized by now that the anti-life agenda and promotion of homosexuality are the most important things, period, to the Obama administration, they aren't paying attention. This is where he lives, this is what he really cares about. Death, death, death.
Obama shouldn’t mess with Mother Angelica. Ask Cardinal Mahoney.
As Francis Cardinal George of Chicago said..."my successor will be imprisoned and his successor will be martyred". This is the total end of the UNITED States....we are so IMMORAL we don't deserve to last.
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Exactly right.
Ooooh...what did Mother Angelica do to Cardinal Mahoney??
My guess is that EWTN will have to leave the country. But where will they go?
I hope EWTN does not give in or compromise one bit. The obama regime will cave to them, I know it.
>>>It all began in November 1997 with Mother’s unforgettable televised denunciation of the infamous Cardinal Mahony, that celebrity prelate who is the very embodiment of post conciliar Modernism and decay in the Church. Mother rightly denounced Mahony’s “pastoral letter” on the Holy Eucharist as a Modernist obfuscation of the true doctrine of the Mass.<<<
When U.S. bishops greeted a visit of Pope John Paul II with a show that featured Christ as a female mime, she stopped accepting their programming, despite their string-pulling and threats. When Roger Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles issued a pastoral letter she thought watered down the Real Presence, she critiqued him, point-by-point, on television -- and refused to offer a false apology, even when Cardinal Mahony's machinations got her threatened with interdict (the loss of the Sacraments) and the closure of her community. When still other bishops tried to gain control of EWTN and stifle her loudly orthodox voice, she famously said, "I'll blow the damn thing up before you get your hands on it." Her eyes always focused on the eyes of her Beloved, she was almost blind to the worldly obstacles thrown in her way. She stepped right over them.
Perhaps to Colombia. If EWTN is like many other Catholic organizations, they have a growing focus on the Spanish-language audience.
God bless Mother Angelica and EWTN.
Obama hasn’t got a chance.
Our leaders have abandoned both the moral religious and secular principles our nations Constitution and laws were founded upon.
Mr Obama, congress, and judges, when you force The Catholic Church or any other church or the private sector to violate their religious doctrines by demanding they pay for birth control that is in fact a dictatorship. The freedom to obey & practice ones religious beliefs and abide in same are grossly violated.
Mother Angelica: The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve, and a Network of Miracles
See post #13 ... : -)
Everyone pray right now.
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