New Obama birth control fixes for religious groups

Effective immediately, the U.S. will start allowing faith-affiliated charities, colleges and hospitals to notify the government — rather than their insurers — that they object to birth control on religious grounds.

A previous accommodation offered by the Obama administration allowed those nonprofits to avoid paying for birth control by sending their insurers a document called Form 700, which transfers responsibility for paying for birth control from the employer to the insurer. But Roman Catholic bishops and other religious plaintiffs argued just submitting that form was like signing a permission slip to engage in evil.

In a related move, the administration announced plans to allow for-profit corporations like Hobby Lobby Inc. to start using Form 700. The Supreme Court ruled in June that the government can't force companies like Hobby Lobby to pay for birth control, sending the administration scrambling for a way to ensure their employees can still get birth control one way or another at no added cost.

The dual decisions mark the Obama administration's latest effort to address a long-running conflict that has pitted the White House against churches and other religious groups.

Read more by clicking on the following:  http://news.yahoo.com/obama-offers-accommodations-birth-control-172442035--finance.html

White House Proposes Compromise on Contraception Coverage - NYTimes.com

 

Under the proposal, the administration said, “eligible organizations would not have to contract, arrange, pay or refer for any contraceptive coverage to which they object on religious grounds.” Female employees of such organizations would receive contraceptive coverage through separate individual health insurance policies, without having to pay premiums or co-payments.

The proposed rule is somewhat ambiguous about exactly who would pay the costs

Click on the following for more details:  White House Proposes Compromise on Contraception Coverage - NYTimes.com

Cardinal Dolan’s Paul Ryan Problem | The New Republic

 

That admiring relationship must make it awkward for the Cardinal when Ryan does things like misrepresent Catholic social teaching or insist that health care is not a right but a privilege or refer to social programs that the bishops conference itself helps run as a “safety hammock.” After all, when a Catholic Democrat publicly dissents from church teaching or misrepresents it to a large audience, church leaders are quick to call out him or her for the transgression….

In his convention speech, Ryan introduced a new topic of disagreement—the question of whether health care is a right or a privilege. Referring to the Obama health care plan as “an entitlement we didn’t even ask for,” Ryan firmly placed himself in the “privilege” camp. The Catholic church, however, has long considered guaranteed health care a universal right. As recently as 2010, Pope Benedict XVI wrote that it was one of the “inalienable rights” of man.

Click on the following for more details:  Cardinal Dolan’s Paul Ryan Problem | The New Republic

Contraceptive Use Is the Norm Among Religious Women

 

The report’s key findings include the following points:

• Among all women who have had sex, 99% have ever used a contraceptive method other than natural family planning. This figure is virtually the same among Catholic women (98%).
• Among sexually active women of all denominations who do not want to become pregnant, 69% are using a highly effective method (i.e., sterilization, the pill or another hormonal method, or the IUD).
• Some 68% of Catholic women use a highly effective method, compared with 73% of Mainline Protestants and 74% of Evangelicals.
• Only 2% of Catholic women rely on natural family planning; this is true even among Catholic women who attend church once a month or more.
• More than four in 10 Evangelicals rely on male or female sterilization, a figure that is higher than among the other religious groups

The above comments taken from:  Contraceptive Use Is the Norm Among Religious Women

The actual report is available at:  http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/Religion-and-Contraceptive-Use.pdf

Rich Wentzel: Bishops are wrong on ‘Obamacare’

 

 

Rich Wentzel: Bishops are wrong on ‘Obamacare’

 

July 09, 2012 4:30 am  •  Rich Wentzel

Dear Editor: A few years back, Pope Benedict XVI and other church leaders said it was “the moral responsibility of nations to guarantee access to health care for all of their citizens, regardless of social and economic status or their ability to pay.” Now, however, Cardinal Timothy Dolan through the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is promoting a campaign to curb the implementation of an aspect of the Affordable Care Act, specifically that aspect requiring insurance companies to provide contraceptives as preventive care. The claim is that somehow this violates religious freedom even though no Catholic would be asked to use contraceptives.

Jesus did not bow to the authoritarian hierarchy of the ruling religion and saw his own way to the truth, much as the majority of Catholics have done on the contraception issue. In their obsession with blocking women’s access to birth control, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops seems intent on thwarting the work being done to provide access to a more coherent, affordable plan for health care in our nation.

The Affordable Care Act offers greater care to more people at lower cost as a nation. Dolan’s plan would thwart that goal by keeping the overall pool of participants smaller and continuing to drive health care costs up. In the end, he is asking Catholics and non-Catholics alike to pay more while trying to block a worthy moral and economic goal.

Rich Wentzel

Taken from the following:  Rich Wentzel: Bishops are wrong on ‘Obamacare’

Dioceses, charities sue over birth control mandate - chicagotribune.com

 

The Roman Catholic dioceses of Springfield and Joliet have joined 41 other religious institutions filing simultaneous lawsuits that challenge the Obama administration's mandate that many religious employers have their health insurance cover the cost of birth control for employees.

Catholic Charities programs in both dioceses also filed simultaneous lawsuits in U.S. District Court on Monday.

Chicago's Cardinal Francis George indicated that the archdiocese's absence from Monday's lawsuits didn't signal satisfaction with that accommodation or less concern about the issue. In previous remarks, he has said the government's efforts amount to a "theft of identity."

Click on the following for more details:  Dioceses, charities sue over birth control mandate - chicagotribune.com

Laywoman writes of her Catholic faith

Jo O’Sullivan writes on the development of her faith

Believe it or not, Saoirse* (see definition below), I can totally relate to your confusion as to why I still consider myself to be a Catholic. And I’d like to try and explain myself to you.
I’m from a very ordinary Catholic background – no great delving into the tenets of my faith during my life – no great exploration of theology or church history – no participation in ‘progressive’ movements or anything like that. In fact, all I did was try to observe the teachings and ‘living out’ of Catholicism as best I could – going to Mass on Sundays and Holy Days (and the occasional daily Mass if I was in a position to do so) and playing a full part in my church, parish life (I have played the church keyboard and been part of a lively children’s liturgy team, among other things, here in my parish for many years).
I suppose, to be totally honest, I carried a unease with certain aspects of Catholicism for a long time and had to reconcile things as best I could –sometimes by acknowledging I was ‘breaking the rules’ but letting myself off the hook (f.eg. for using contraception) and sometimes by not allowing myself to think too deeply about them (f.eg. the huge wealth in parts of the church contrasted with the poverty in the world; the position of women, people in second relationships, gays in the church  etc.) I sometimes felt I was a ‘bad’ Catholic for having such critical thoughts about the structures and teachings. After all, those who dictated how things should be- those in positions of authority over me in my spiritual life, were much greater than I in every way and it was the sin of pride on my part to harbour such criticisms and doubts. In particular, anything coming from the Vatican was coming from those closest to God in this world so I had no business questioning the validity of anything they had to say.
I spent most of my adult life in that way, Saoirse, living a rather superficial version of Catholicism because, I think, I was afraid to delve too deeply!
However, my relationship with my loving Creator, as experienced through my Catholic faith, sustained me through many rough times in my life – many situations/times when no amount of logical, rational thought helped to see me through – life’s messy, difficult, paradoxical and sometimes cruel and painful chapters. So it was enough that I practiced Catholicism without thinking too deeply about it.
Life kept nudging me in my unease every so often though – sometimes it was in the shape of my growing children asking me questions and not accepting pat answers so I had to try and find answers which I felt to be true and valid; sometimes it was in finding myself in situations where the Catholic teaching just didn’t sit properly with my conscience. It was in meeting and knowing wonderfully Christian, caring people who were deeply hurt by the fact that the faith of their childhood rejected them because of their life’s circumstances.
I continued trying to accept that my ‘betters’ knew more than I did – I didn’t want to be proud and arrogant – so I tried to quieten my conscience by continuing to try and build a nurturing community in my own wee world and keeping my head in the sand over the rest of it (not something I’m proud of, but it’s the truth!).
The revelations of the Murphy Report caused a chasm to appear under me. I had been able to accept that there were individual criminal perpetrators of evil but I could not bear the fact that my ‘betters’, my moral and spiritual guides, had totally failed our most vulnerable little ones by choosing to protect the institution of the Catholic church over them.
I could no longer continue to contribute to building up the church in my own wee way if, by doing so, I was allowing the rottenness to continue.
It set me off on a long, terrifying journey, Saoirse, where I felt blasphemous and heretical and totally confused by my thoughts at times. All I could do was read and talk and listen and agonise over what was right and what was wrong. For every article I read by experts extolling adherence to strict Catholic teachings evidenced by readings from scripture, I read another one which interpreted scripture in a different way in the light of on-going theological exploration. All the experts were absolutely sincere and genuine in their arguments. I so wanted to be able to go back to being as I was before, but I couldn’t and I still can’t!
The conclusion that I came to was that, for me, there are no absolute certainties anymore. I can never know for sure that I am ‘right’. So, it follows on from that that I can never be sure that anyone who doesn’t see things MY way is ‘wrong’. In reading such people as Richard Rohr O.F.M., I have actually come to realise that I am moving beyond dualistic thinking and that’s a GOOD thing! I’m getting to a place where I can accept that I don’t HAVE to be right and others don’t HAVE to be wrong!  I can reconcile myself to living in faith, living in the paradox, and constantly trying to see things from as broad a perspective as possible.
I have no problem accepting that our church leaders sincerely wish to discern what God’s will for humanity is so that they can be our teachers and our guides. I know the argument that they do not come to decisions by their own power alone – they pray and reflect and study scripture and Tradition very carefully so that they can eventually speak ‘the mind’ of God. But what if God is now nudging us, those of us living in the non-rarefied conditions of messy, secular society, towards having our voices heard? I cannot accept is that putting up walls and silencing debate is the way to move forward.
Neither can I go back to my old argument (with myself!) that I’m a nobody, so I’ve no business speaking out my silly little views. I think I have to speak out.
I truly worry that there’s a move to make Catholicism smaller and tighter. My whole belief is that our role in life, as Catholic Christians, is to reach out to all of humanity in love, tolerance and compassion – not to judge them and find them wanting.
There’s so much more in my head and in my heart that I’d like to say – but it has taken me three days to get this much down on paper. I’ve been dipping in and out of it – adding to it, taking from it, since I read your comment on Thursday morning. If I don’t submit it now, I won’t do it at all.
I respect your views Saoirse; I know you speak out of honesty and I can feel that you’re hurt that other Catholics seem to be utterly disloyal to something you hold very dear; that they’re trying to destroy Catholicism from the inside.
And I don’t know if I’ve gone any way to explaining to you that I honestly don’t want to do that – I want Catholicism to be a way of life that attracts the lonely and the lost – a way of life that nurtures all its children – a way of life that gives my grandchildren a path to follow so that they will ‘live life to the full’ and be happy that relationship with their loving Creator is at the very core of their everyday living.
I don’t know what stage of life you’re at Saoirse, but I bet you’d want the very came things for your grandchildren?

*Saoirse

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Saoirse is the Irish language word for "freedom" and may refer to:

• Saoirse (name)
• Saoirse Ronan, an Irish child actress
• Saoirse Irish Freedom, the monthly organ of the Republican Sinn Féin
• Saoirse na hÉireann, a small Irish republican paramilitary group
• Saoirse (horse), Canadian Champion racehorse

** Murhpy Report is a report of abuse in Irish Catholic Chur\ch and hierarchy.

 

The above statement is avaailable on the internet at:  Jo O’Sullivan writes on the development of her faith. Association of Catholic Priests

Carol DeChant: Dear Cardinal Dolan: Is the Pope Catholic?

 

These questions remain: Does the Pope really want to force American Catholics to choose between standing with our nuns or with a male hierarchy interrogating them for nebulous infractions, with a stated agenda of keeping their findings secret? Where could we find Jesus in all this -- among our nuns, whose life of service is based on the Gospels' call to justice and charity, or in the Vatican, whose concerns appear to be power and secrecy? At the very least, let the investigators ask those who know our nuns best -- the homeless, prisoners, battered women and their children, immigrants, inner-city students, the disabled, the bereaved and the bullied -- if these elderly women are "Catholic enough." And if not, then who is? Is even the Pope "Catholic enough"?

Click on the following for more details:  Carol DeChant: Dear Cardinal Dolan: Is the Pope Catholic?

U.S. News - Peoria bishop compares Obama's actions to Stalin, Hitler

 

The Anti-Defamation League wants an apology from Peoria's bishop following a recent homily comparing President Barack Obama's policies to those of despots Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.

During the message at St. Mary's Cathedral in Peoria, Roman Catholic Bishop Daniel Jenky contended social services for Catholics could be eliminated if Obama's directive to include contraceptives in health insurance continues. Jenky went on to compare the actions to past cultural wars against the Catholic Church.

Click on the following for more details:  U.S. News - Peoria bishop compares Obama's actions to Stalin, Hitler

Here is the homily:  http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/323308

On The News : How the Boston archdiocese helped bring contraception to Massachusetts - Catholic Culture

By Phil Lawler | June 10, 2011 6:08 PM

From Our Store: Essays in Apologetics, Volume I (eBook)

Can good practicing Catholics (even politicians) not oppose abortion?  If Cardinal Cushing thought so for contraception what about abortion?

In 1966, Massachusetts became the last state in the US to legalize the sale of contraceptives. When the state legislative voted to repeal the law prohibiting their sale, the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts celebrated—and said that the victory was due to the cooperation of the Boston Catholic archdiocese.

In 1965, as the state legislature discussed the repeal of the contraceptive ban, Cardinal Cushing said that he personally opposed the use of contraceptives. But he added, significantly: “I am also convinced that I should not impose my position—moral beliefs or religious beliefs—on those of other faiths.” To legislators weighing the merits of the bill, he said: “If your constituents want this legislation, vote for it.”

Thus did the leader of Boston’s Church signal an end to any active Catholic opposition to legalized sale of contraceptives. But the Boston College Magazine article reveals that the archdiocese had begun quietly planning for a change in the law even before Dukakis introduced his formal bid for repeal.

In 1963, the article reports, Cardinal Cushing was a guest on a radio call-in show. One caller asked the cardinal about his stance on the contraceptive ban, and he replied: “I have no right to impose my thinking, which is rooted in religious thought, on those who do not think as I do

On The News : How the Boston archdiocese helped bring contraception to Massachusetts - Catholic Culture

Despite Cardinal Dolan’s Claims, Government Has Long Defined “Ministry” - NPQ – Nonprofit Quarterly - Promoting an active an engaged democracy.

Doesn’t the federal government already define “ministry” in various programs and regulations? The IRS has specific provisions in tax law to administer regarding the tax treatment of ministers and their parsonages. As we have noted in previous coverage, the federal government and the courts have long been debating what constitutes a ministry for the purpose of religious entities looking for exemptions for civil rights laws regarding nondiscrimination in hiring.

Click on the following to read the entire story:  Despite Cardinal Dolan’s Claims, Government Has Long Defined “Ministry” - NPQ – Nonprofit Quarterly - Promoting an active an engaged democracy.

Catholic college cans Kennedy speech, blames bishop - Yahoo! News

 

"Bishop McManus is acting, he feels, consistently with what all of the U.S. bishops asked colleges or higher institutions to do going back to 2004, that they not honor ... Catholics who take a public stance or position on issues contrary to things that the Church is trying to teach," said Raymond Delisle, a spokesman for the diocese.

Kennedy said she was "disheartened" by the public rebuke.

"I am a lifelong Catholic and my faith is very important to me," she said in a statement. "I have not met Bishop McManus nor has he been willing to meet with me to discuss his objections."

Click on the following to read all of the story:  Catholic college cans Kennedy speech, blames bishop - Yahoo! News

Robert Joseph McManus

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Robert Joseph McManus (born July 5, 1951 in Providence, Rhode Island) is the fifth Bishop of Worcester, Massachusetts. He has been in post since May 14, 2004, where he succeeded Daniel P. Reilly, who retired.

Life before Worcester

McManus is the son of Edward W. & Helen F. (King) McManus. He grew up in the Providence area, graduating from Blessed Sacrament School and Our Lady of Providence High School. He is an alum of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and the Toronto School of Theology.

McManus was ordained to the priesthood on May 27, 1978 by Bishop Kenneth Anthony Angell of Providence. He had then served as an associate pastor at several parishes and chaplaincies throughout the diocese for nearly twenty years.

Appointments by John Paul II

He was elevated to the title of Monsignor on February 28, 1997 by Pope John Paul II. He was named and Auxiliary Bishop of Providence on February 22, 1999, and installed in Worcester on May 14, 2004.

Teen Pregnancy Conference Controversy

Bishop McManus was critical of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester renting out "sacred space" to the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy for workshops. He thought that the classes taught things which violated the teachings of the Catholic Church. On October 10, 2007, he issued a statement expressing his thoughts and criticisms of the conference.

Catholics and Contraception: Boston, 1965 - NYTimes.com

Is Cardinal Dolan and the hierarchy out of of step with the Church of the 1960’s?

In 1948, Cushing, then an archbishop, led a public charge against Referendum No. 4, a statewide ballot measure designed to relax the ban on contraception. From the pulpit and on the radio, the Catholic campaign argued that birth control was “still against God’s law.” Cushing defined contraception at the time as “anti-social and anti-patriotic, as well as absolutely immoral.” The campaign was a bitter one. In the end, 57 percent of voters rejected the referendum.

Cushing had won, but victory came at a cost. “Deployment of the Church’s political muscle,” the historian Leslie Tentler argues, offended non-Catholics in and out of the commonwealth. Four years later, the toll hit home as Cushing confided to a friend, “I hate to think of going through another battle.”

1963, while a guest on WEEI radio, Cushing took a question from an unidentified female caller who asked if he considered the birth control ban to be “bad law.” Yes, Cushing replied. “I have no right to impose my thinking, which is rooted in religious thought, on those who do not think as I do

Please read the entire piece, click on the following:  Catholics and Contraception: Boston, 1965 - NYTimes.com

Danielle Tumminio: Is Birth Control Coverage Motivated by Religious Freedom or Religious Bullying?

The issue, then, is really about how Catholics treat non-Catholics. After all, presumably Catholics would not want birth control -- it's all the other folks who do. Which makes this a debate not about religious freedom but about how people of one faith care for those who do not share their beliefs.

Imagine, for a second, that this was an elementary school playground where one student was telling another what to believe, how to act.We would call that bullying.

there has to be a better way forward, and perhaps if we were able to really listen -- not to forward our own agenda but with willingness to change -- we might be able to find it.

 

Click on the following to read the entire opinion piece:  Danielle Tumminio: Is Birth Control Coverage Motivated by Religious Freedom or Religious Bullying?

Soraya Chemaly: I'm No Longer a Catholic. Why Are You?

 

There are so many perspectives on the Obama/Catholic Church contraception debate that it is hard to keep track. But, after you've stripped it all of its partisanship, wonky indignation and misleading religious angst, what you are left with it whether or not you really think women are equal and how much that equality means to you personally.

At its core, this debate is about control. And not just birth control. Either you are willing to support and participate in a culture in which men, refusing to accept women as fully human, use a perverted claim of divine right to control women and their bodies, or you don't.

Click on the following for all of Ms. Chenaly’s opinion piece:  Soraya Chemaly: I'm No Longer a Catholic. Why Are You?

Click on the following to hear her NPR interview:  http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=147980268&m=147980261

NY’s Cardinal Dolan urges faithful to join political ‘battle,’ decries US contraception rules - The Washington Post

Speaking at Holy Trinity Diocesan High School in Hicksville, the spiritual leader of the Archdiocese of New York said the U.S. government is engaged in “an unwarranted, unprecedented radical intrusion.” He told the crowd they “live in an era that seems to discover new rights every day.”

Click on the following for more of the story:  NY’s Cardinal Dolan urges faithful to join political ‘battle,’ decries US contraception rules - The Washington Post

 

COMMENT by stanchaz:

stanchaz--These "faith-based institutions" are businesses - NOT churches....BIG businesses. The government is trying to protect the freedom of their employees, not to limit it! Seriously: The bottom line is that absolutely NO ONE is coming into our Churches or places of worship and telling believers what to believe.....or forcing them to use contraception. BUT If the Bishops (and other denominations) want to continue running businesses outside of their places of worship...businesses that employ millions of people of varying faiths -or no "faith" at all- THEN they must play by the same rules and rights that other workers live by and enjoy (especially if their businesses use our tax dollars, and skip paying taxes, in the process). If the Jehovah's Witnesses church hires me, can they alter my health insurance to exclude blood transfusions? Even worse- what if they operated a hospital by their “rules”? This is not a “war on religion”. Never was. However, it IS a war BY some religions... on women and men who simply want to plan their families, to control their futures, to keep their jobs, and to have health insurance that allows them to do that. if the Cardinal wishes to be a politician instead of a preacher, and wishes to use his pulpit for that purpose, rather than a place of worship, then he should give up his tax exemption.

Cardinal Dolan Issues Letter Hinting at Legal Challenge | Daily News | NCRegister.com

by JOAN FRAWLEY DESMOND03/02/2012

– EWTN News

WASHINGTON — Cardinal Timothy of New York, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a letter to his brother bishops today, reporting that negotiations between the conference and the White House had “stalled” and that he was exploring legal remedies to address the First Amendment threat posed by the contraception mandate approved by the Obama administration.

Click on the following to read all Ms. Desmond’s article:  Cardinal Dolan Issues Letter Hinting at Legal Challenge | Daily News | NCRegister.com

 

The four page  letter from Cardinal Dolan is available by clicking on the following:  http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/upload/Dolan-to-all-bishops-HHS.pdf

"Birth Control, Bishops and Religious Authority" - ReligiousLeftLaw.com

02/16/2012

"Birth Control, Bishops and Religious Authority"

[Gary Gutting, a philosopher at Notre Dame, has this to say in the online edition of the New York Times:]

 

But, even so, haven’t the members of the Catholic Church recognized their bishops as having full and sole authority to determine the teachings of the Church? By no means.

Most Catholics — meaning, to be more precise, people who were raised Catholic or converted as adults and continue to take church teachings and practices seriously — now reserve the right to reject doctrines insisted on by their bishops and to interpret in their own way the doctrines that they do accept.

Click on the following to read all of Mr. Gutting’s remarks:: "Birth Control, Bishops and Religious Authority" - ReligiousLeftLaw.com

Mr. Gutting’s orignal article is from the New York Times:  http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/birth-control-and-the-challenge-to-divine-authority/?hp

It’s Democrats who are putting focus on birth control - She the People: - The Washington Post

 

By Melinda Henneberger

 

But from the White House perspective, things sure are looking up: after some strong initial blowback over what even some liberal allies saw as an incursion on religious liberty, a compromise has soothed friends and cast any still upset about the constitutional implications as single-minded soldiers in the ongoing war against women.

And as for the all-male photo op in front of the House Oversight Committee hearing on the matter, which Democrats are calling the defining image of the election year? Nancy Pelosi couldn’t have planned it any better herself.

Click on the following for the complete story:  It’s Democrats who are putting focus on birth control - She the People: - The Washington Post

Growth of Catholic Hospitals May Limit Access to Reproductive Care - NYTimes.com

 

Financially stronger Catholic-sponsored medical centers are increasingly joining with smaller secular hospitals, in some cases limiting access to treatments like contraception, abortion and sterilization.

In Seattle….

…in Louisville…

And in Rockford, Ill.,

Click on the following for more details:  Growth of Catholic Hospitals May Limit Access to Reproductive Care - NYTimes.com