Posted on 02/07/2013 1:48:56 PM PST by jazusamo
(CNSNews.com) - Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a statement on Thursday signaling to the Obama Administration that the bishops will not make a separate deal to exempt Catholic institutions from an Obamacare mandate that requires health-care plans to cover sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs that leaves lay Catholic business owners and individual employees still subject to the mandate.
“In obedience to our Judeo-Christian heritage, we have consistently taught our people to live their lives during the week to reflect the same beliefs that they proclaim on the Sabbath,” said Cardinal Dolan. “We cannot now abandon them to be forced to violate their morally well-informed consciences.”
The cardinal said the bishops will also continue to support the many lawsuits against the regulation--including those brought by private busineses--that are moving forward in federal courts around the country.
The Catholic Association, a group of Catholic laypersons dedicated to advancing the principles of the Catholic Church, issued a statement supporting the bishops' stand in defending the religious freedom of all Americans.
“We stand with the bishops today in rejecting the proposed ‘accommodation’ which still violates the religious freedom of Americans," said The Catholic Association.
"The bishops have recognized in their statement that when the religious freedom of one is compromised, the religious freedom of everyone is compromised, whether they be their own affiliated institutions or non-Catholic institutions or for-profit employers," said the association. "We call on this administration to provide an acceptable exemption for people of faith, and to put an end to its anti-religious liberty policies.”
Cardinal Dolan's statement was specifically responding to a new version of the Obamacare regulation that the Department of Health and Human Services proposed last week. The new proposal would slightly modify how Obamacare defines the “religious” institutions that can be exempted from the sterilization-contraceptive-abortifacient mandate. However, the proposed new version of the regulation would still force Catholic non-profits (such as hospitals, charities and colleges) to buy health care plans from carriers that, in turn, would be required to set up theoretically cost-free separate policies to provide free sterilizations, contraceptives and abortifacients to all beneficiaries. Further, the new proposal would provide no relief at all to individual Catholic lay people, whether they own a business or are employees.
Cardinal Dolan noted that the bishops will continue to judge the Obamacare regulation within the framework they laid out in a document the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops initially published last March and that all U.S. Catholic bishops unanimously approved in June.
“Third, the bishops explained that the ‘HHS mandate creates still a third class, those with no conscience protection at all:individuals who, in their daily lives, strive constantly to act in accordance with their faith and moral values,” said Cardinal Dolan, citing the bishops' unanimous declaration. “This includes employers sponsoring and subsidizing the coverage, insurers writing it, and beneficiaries paying individual premiums for it. Friday's action confirms that HHS has no intention to provide any exemption or accommodation at all to this ‘third class.’”
Cardinal Dolan’s statement included some placatory language, and the bishops seemed to be taking care to indicate they were not yet closing the door to working with the administration to find an outcome that will allow American Catholics to live both according to their faith and according to whatever final Obamacare regulations the administration ultimately decides to enforce.
“Because the stakes are so high, we will not cease from our effort to assure that healthcare for all does not mean freedom for few,” said Cardinal Dolan.
“Throughout the past year, we have been assured by the Administration that we will not have to refer, pay for, or negotiate for the mandated coverage," the Cardinal said. "We remain eager for the Administration to fulfill that pledge and to find acceptable solutions—we will affirm any genuine progress that is made, and we will redouble our efforts to overcome obstacles or setbacks. Thus, we welcome and will take seriously the Administration's invitation to submit our concerns through formal comments, and we will do so in the hope that an acceptable solution can be found that respects the consciences of all. At the same time, we will continue to stand united with brother bishops, religious institutions, and individual citizens who seek redress in the courts for as long as this is necessary.”
In an analysis published last August, the National Catholic Bioethics Center said that in keeping with Catholic moral teaching all Catholic business owners should drop health insurance coverage for all of their employees by no later than next January if the sterilization-contraception-abortifacient mandate is not lifted.
Last year, when the initial regulation was finalized, many of the nation’s Catholic bishops wrote letters to their congregations, declaring: “We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law.”
Because nobama is a Marxist, maniacal, arrogant, narcissist that has no use for religion, Catholic or otherwise. So, just because he feels all-powerful and thinks he can, he attempts to ram this unconstitutional POS down our throats.
Pray he doesn't succeed. If he does it will be a long downhill slide from here.
At the rate we're going, eventually there will be a straw that breaks the camel's back. I hope this is not it.
IMO.... No, not really born-again, discerning Christians, if they could not understand that their vote for any demoRAT but especially 0dumb0 was & is a vote for killing millions of babies through abortion & infanticide, advocating a pro-homo/pro-lesbian lifestyle, embracing Islam as the most favored religion in the world, hating Christianity and hating America. That is what any democRAT voter indicates to me.
Catholic Ping!
Great, go pout elsewhere. We don’t care.
Anyone else with balls who wants to stand with us? Stand and be counted!
Amen, Salvation. Amen. People here given a choice between the Catholic church and Obama love Obama more.
Thank you Cardinal Dolan!
Nice, the Catholic Bishops discovered the Laity.
DUDE! That is down right creepy! Truthful but creepy!
Our non-retired cardinals residing in the United States include Timothy Cardinal Dolan of New York, Sean Cardinal O'Malley of Boston, Daniel Cardinal DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, Francis Cardinal George of Chicago, and Donald Cardinal Wuerl of Washington, D.C.
Retired cardinals residing here include Edward Cardinal Egan formerly of New York, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, formerly of Washington, D.C., Justin Cardinal Rigali, formerly of Philadelphia, Roger Cardinal Mahoney, formerly of Los Angeles, William Cardinal Levada, formerly of San Francisco who became a cardinal after his appointment to head the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican.
There are two active American cardinals in the Vatican James Cardinal Harvey of the Papal Household, and Raymond Cardinal Burke , former archbishop of St. Louis, who was made a cardinal during his current service as Chief Justice of the Signatura which is the Church's supreme court.
I believe there are two retired American cardinals residing in the Vatican and they are Francis Cardinal Stafford, formerly of Denver, and Bernard Cardinal Law, formerly of Boston.
If I have not listed each living American cardinal, the omission is unintentional and I apologize for any omission.
I have little doubt that many bishops don't know any better than to support a general concept of "socialized medicine." They may well favor "single payer" and may be disappointed by Obozo on that score as well. Such bishops display economic ignorance which is different from the moral ignorance needed to support Obozocare.
If you cannot back your claim, you owe the bishops and Catholics generally an apology. If you CAN back your claim, any bishop supporting Obozocare owes all Catholics, you and all Americans an apology. Any bishop who backed Obozocare ought to resign as well.
See #50.
Meaningless until they actually start excommunicating Catholic Democrat enablers like Pelosi and Kerry.
The world may charge the Church with intolerance, and the world is right. The Church is intolerant; intolerant about Truth, intolerant about principles, intolerant about Divinity, just as Our Blessed Lord was intolerant about His Divinity. The other religions may change their principles, and they do change them, because their principles are man-made. The Church cannot change, because her principles are God-made. Religion is not a sum of beliefs that we would like, but the sum of beliefs God has given. The world may disagree with the Church, but the world knows very definitely with what it is disagreeing. In the future as in the past, the Church will be intolerant about the sanctity of marriage, for what God has joined together no man shall put asunder; she will be intolerant about her creed, and be ready to die for it, for she fears not those who kill the body, but rather those who have the power to cast body and soul into hell. She will be intolerant about her infallibility, for “Lo,” says Christ, “I am with you all the days even unto the end of the world.” And while she is intolerant even to blood, in adhering to the truths given her by her Divine Founder, she will be tolerant to those who say she is intolerant, for the same Divine Founder has taught her to say: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”Taken from the book “Moods and Truths” (Published in 1932)
The good cardinal needs to be extremely judicious in what he asks for. He’ll probably get it. Next in line will be a bunch of Muzzies demanding that their Sharia rules not be “infringed”. I expect the Sharias have their own version of birth control. Wonder how the Cardinal is on that?
That’s right!
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