Xavier University president Jesuit Father Michael Graham has directed the Cincinnati Jesuit school to stop its health plan's insurance coverage of contraception and sterilization.
“As a Catholic priest and as president of a Catholic university, I have concluded that, absent a legal mandate, it is inconsistent for a Catholic institution to cover those drugs and procedures the Church opposes,” he said in an April 2 letter to members of the Xavier University community.
Father Graham said he reviewed the university’s policy amid controversy over the Obama administration's federal mandate requiring insurance coverage of contraception and sterilization under the new health-care law.
The priest explained that the Catholic Church finds these drugs and procedures “morally problematic.” He has asked the university’s Office of Human Resources to work with Humana, the university’s insurance carrier, to no longer cover sterilizations and contraceptives “except for cases of medical necessity for non-contraceptive purposes.”
The change is intended to take effect July 1.
“While I recognize the inconvenience and potential hardship this may cause in some circumstances, I trust you will understand why I have required that these steps be taken,” Father Graham said.
The move drew some criticism from the Xavier University faculty committee, which questioned whether the university president’s decision violated the principle of shared governance with the faculty. It also asked whether he has the right to make changes to health-coverage plan in the middle of the year.
“We would like to see if insurance law permits an employer to change benefits after six months that employees are expecting for the entire year,” the committee said in an April 2 letter.
The committee also questioned the decision’s timing, observing that if the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Affordable Health Care Act, which allowed the mandates, then the coverage will be mandatory. It speculated that the U.S. bishops were involved.
“We can only assume (the) U.S. Catholic bishops decided to compel Catholic institutions that are not already mandated by state law to provide this coverage to come out publicly against it,” the faculty letter said.
The committee said it is “very concerned” about the precedent the bishops’ possible involvement may set in “weakening the semi-autonomous status of our university.”
CNA contacted Xavier University to determine whether the bishops were involved in the university’s decision. Spokeswoman Debora Del Valle said the university is not making any statements on the topic.
The faculty committee added that it was “heartened” by Father Graham’s distinction between birth control and medical need.
Shannon Byrne, Xavier University faculty committee chair, has invited faculty to a meeting to discuss the new policy.
“(I)t is likely that the constitutional issue of religious freedom at the heart of the controversy will be decided by the courts,” Father Graham said. “Several lawsuits have already been filed toward that end.”
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Three cheers for Father Graham!
Notice to faculty at this and all Catholic Universities: You don’t run the show. You are employees. You are at a Catholic University and you will support all the moral teachings of the Catholic Church. Just as those working for large companies must toe the line on company policies. Just because you are “professors” don’t think you are smarter than the rest of us beyond your very narrow field of specialization. Swallow your collosal egos. If you don’t like it leave. Get and keep a job in the real world. You’ll be amazed at what you will learn.
Please don’t pull a Komen on us.
If anyone on this university’s faculty committee presumes to think, eroniously, that they have “a say” in this matter - as if they have authority to “say so” - they who say thus need a quick, thorough re-catechizing on what the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Holy Bible and the 1983 Code of Canon Law have to say about this subject - let alone the myriad of papal directives (Humanae Vitae anyone? Casti Conubii? Ex Cordae Ecclesiae?)
The faculty is kidding, right? They know they work for a “Catholic"institution, right?
Good! We need to obey God, not Obama’s Edict of Evil. Sometimes we are called to carry the cross for Jesus, like Simon of Cyrene, instead of adding to His burden.
Xavier University has essentially gone on record with this report on the push back from their faculty. They are really concerned that the bishops of the United States are “weakening the semi-autonomous status of our university.”?
Most of my life I have been under the belief that bishops are, in fact, the people who will instruct us in our faith. Has the faculty at Xavier replaced those bishops in making decision involving our faith?
I realize that a university is a business and as such works best when there is a cooperative and sharing climate involving said business. But is this really cooperative and sharing or just basic and brainless resistance to change? Universities and many other areas that attach to the Catholic church are being caught in either a lack of awareness of what they’re doing or failure to adhere to the precepts of the Church, I prefer to believe it is the former.
Don’t get angry about what is being put in front of us, this is actually a blessing. We have become terribly complacent in too many ways. The Catholic Church has been accused of being out of touch with today’s world, thank goodness for that. None of us are without sin but, it is our mission here on earth to try to be. The sexual revolution that emerged in the 60’s has gotten us into AIDS, birth control, abortion and of late, even post delivery abortion. The Church’s stand has been the same the whole time. Had we been true to our faith, we may not have had to endure as many hardships because of our weakness.
Xavier faculty, I will be praying for you. It appears that your president is a wise leader. I pray that you are wise enough to quit being so childish in your resistance and follow his lead.
Father, God bless you. We have to stand up for our faith. The Devil is trying to take over the world. Our Holy Catholic Faith is the only thing holding him back.
While I applaud the President’s decision, I am a little uncertain as to why they have had such coverage before as a Catholic institution.
The position of the church has not changed in all these years.
To support Fr. Graham in his decision please sign this petition:
http://www.change.org/petitions/xavier-university-uphold-jesuit-catholic-identity-of-university-healthcare-plans
Congratulations to Father Graham. We sorely need his brand of courageous moral leadership at our Catholic universities. He is in good company with President John Garvey of CUA.
I am amazed and disappointed at the temerity of the Xavier faculty committee in objecting to Father Graham’s action rather than applauding and supporting it. They are selfishly most concerned with the perceived infringement on their own prerogative to share power rather than with their joint responsibility for the formation of the souls as well as the minds of their students. Two thousand years after the first Holy Week, the Pharisees are alive and well.
As a past student (1951-53) at XU (Korean war intervened in my life) I was surprised to see that my Jesuits EVER allowed such “problematic” (ho ho!)insurance coverage paid for to any extent by the university.
Faculty board be d____d; their questionable morality is beside the point. Fr. Graham does the right thing incontestably.
Fr Graham bucking to get tossed from the Jesuit order? Good for him for doing the right thing!
...And, perhaps the next measure is to review the employment contracts of the radicals on the faculty.
For the virtue of obedient, compliant, unity, and goodness’ sake, Catholic Colleges and Universities must adhere to Church’s teaching, NO compromise is necessary with the secular agendas. We are right the they are WRONG. May we continue to pray for stronger Catholic institution and Catholics everywhere to stand up for what is right.
FINALLY…a Catholic university ACTING like a Catholic university…how utterly refreshing!
As a father who graduated a son fromm XU several years back .. I can attest to the excellent education, but at times moral lapse that occurs there and in so many Catholic universities. I am pleased with Fr. Grahams decision .. but have to ask myself how this became in the first place. I will pray it continues.
Father Graham is correct in his decision. God help us if we are not with him.
I hope the Bishops were involved in forcing this change. A so called Catholic university should not be allowed to be a semi-autonmous university if it wants to carry the “Catholic” flag. This sounds like real progress if the Bishops have influenced this institution.
Why are anti-Catholics allowed to teach and help run our students & schools? When the priests at the helm start to wake up it will be too late. The beast will be at the door and all the lost souls who have graduated will not be there to help. They will take the side of the beast.
Thank you Father Michael Graham, S.J. for leading Xavier University, a Catholic and Jesuit university in the ongoing battle against the secularization of our Judaio-Christian American values and our Catholic institutions. It is in the founding principles of the Jesuit Order to be soldiers for Christ. We pray that this Thomas More like stance will awaken Pope Benedict XVI, who as the Vicar of Christ, has been more concerned with being stewards of the earth than champions for life. Christi Fidelis
If being ‘semi-autonomous’ MEANS BEING ABLE TO JETTISON CATHOLIC MORALTEACHING BY TAKING A VOTE WHY BOTHER TO CALL YOURSELF CATHOLIC?
OUR COUNTRY IS FAST APPROACHING MORAL COLLAPSE. COURAGE IS WHAT IS NEEDED ESPECIALLY WHEN IT IS NOT POPULAR IN OUR SECULAR SOCIETY.
Pray ernestly during the season of the Resurrection and beyond that Obama Abortion Care is held unconstitutional. In the alternative, Christianity in the U.S.A. will be facing major religious persecution, the likes of which we have not seen in the “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave” in our lifetime. Secondly, if the Judas/CINO Catholics continue to vote for the very leaders that seek the elimimination of Christianinty in America, we will continue to inch closer and closer to the oppression felt by Catholics in communist regimes like China. Your vote has serious consequences. VOTE AND PROMOTE LIFE FIRST and FOREMOST, it is equivalent to seeking food, water and shelter. Soldiers for Christ. Christi Fidelis !
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