Posted on 03/08/2012 2:13:03 PM PST by NYer
March 8, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) White House staff members have told U.S. bishops that the administration will not consider further revision of the mandate forcing religious employers to pay for birth control, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs, and that the religious leaders should listen to “enlightened” Catholics who accept the president’s terms, reports Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
In a letter sent to fellow Bishops last week, the New York archbishop revealed some of what had transpired in a recent meeting involving staff members from the White House and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
“Our staff members asked directly whether the broader concerns of religious freedom – that is, revisiting the strait-jacketing mandates, or broadening the maligned exemption – are all off the table. They were informed that they are,” wrote the cardinal, who is the current president of the USCCB.
According to the letter, White House staff also exhorted the USCCB to “listen to the ‘enlightened’ voices of accommodation,” and cited a recent editorial in the liberal Catholic publication America which lauded Obama’s revised mandate.
The March 5th editorial had claimed that the “compromise,” which has been rejected by Church officials as insufficient, “fundamentally did what Catholic social teaching expects government to do.”
Dolan lambasted the White House’s mention of the editorial, accusing the Administration of “nominat[ing] its own handpicked official Catholic teachers.”
With the President refusing to budge, the cardinal indicated that Church officials would be looking in the direction of legislative and judicial remedies. And while an attempt to nullify the mandate by adding a conscience protection amendment to the federal health care law was recently defeated in the Senate, Dolan said that the bishops’ commitment to a legislative remedy “remains strong.”
However, he added, the courts may “offer the most light.” The letter cited the recent Hosanna-Tabor Supreme Court ruling which held that churches were exempt from employee discrimination laws when choosing their religious leaders, a ruling Dolan called “a dramatic rebuff to the administration.”
“Our bishops’ conference, many individual religious entities, and other people of good will are working with some top-notch law firms who feel so strongly about this that they will represent us pro-bono. In the upcoming days, you will hear much more about this encouraging and welcome development,” the cardinal wrote.
“Some, like America magazine, want us to cave-in and stop fighting, saying this is simply a policy issue,” he said, adding that the Bishops were committed to “tirelessly defend the timeless and enduring truth of religious freedom.”
I am from a big Catholic family of "stair-step kids," and we're all close as hell. For your reference, my youngest sibling is still in first grade (homeschooled, all of us were), and there are homeschooled families of 10 kids at our parish, so I would say "going the way of the dinosaur" is a severe over-statement. There aren't "too many to care for," as you put it. It can be a sacrifice, as you don't get as much "stuff" as an only child, but all in all its a better experience because you learn to put up with less and to get along with people.
"I’m not even sure where I stand when it comes to rape and incest."
Let me tell you where you should stand, buddy. Murder is murder, like you said a couple of sentences down in your post.
I’m not a BUDDY. I’m female, and was just making observations from my past. There are exceptions to every case, of course. And, don’t tell me what to say or think - buddy! What are you - the moral police? Are you sure you aren’t a democrat? They like to tell others what to think feel and do.
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Bishop Olmsted's Letter to Catholics [Catholic Caucus]
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As far being a democrat goes buddy, I'd say you fit the mold better than me. You equivocate on the murder of the unborn. How can anyone shrug about abortion, be the circumstances rape or whatever? You can't punish a vile act by murdering the person born of it, who had no control over the actions his parents.
You sure like to keep things going, don’t you? I merely said I didn’t know how I felt about pregnancy from rape or incest. Of course, the unborn is innocent in all of this, and NO, I don’t advocate killing the unborn.
Get a life and stay out of mine - BUDDY
By which you mean what, friend-o?
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