"An epic confrontation is in the offing"
Obama administration is taking a wrong-headed line with the church
Forcing contraception insurance coverage goes too far
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, January 22 2012, 4:10 AM
Archbishop Timothy Dolan has lambasted the Obama administration for putting health policy ahead of moral teachings
President Obama’s health chief decreed Friday that the Catholic Church must provide its employees with health insurance coverage for contraception, its moral stance against birth control be damned.
Wrong, wrong, high-handedly, obtusely wrong.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius took Obamacare’s philosophy of equal insurance for all to a level of zealotry that reduced a deeply held matter of conscience to a bothersome trifle.
Presumably, the President was fully briefed on a decision of this magnitude. If so, he made a fundamental error that will only add to a sense among many faith-based communities that the White House has a thing against religion.
It was less than two weeks ago that the Supreme Court unanimously and thunderingly scolded the administration for trying to tell churches and church-based organization that the government knew best as to who they could hire and fire.
Because of the church’s size and reach, Sebelius’ ruling will apply most broadly to Catholic organizations, but they apply to affiliates of other religions that bar contraception and sterilization.
Church leaders, including New York’s Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, had lobbied vigorously to persuade Sebelius to grant an exemption from Obamacare’s uniform-care-for-all standard.
She went only so far as to grant nonprofit groups that do not provide contraceptive coverage because of religious views an additional year “to adapt to this new rule.” She is sadly mistaken to think a transition period compares in any significant way with timeless belief.
The secretary also contended that she had nicely threaded a needle by giving a pass to groups that have the primary purpose of inculcating religious values, primarily employ individuals who share those values and primarily serve people who share them as well.
That essentially covers the parish rectory. It leaves out Catholic schools, hospitals and social service organizations — the vast sweep of Catholic Charities — because they serve all comers who need help, regardless of faith.
Dolan, who serves as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was unstinting in saying the Obama administration had “drawn an unprecedented line in the sand” with the decision. An epic confrontation is in the offing.
While Obama’s one-year grace period will put off the day of reckoning until after the presidential election, it is already clear how events will play out. The Catholic Church will never submit to such an order and will move Earth and heaven to hold to beliefs that happen to be out of favor with a President of the United States.
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