‘TO HELL WITH
YOU’
HHS Edict Will Force Catholics to Violate Conscience
by the Most Reverend David A.
Zubik
Bishop of Pittsburgh
It is really hard to believe that it happened.
It comes like a slap in the face. The Obama administration has
just told the Catholics of the United States, “To Hell with
you!” There is no other way to put it.
In early August, the Department for Health and Human Services
in the Obama administration released guidelines as part of the
implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act. The guidelines mandated that by Summer 2012 all individual
and group health insurance plans, including self-insured plans,
cover all FDA-approved contraception, sterilization procedures
and pharmaceuticals that even result in abortion.
A million things are wrong with this: equating pregnancy with
disease; mandating that every employer pay for contraception
procedures including alleged contraceptives that are actually
abortion-inducing drugs; forcing American citizens to choose
between violating their consciences or providing health care
services; mandating such coverage on every individual woman without
allowing her to even choose not to have it; forcing every person
to pay for that coverage no matter the dictates of their conscience.
Let’s be blunt. This whole process of mandating these guidelines
undermines the democratic process itself. In this instance, the
mandate declares pregnancy a disease, forces a culture of contraception
and abortion on society, all while completely bypassing the legislative
process.
This is government by fiat that attacks the rights of everyone
– not only Catholics; not only people of all religion. At
no other time in memory or history has there been such a governmental
intrusion on freedom not only with regard to religion, but even
across-the-board with all citizens. It forces every employer
to subsidize an ideology or pay a penalty while searching for
alternatives to heath care coverage. It undermines the whole
concept and hope for health care reform by inextricably linking
it to the zealotry of pro-abortion bureaucrats.
For our Church this mandate would apply in virtually every instance
where the Catholic Church serves as an employer. The mandate
would require the Catholic Church as an employer to violate its
fundamental beliefs concerning human life and human dignity by
forcing Catholic entities to provide contraceptive, sterilization
coverage and even pharmaceuticals that result in abortion.
There was a so-called “religious exemption” to the
mandate, but it was so narrowly drawn that, as critics charged,
Jesus Christ and his Apostles would not fit the exemption. The
so-called exemption would only apply to the vast array of Catholic
institutions where the following applied:
Only Catholics are employed; the primary purpose of the institution
or service provided is the direct instruction in Catholic belief;
the only persons served by the institution are those that share
Catholic religious tenets. (Try to fit this in with our local
Catholic Charities that serve 80,000 every year without discrimination
according to faith. It would be impossible!)
Practically speaking under the proposed mandate there would be
no “religious exemption” for Catholic hospitals universities,
colleges, nursing homes and numerous Catholic social service
agencies such as Catholic Charities. It could easily be determined
that the “religious exemption” would not apply as well
to Catholic high schools, elementary schools and Catholic parishes
since many employ non-Catholics and serve both students and,
through social outreach, many who do not share Catholic religious
beliefs. Such a narrow “religious exemption” is simply
unprecedented in federal law.
Last September I asked you to protest those guidelines to Kathleen
Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department for Health and Human
Services, and contact your political leadership in the federal
government. I asked that you request that this flawed mandate
be withdrawn because of its unprecedented interference in the
religious liberty and freedom of conscience of the Catholic community,
and our basic democratic process.
You did. And you were joined by Catholics throughout the country
(and many others as well) who raised their voices against the
mandate, raised their voices against a meaningless religious
exemption.
On January 20, 2012, the Obama administration answered you and
me. The response was very simple: “TO HELL WITH YOU.”
Kathleen Sebelius announced that the mandate would not be withdrawn
and the religious exemption would not be expanded. Instead, she
stated that nonprofit groups – which include the Catholic
Church – will get a year “to adapt to this new rule.”
She simply dismissed Catholic concerns as standing in the way
of allegedly respecting the health concerns and choices of women.
Could Catholics be insulted any more, suggesting that we have
no concern for women’s health issues? The Catholic Church
and the Catholic people have erected health care facilities that
are recognized worldwide for their compassionate care for everyone
regardless of their creed, their economic circumstances and,
most certainly, their gender. In so many parts of the globe –
the United States included – the Church is health care.
Kathleen Sebelius and through her, the Obama administration,
have said “TO HELL WITH YOU!” to the Catholic faithful
of the United States.
TO HELL WITH YOUR
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS!
TO HELL WITH YOUR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY!
TO HELL WITH YOUR FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE!
We’ll give you a year, they are saying,
and then you have to knuckle under. As Cardinal-designate Timothy
Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops responded, “In effect, the President
is saying that we have a year to figure out how to violate our
consciences.”
As I wrote to you last September, with this mandate the democratic
process is being ignored while we are being ordered to ignore
our religious beliefs. And we are being told not only to violate
our beliefs, but to pay directly for that violation; to subsidize
the imposition of a contraceptive and abortion culture on every
person in the United States.
It is time to go back to work. They have given us a year to adapt
to this rule. We can’t! We simply cannot!
Write to (or call) the President. Write to (or call) our Senators.
Write to (or call) our Congressman.
Here is what you can write:
Dear (fill in the name):
In early August, the Department for Health and Human Services
released guidelines that would force Catholic institutions to
subsidize through their health care plans contraception, sterilization
procedures and pharmaceuticals that even result in abortion.
It was announced on January 20th by Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary
of the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services, that this
mandate is affirmed and that non-profit institutions, including
the Catholic Church, have one year to adapt to the mandate.
This is a direct threat to the religious liberty of Catholics,
freedom of conscience and the social service ministry of the
Catholic Church. The so-called ‘religious exemption’
in the mandate is no exemption at all as it would require any
Catholic institution (that serves non-Catholics or employs non-Catholics)
to violate Catholic belief, discontinue to provide health care,
or close its doors.
I ask that you do all possible to rescind the ‘Preventive
Service Mandate’ as an unprecedented federal interference
in the right of Catholics to serve their community without violating
their fundamental moral beliefs.
Sincerely yours, etc. |
This mandate can be changed by Congressional
pressure. The only way that action will happen is if you and
I take action.
Let them know that you and I will not allow ourselves to be pushed
around (or worse yet) be dismissed because of our Catholic faith.
Let them know that you and I will not allow our religious freedom
to be compromised. Let them know that you and I will not allow
our religious liberty to be rescinded.
Nobody, not even the President of the United States nor anyone
who represents him, has the right to say to you and to me as
U.S. citizens, as Catholics, or as both: “TO HELL WITH
YOU.”
The president and our elected leaders need to hear from you and
me and to listen to us NOW.
And if NOT now, HOW can we get the president to listen to us???
Here are the addresses and phone numbers you will need:
President Barack Obama, The White House,
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20500 (202-456-1111)
Senator Robert Casey Jr., 393 Russell Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC 20510 (202-224-6324)
Senator Patrick Toomey, 502 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington,
DC 20510 (202-224-4254)
Congressman Tim Holden, 2417 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington
DC 20515 (202-225-5546) |
Saturday,
28 January
THIS IS A PICTURE OF A BIRD KNOWN
AS
BLESSING OF THROATS