The State of the Union and Religious Freedom

What is the connection between this:

and this:

Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan on HHS Conscience Regulation from Rocco Palmo on Vimeo.

Answer: There are Catholics in both pieces of media. Vice President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House John Boehner are both Catholic, while Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York (now Cardinal-designate Dolan) is the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The 2012 State of the Union focused on unity, on an America of liberty and equality for all. Yet on Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a set of regulations that cuts directly against the First Amendment guarantees of religious freedom in ways that will directly impact almost all Catholic organizations in America--regulations announced by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, also a Catholic. That was last week, just before the State of the Union Address. Monday was the 2012 March for Life, an event that is, once again, mostly ignored by the press.

This has got to be one of the most schizophrenic sorts of sidelining an unwanted class of people in the history of humanity. Here are Catholics announcing and implementing the regulations that will strike directly at the free operation of our Church in this country, Catholics holding some of the highest positions in the land sitting behind the President who, as Cardinal Mahoney said, must have known and been personally involved in the decision, at a speech where he reiterated a message of unity, common cause, and caring for the least among us.

Congressman Boehner and Archbishop Dolan addressed the March for Life crowds. Vice President Biden and Secretary Sebelius did not. The one issue which can reliably bring together Catholics across the political spectrum is abortion. The one issue which caused unprecedented fragmentation in Catholic life in America was contraception. The current challenge to religious freedom focuses not on the first, but on the second. Perhaps the fact that it is Catholics who are closest to the President under whom these decisions are being taken indicates that they chose their target in light of such considerations. Ignore the March for Life. Drop the issue of FOCA, or pass a healthcare bill whose implementation by the states may pave the way for state-by-state versions of FOCA. Instead, aim at the apparent weakest link of contemporary Catholic teaching--at contraception.

What the heck are we doing to ourselves?