Bill Donohue comments on the latest confrontation between the Catholic Church and the Obama administration:
Two developments in the last 24 hours offer new evidence that the confrontation between the Catholic Church and the Obama administration is reaching collision course dimensions: yesterday, attorneys for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) made plain their objections to the alleged “accommodations” offered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); and today the Franciscan University of Steubenville announced that as a result of the HHS mandate it would drop student health care insurance programs starting in the next academic year.
Writing for the bishops, Anthony R. Picarello, Jr. and Michael F. Moses listed six objections to the HHS mandate that would force Catholic non-profits to pay for morally objectionable services in their insurance plans. One central objection was the “unprecedented” attempt to redefine religious employers as entities that hire and serve mostly people of their own religion; it would effectively nullify the religious exemption traditionally afforded such institutions as Catholic social service agencies, hospitals and colleges.
Another major point, one which speaks directly to the concerns of Franciscan University, is that it mandates such organizations to “either drop out of the health insurance marketplace” or “provide coverage that violates their deeply-held convictions.” Fr. Terence Henry, the courageous president of the university, will not be bullied.
Both the crabbed redefinition of a religious institution, and the either/or conditions it offers Catholic non-profits, are classic Catch-22 politics. The goal, which is to punish Catholic organizations if they don’t bow to the secular edicts of the Obama administration, couldn’t be more transparent.
The war on religion continues. Anyone who thought it was fading away needs a reality check. We stand with the USCCB.
