Catholic Bishops in a snit over mandated "free" birth control...

and who's fault is that?

Since birth control became available in the 1960's, the Catholic Church has done a disservice to it's faithful.  They have refused to teach the reasons for the Church's position on the immorality of birth control, and most priests have slithered out of the fray by telling women they would have to "follow their conscience" - wink, wink.

Now Health and Human Services has said that birth control, including sterilization and the "morning after pill", will be provided free of all co-pays in all insurance plans.  If you have a religious exemption, it will expire in one year.  Don't like it - too bad.

With a few exceptions, the USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) backed Obamacare as long as it didn't provide abortions.  I think we all remember how well that worked out.  And now, Daughter of Charity Sister Carol Keehan, president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, voiced disappointment with this newest decision handed down by Kathleen Sibelius.  

This is the same sister who was bounced off of the prestigious Holy Family Hospital Foundation board over her support for the federal health care bill.  Now she's disappointed in Obama?  Perhaps she could send a note to Obama written with the ceremonial pen she received when the president signed Obamacare into law.

A few days ago, Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan lashed out at the Obama Administration for forcing religious organizations to go out into the marketplace and buy a product that violates their conscience.

“Almost every employer and insurer in the country to provide sterilization and contraceptives, including some abortion-inducing drugs, in their health plans… Never before has the federal government forced individuals and organizations to go out into the marketplace and buy a product that violates their conscience. This shouldn’t happen in a land where free exercise of religion ranks first in the Bill of Rights.”

This is what he posted on his blog March 15th, 2010

This is a very significant week for a cause championed by an overwhelming majority of Americans: health care reform. Our prayers are with our president and elected officials in D.C. as they work hard at bringing about a bill that is just and good for the country we love.
Thoughtful Catholics are especially attentive to this effort, but we find ourselves in a tough spot.

On the one hand, we are enthusiastic about universal health care. The Catholic community in the United States, led by brave sisters, has been on the front line of tending lovingly for the sick and frail for centuries, way before government ever got into it.  The bishops have been advocating universal health care for nearly a century. So, we sure want to see it work, and appreciate the efforts of the president and both parties in Congress to bring it home. source

I like Cardianl-designate Dolan, and for the most part he does a good job.  However, he and the other bishops dropped the ball on Obamacare - big time.  Aside from the abortion issue, the bill is over two thousand pages of onerous mandates, regulations, and hidden surprises that will destroy the quality and accessibility of decent health care in this country.  Nothing too Catholic about that.  The real losers in this whole debacle are the Catholics who have been kept ignorant of their faith. 

CatholicVote.org just posted "Obama Hands GOP a ‘Golden Opportunity’ to Win Back the Catholic Vote in 2012."  Allow me to ask why they voted in overwhelming numbers for the wildly pro-abortion Obama to begin with?  Could it be the lack of valid Catholic teaching that has been absent for at least 50 years?  Does CatholicVote really believe that Catholics are going to turn away from Obama over mandatory "free" birth control since the majorority of Catholics are themselves using it?


More:


USCCB Statement

Philothea on Phire:   "Catholic" Politicians: Selling Out the Church

Excellent article from Charles E. Rice, Professor Emeritus Notre Dame Law School, explaining why Obamacare is against real Catholic teaching. 


The Catholic Church in the Obama Era 
Oct. 22, 2010
 

Health Highlights: Jan. 17, 2009
Posted January 17, 2009



'Conscience Rule' Gets Legal Challenge

The Conscience Rule, one of the last items on President George W. Bush's health agenda, has been challenged in U.S. District Court.

The Washington Post reports that a lawsuit was filed Jan. 15 in Connecticut by that state's attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, seeking to block a new federal regulation that protects health workers if they refuse to perform medical services to which they object. The rule went into effect in December.

Blumenthal's suit included the states of California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island, the Post reported. Separate lawsuits were also filed by Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association.

Planned Parenthood and ACLU - why am I not surprised?

Central to the Conscience Rule, the newspaper reports, is that it stops federal funding to any health organization -- public or private -- if it doesn't allow health professionals the right to refuse to perform or take part in any health care services they consider objectionable on ethical, moral or religious grounds.

So what they're saying is the only people that have a right to decide what you may or may not do, are the purveyors of abortions and euthanasia.

"On the way out, the Bush administration has left a ticking political time bomb that is set to explode literally on the day of the president's [Barack Obama] inaugural, and blow apart women's rights," the newspaper quotes Blumenthal as saying.

Just exactly how is that going to "blow apart" women's rights? If the doctor or hospital doesn't perform her abortion she can just go somewhere else. This is typical of the liberal mind-set which demands that you do what they want and respect what they see as their rights. How's that for tolerance?

Rebecca Ayer, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), told the Post that HHS would defend its actions in court. "The department followed appropriate procedures to put the regulation in place, and the regulation is fully supported by law," the newspaper quotes her as saying.

There is no doubt in my mind that Obambi will overturn this. All of you Bush haters out there listen up. Once again our departing President has tried to do the right thing only to be mocked and misrepresented by the main stream media. Do you think for one minute these media elites do this because they "care" about you? I've got news for you. They laugh at middle America and at what they consider to be our outdated ideas of morality.

God Calling

I have the same hope in God as they themselves have that there will be a resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous.
Because of this, I always strive to keep my conscience clear before God and man.

Acts 24:15-16

As we continue to look at the ways God speaks to us we come to conscience. The Catholic Church teaches us to follow our conscience. But, in order for us to make moral and ethical decisions, we must first have a well-formed conscience.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
1783 Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. It formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator. The education of conscience is indispensable for human beings who are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative teachings.

Many Catholics have gotten themselves in deep trouble for not having, or even attempting to have, a conscience that is formed to the word of God and the teachings of the Catholic Church. I refer to it as “willful ignorance.” Many of us have fooled ourselves by doing what is convenient or “feels good” rather than what God demands of us.

When we are tempted to sin, God speaks to us through our conscience. If you are listening, the call of God to do what is good rather than evil is strong. If we ignore this call, it will become harder and harder to hear.

Prayer for God’s Help in Daily Actions

Our Father, may everything I do begin with Your Inspiration,
Continue with Your Help.
And reach perfection under Your Guidance.
With Your loving care guide me in my daily actions.
Help me to persevere with love and sincerity.
Teach me to judge wisely the things of earth And to love the things of Heaven.