Despite rumors of a compromise on the government’s controversial contraception mandate, the White House has not offered any concessions to the U.S. bishops’ conference and has not contacted them about possible negotiations.
Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., told EWTN News in a Feb. 8 statement that “no one from the administration has approached the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops for discussions on this matter of a possible ‘compromise.’”
Bishop Lori, who chairs the bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, maintained that “the only acceptable solution to the HHS mandate is for the administration to rescind completely the mandate to cover abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization and contraception.”
He stressed that no organization or employer should “be compelled to pay for, provide for or to refer others in any way to ‘services’ which violate their consciences.”
Rumors of a possible compromise surfaced after David Axelrod, a senior adviser for President Obama’s re-election campaign, mentioned during a Feb. 7 MSNBC interview a need to find “a way to move forward that both provides women with the preventive care that they need and respects the prerogatives of religious institutions.”
Despite the storm of protest, the Obama administration has refused to broaden the exemption to the mandate.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said at a Feb. 8 press briefing that Obama remains committed “to ensuring that women have access to contraception without paying any extra costs, no matter where they work.”
He added that the administration is holding “further discussions” with those who have voiced concerns about the mandate to discuss ways to “implement this policy” in a manner that will “allay or resolve some of those concerns.”
When he was questioned about the administration’s decision not to reach out to the bishops during these ongoing “conversations,” Carney responded, “Certain individuals may say they haven’t had a call, but others have been engaged in this conversation and will be engaged.”
Bishop Lori emphasized the importance of finding a solution that respects the conscience rights of both religious organizations and private individuals.
“Narrow solutions often end up entangling church and state in needless disputes, which result in government coercion of conscience,” he said.
“Religious liberty has been granted to churches and to individuals not by the state but by the hand of God,” Bishop Lori pointed out. “It is the first of our freedoms in the Bill of Rights and at the heart of all the other freedoms.”
Bishop Lori called on the Obama administration “to rescind those parts of the mandate that violate the religious freedom of our religious institutions and the consciences of millions of Americans.”
Joseph Pronechen: Bishops Call for 'Rosary Novena for Life and Liberty'
Matthew Warner: Thank God for the HHS Mandate
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Thank you! Thank you! your Excellency for not abandoning the rest of us out here in this new Pol Pot style of AmeriKa ... for not being an Esau and selling out our American birthright for a mess of poisoned pottage ... thank you for not kowtowing to this false Prophet of the new Baal for “crumbs” ... maybe; just maybe Obamacare and his Czars will be overturned and a true reform of the bloated way that health care is delivered and paid for will emerge and not this monstrosity of a bill that was rammed through the Democrat Senate and the then Democrat House greased by Obama’s lie about Abortion. The process was flawed from the start and excluded all others ... it has the bloody finger prints of every special interest group except the American people all over it ... the best solution will be when it lands out there in the dust bin of history and REAL healthcare reform is enacted.
Obamacare delenda est!
Next will the Bishops “reign in” the 28 states that already have this law—which requires institutions to provide contraception services?
And will they look at their own Catholic Universities—De Paul University, etcs. which already provides this service?
And their Catholic Hospitals, where they already dispense contraception to patients?
Does this surprise anyone? Not me! Those who preach tolerance, dialogue, and discussion are sometimes the worst offenders. Our administration needs our prayers as we continue to press the issue, speak out fearlessly on this issue, and stand together to say NO as Pope John Paul II and many of the devout Catholics in Poland did as they faced their own communist government.
I am a lector at our parish and this sickens me to my stomach, and it turns both fear and dissapointment to my prayers.
We host a novena prayer to Our Mother of Perpetual Help every Wednesday begging the Blessed Mother for this decision to NOT be final. This is really too much, it is pushing the envelope and is a slap against the face of each Catholic, practicing or not.
We hope that Obama can take his demonic-inspired politics back to hades where they belong. Saint Michael the Archangel, do not let our country sink into the demonic pits of hell. Amen.
I almost laughed, our shepherds led the sheep to the slaughter and now want to cry foul? Give me a break and first admit how stupid it is to sleep in the same bed with our enemy, call him our friend, elect him our leader and then try and put all the blame on him when it is the leadership of the US CATHOLIC CHURCH that needs to apologize to us for leading us into this sinful state of sin.
We urgently need an imperfect Republican President elected this November. But right now we Catholics *more urgently* need to get imperfect Party leaders to challenge President Obama as stated below, following this vital reminder on the decisive electoral-college voting system:
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President Obama’s recent flip to approving Super PACs, added to how the electoral-college voting system works, spells B-I-G T-R-O-U-B-L-E for saving our Republic and Religious Liberty this fall. Many voters do not realize that the nature of the electoral-college system of electing the President can give the Oval Office to someone who *loses* the national popular vote (the popular will) yet narrowly wins the “electoral” votes in about a dozen electoral-vote-rich states.
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The new TONS of S-PAC money for Obama means he’ll SWARM his negative TV ads over *KEY precincts* across the dozen to secure the coveted electoral votes even if by very narrow state-win margins. Pro-Obama ads will play to human nature’s fear-factor in an uncertain economy, to naiveté, to miseducation by Obama & MSM and especially will play to naïve gratitude that will flow for more and more help being advertized and offered from the bully pulpit!
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“Going in the Right Direction” and deceitful “Fairness” negative ads will work unless Obama’s disrespect for God is openly, widely discussed.
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Republicans won’t cite President Obama as a Disrespecter of God though the disgraceful Obama record is thick on that *self-accusing charge*. There is such an ABYSS between Republican & Democrat records on Respect for God that Republicans need not fear comparisons.
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Had Republicans studied Obama’s pre-election speeches and relational politics they would find a claimed Christian heralding the importance of showing EMPATHY with others’ plight, so much so, that Sen. Obama voted against USSC nominee John Roberts substantially on grounds Roberts had insufficient empathy for being a Justice, in Obama’s opinion. So, Obama is keenly Empathy-Aware!
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But here is how Republicans continue to cause their own failures and limit their success. In his 2006 Call to Renewal Speech, Sen. Obama *chided* fellow Christians for not reading their bibles. Hence, all that Republicans who respect God’s new children before birth need to do today is to demand that self-professed Christian President Obama read John 1: 3 – “through Him (Jesus Christ) all things were made” and then renounce his own facilitation of killing God-Jesus’ own children. Since newly developing babies cannot be excluded from John 1:3, ALL such developing children are Jesus’ Personal Treasures.
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Consider that Jesus must watch their daily slaughter FACILITATED in significant measure by Obama’s willful policies. Ergo, President Obama shows ZERO empathy for his own professed savior! Obama by his public choices *convicts himself* as a serious disrespecter of God and cannot be trusted with a second term even if he postures as having changed his mind.
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We need to get Republican leaders to target those same critical precincts where many low to no income people respect God MUCH more than President Obama does. Ceding those precincts to Leftist activists and ads will come back to haunt us on Election night for not having countered his ads. Provided the ads are well thought out (theologically & street-smart peer-reviewed on that), are accurate, positive and NAME THE PRESIDENT – then word-of-mouth in those communities will break the ELECTORAL-COLLEGE TRAP of being cheated by S-PAC Money! Doing it smartly means we don’t have to spend equal amounts. Political salvation is in the Truth Message and in the hearts of the local population who will think twice before voting for President Obama.
Although I’m delighted that the US Bishops are taking this stand, I have to agree with Jon in some respects. How many of us heard from the pulpit during the 2008 election that we CANNOT support a candidate who supports abortion? Probably not too many. In our archdiocese, we were very, very restricted about what we could and could not say and the materials we could distribute. I think the leadership is too often concerned about our tax exemption status over moral integrity. We Catholics could have prevented Obama from getting into office. Let’s not make the same mistake in 2012.
The comment above by Father Chris Fontanini is particularly offensive and reprehensible. He compares the Obama Administration to the Soviet-backed government of Poland in the days before that regime fell. Really? Seriously? Ridiculous. His entire comment reveals a tea party mentality. A Google search of this priest reveals other incendiary comments, including one made on March 27th, 2009, in which he accuses the Administration of using “Gestapo-like tactics” to get its way. The Gestapo? The most heinous organization in the history of humanity? The one that went door to door rounding up the Jews and sending them to concentration camps? That Gestapo? His comment then and the one now are unconscionable. Shame on him.
This is yet another example of power grap by this administration. There is more to come as the Socialist adjenda continues to expand under Obama Care. Obama has no authority to mandate anyone or organization to go against their religious beliefs. It is unconstitutional and morally wrong. We as Americans must stand up against this dictator. More important those in Congress need to speak out and provide legislation to prevent this dictator from continuing with such mandates. It is going to be diffcult to defeat Obama in November but it can be done if every American speaks out loud and clear this kind of action must not be tolerated by anyone and any Christian.
Here’s the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” The contraceptive ruling doesn’t violate the First Amendment. This ruling doesn’t establish a religion, and it doesn’t keep me from practicing mine in any way. Sometimes it wouldn’t hurt folks to actually read the document they claim to know so well.
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