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Posted on 02/07/2012 2:10:46 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The archbishop who oversees American Catholic military chaplains worldwide claims the U.S. Army violated his rights by stifling a pastoral letter condemning the Obama administration’s contraception mandate.
Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio stands “firm in the belief, based on legal precedent,” that the Army defied his rights to free speech and free exercise of religion, according to a Feb. 3 statement from the military archdiocese.
U.S. Catholic military chaplains around the country were initially told to disobey their archbishop’s instruction to read a pastoral letter from the pulpit at all Sunday Masses on Jan. 28-29.
Although an agreement was eventually reached allowing the letter to be read, a key passage urging Catholics to avoid complying with the “unjust law” was removed.
On Jan. 20, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a new mandate that will soon require virtually all employers to purchase health insurance coverage that includes contraception, sterilization and drugs that cause abortion.
The announcement sparked protest around the country, as Catholic leaders and religious organizations argued that they were being coerced to violate their religious beliefs.
Although a religious exemption to the mandate exists, it does not apply to organizations that are willing to serve or employ members of other faiths. As the mandate stands, most Catholic schools, hospitals and charity organizations would be excluded from the exemption.
More than 150 Catholic bishops across the country have spoken out against the directive, saying that it violates the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom. Several have called for civil disobedience in response to the new regulation.
On Jan. 26, Archbishop Broglio joined many of his fellow bishops around the country in issuing a pastoral letter on the mandate to be read from the pulpit at all Sunday Masses throughout the following weekend.
The pastoral letter argued that the mandate violated the religious freedom protected in the U.S. Constitution and called on Catholics to resist it.
However, according to the archdiocese’s statement, the Army’s Office of the Chief of Chaplains sent out an e-mail instructing that the letter “not be read from the pulpit.”
The e-mail said that the letter could instead be mentioned in the Mass announcements and distributed at the back of the chapel, but that it had not been coordinated with the office and should not be read during Mass.
After a discussion between Archbishop Broglio and Secretary of the Army John McHugh, “it was agreed that it was a mistake to stop the reading” of the letter.
However, the line, “We cannot – we will not – comply with this unjust law” was removed from the letter by the archbishop at the prompting of Secretary McHugh, who believed that it “could potentially be misunderstood as a call to civil disobedience.”
According to the archdiocese, Archbishop Broglio believes the move violated both his rights and “those same rights of all military chaplains and their congregants.”
The archdiocese did not give any indication that it intends to pursue legal action over the incident. It said that it “did not receive any objections to the reading of Archbishop Broglio’s statement from the other branches of service.”
Because Nero didn’t have an adoring Media.
Because the Soviets eliminated religion without any pretense.
Because in Nazi Germany...um...well you got me there.
I’m not Catholic, but this BS infuriates me beyond belief. I’d love to see them try to silence say Islam in this manner. fn bs, just watch this country rapidly turning into what our grandparents fought against. pure bs! it might be too critical of the cic... Jesus help me!
Jesus I cannot believe this bs! If this were Bush boy they’d pitch forks and what not riots on the streets. wake up people! your rights are being trampled right before your eyes.
The church is not being forced to provide birth control or abortions.
It isn’t about religion or liberty. It’s about property.
The church has the choice to get out of the hospital business and turn the buildings over to the federal government cheap as its first step (25% of all hospitals), besides the VA, in taking over all hospitals.
I believe that is and has been Obama’s only goal in this.
The Nazis somewhat successfully co-opted both the Catholic and Lutheran churches and installed priests and bishops friendly to fascism, IIRC. That may be his next move, although in some cases the work has already been done for him.
On the other hand I can also see where the reading of the letter in whole or in part could be perceived that the Army Catholic Chaplains are taking a political stand on policy. As a former Army Officer I know that there is no place in the military for political politics. That is political politics and policy should left up to our civilian political leaders. We as military members and leaders execute their decided up policies.
Now they can call him Archbishop Imbroglio.
(Hey, someone had to say it.)
The rules have changed: Gays in the military. Restrictive rules of engagement. Fort Hood Muslim murderer was not a terrorist. Now silencing mainstream Christianity.
It’s not our father’s America anymore, that’s for sure. One wonders if it will ever be again.
I don't think that's the only goal - he's playing to his strongest supporters; Leftists, atheists, gays - all strongly against the Catholic church. He's hoping that there are enough "cafeteria Catholics" out there to go ahead and vote for him anyway.
I think his tacticians have no idea what "sleeping giant" (to paraphrase Adm Yamamoto) they have awakened.
Because in Nazi Germany, most churches supported Hitler.
Except for D. Bonhoeffer, and a few others like him.
So much for freedom of religion. So much for people having the right too choose who, how, where they will worship. Choices they decide to make. Now the commie in the White House tells religious institutions what they can and cannot do on birth control. Where is the SEPERATION of church and state they always scream??????
The frieze on the Supreme Court of the United States:
http://www.dailyrepublican.com/sup_crt_frieze.html
Based on church support/mixing it in for 0bama, should we all be considered good little jackboots, too?
Or, the Church hospitals can fire all their non-Catholic employees and refuse treatment to non-Catholics, becoming concierge hospitals.
There is also the 1937 Mit Brennender Sorge (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mit_Brennender_Sorge)
Nope. There's only obedience to this oath:
"I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."
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