[The_Reader_David]

Actually, while the Obama policy is evil and must be resisted and overturned, the article is a bit overwrought.

The Latin church will not need to close any institutions, just stop offering health insurance to their employees.

And possibly not even that: why not find or start insurance companies in all 50 states that will offer policies legal under those state’s laws, but which violate the Federal mandate? Let HHS have the burden of suing to take away folks’ health insurance to enforce their unconstitutional regulation. Or, cancel all employee health insurance and offer medical care to employees of church-run institutions at church-run hospitals within the bounds of church teaching.

[Heart-Rest]

It is my understanding (from a discussion I was watching tonight) that if an institution (like a Catholic Hospital) stops offering their employees health insurance, they will then have to pay huge and escalating fines every year which the government will call "taxes", something they will not be able to afford, so they will have to divest the Church of that hospital, so it will no longer be a Catholic hospital.

They also concluded in that discussion (on a Catholic network) that that is exactly what B.O. wants them to do.

[livius]

They won’t be able to refuse to offer health insurance. And for every day they do not provide this, they will be fined some huge amount of money.

The Church is subject to this law because Catholic educational and charitable activities serve not only Catholics, but anyone who needs their services. A group like the Amish who restrict all of their activities to other Amish wouldn’t be subject to it, but there is no way that the Church can possibly (or should) restrict its services only to Catholics.

The whole point of this is to destroy the public charitable activities of the Church and to drive the Church out of the public square altogether, because it is the one obstacle to the religion of the State.