Catholic Bishops, Presidential Election, and Contraception Mandate

There's so much going on right now, it feels like somebody just sounded the starting pistol.  A round up:

Exhibit A:  The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) speaks more forcefully than I have ever heard in response to an Health and Human Services ruling that will, according to the bishops, "continue to demand that sterilization, abortifacients and contraception be included in virtually all health plans."

Here is USCCB President Archbishop Timothy Dolan on the decision:

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

Exhibit B:  Cardinal Roger Mahoney and the National Catholic Reporter publicly voice their opposition to the HHS decision (alongside many others, of course, but focus here for a moment.).

Cardinal Mahoney:

...This decision from the Department of Health and Human Services [HHS] is from the highest level of Federal government, and I cannot imagine that this decision was released without the explicit knowledge and approval of President Barack Obama.

And I cannot imagine a more direct and frontal attack on freedom of conscience than this ruling today. This decision must be fought against with all the energies the Catholic Community can muster...

For me there is no other fundamental issue as important as this one as we enter into the Presidential and Congressional campaigns. Every candidate must be pressed to declare his/her position on all of the fundamental life issues, especially the role of government to determine what conscience decision must be followed: either the person's own moral and conscience decision, or that dictated/enforced by the Federal govenment. For me the answer is clear: we stand with our moral principles and heritage over the centuries, not what a particular Federal govenrment agency determines.

As Bishops we do not recommend candidates for any elected office. For me personally, I intend to vote on November 6, 2012, for the candidate for President of the United States and members of Congress who intend to recognize the full spectrum of rights under the many conscience clauses of morality and public polcy. If any candidate refuses to acknowlege and to promote those rights, then that canddiate will not receive my vote.

This is a sad moment in the life of our country where religious freedom and freedom of conscience led to the formation of this new Nation under God.

Let us all pray that the power of the Holy Sirit will come upon all elected offcials of our country, and that all will make decisions based upon God's revealed truth.

Now Cardinal Mahoney is not known as a rock-ribbed conservative. Far from it.

Nor, in fact, is NCR:

...To say that news of the decision by President Obama not to expand the conscience exemption for church-affiliated institutions who do not wish to cover birth control is a disaster would be a gross understatement...

They have punched Sr. Carol Keehan and Fr. Jenkins and many other Catholics who have taken shots for this Administration in the nose. They have jumped over the First Amendment to coerce religious organizations to do something we find morally objectionable. They have given people who loved the Affordable Care Act reason for pause, great pause. They have given the Republicans a huge battering ram with which to beat swing voting Catholics over the head.

I say “they,” but the full responsibility for this decision rests with the President. NCR has learned that the President called Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. bishops' conference, this morning to tell him the news. Wouldn’t you have liked to be on an extension to listen in on that conversation. The president looked Dolan in the eye in November and said he would be pleased with his decision. I am guessing that Dolan is not pleased. He is not alone...

In other words, the Catholic left might decide not to vote for the Democratic incumbent to the presidency this year.  Which would be a sea-change of massive proportions within the Catholic Church.

Exhibit C: Rocco Palmo notes a curious coincidence:

In quickly-breaking news of conspicuous timing -- read: with Monday's March for Life in Washington just around the corner -- both the AP and Washington Post are reporting that the Obama administration has turned back calls for a wider conscience exemption, which would've allowed religious groups to opt out of funding contraceptives and sterilization procedures for their employees under the new Federal health-care law.

In the words of Captain Jack Sparrow, "That is interesting."

Exhibit D:  Some of the Bishops of the United States were in Rome this week for their ad limina visits to the Pope.  He addressed them on the issue of religious freedom:

...For her part, the Church in the United States is called, in season and out of season, to proclaim a Gospel which not only proposes unchanging moral truths but proposes them precisely as the key to human happiness and social prospering (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 10). To the extent that some current cultural trends contain elements that would curtail the proclamation of these truths, whether constricting it within the limits of a merely scientific rationality, or suppressing it in the name of political power or majority rule, they represent a threat not just to Christian faith, but also to humanity itself and to the deepest truth about our being and ultimate vocation, our relationship to God. When a culture attempts to suppress the dimension of ultimate mystery, and to close the doors to transcendent truth, it inevitably becomes impoverished and falls prey, as the late Pope John Paul II so clearly saw, to reductionist and totalitarian readings of the human person and the nature of society...

In the light of these considerations, it is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres. The seriousness of these threats needs to be clearly appreciated at every level of ecclesial life. Of particular concern are certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion. Many of you have pointed out that concerted efforts have been made to deny the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices. Others have spoken to me of a worrying tendency to reduce religious freedom to mere freedom of worship without guarantees of respect for freedom of conscience.

Here once more we see the need for an engaged, articulate and well-formed Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-à-vis the dominant culture and with the courage to counter a reductive secularism which would delegitimize the Church’s participation in public debate about the issues which are determining the future of American society. The preparation of committed lay leaders and the presentation of a convincing articulation of the Christian vision of man and society remain a primary task of the Church in your country; as essential components of the new evangelization, these concerns must shape the vision and goals of catechetical programs at every level....

Talk about timely.

Exhibit E:  A Marriage Equality bill is being discussed in the Washington State legislature.  The implications for religions in the state could be severe.

Excerpts:

...What churches could be forced to allow gay weddings?

• Does the public ever use your facilities? If you ever allow non-members to use your sanctuary for a wedding you could NOT deny a gay couple from using your sanctuary.
• Do you have a pop machine or sell coffee?
• Do you sometimes have fundraisers where you sell cookies or popcorn for consumption at the church?
• Have you ever allowed your church to be used by another Christian organization for which they paid you a fee?

All of those actions would open the door to a civil rights lawsuit and severe penalties if you failed to allow a gay couple to use your facility to have their wedding.

The laws covering discrimination create a wide net to include any place “… where food or beverages of any kind are sold for consumption on the premises,” Discrimination also includes places with “schools of special instruction, or nursery schools, or day care centers or children’s camps” Those provisions alone include thousands of Washington churches. Since the marriage laws of Washington have never referenced discrimination before, this so-called “Gay Marriage Equality” bill will change everything...

The bishops of Washington State have taken a public stand.

Whew.  That's a lot.  What does it mean?

• The Catholic left and right look likely to come together on this issue in a way we haven't seen in a very long time.
• The implications for electoral politics are liable to be remarkably interesting.
• The March for Life--well, please, everyone, keep a lid on tempers, emotions, etc.  Be careful. Behave well and carefully.  Don't say or do anything stupid.  Love your neighbor, love of humanity as Christ loved them.
• The Church is in dire need of serious catechesis and evangelization on these issues, because a lot of Catholics still aren't ready for all this.