Pro-abortion catholics give support to Obama Administrations war on religious liberty

You might check out an article in the Washington Times about Catholic colleges/universities and the rapidly warming issue of religious liberty, abortion, etc.

Here is the first part of the piece, which gives you an idea of the parameters of the issues and some of the players:

REILLY: No choice for Catholic colleges
Obama wants to force faith institutions to provide birth-control services

Some pro-abortion advocates seem positively outraged that Catholic colleges would defend their constitutional liberty to teach and uphold Catholic values. In that, they reveal that God, reason and the rule of law are of little importance to their narrow agenda.

On Oct. 7, the president of Catholics for Choice, Jon O’Brien, publicly scolded his counterpart at the Catholic University of America (CUA) for interfering “in women’s capacity for moral decision making,” simply because the university wants the Obama administration to exempt Catholic colleges from morally offensive regulations.

Frances Kissling, founder of Catholics for Choice, also accused CUA of being “intolerant” and “politicizing some of the most sacred decisions people make about sexuality and reproduction.”

Why? Because in the warped view of the family-planning lobby, abortion rights and contraception are more “sacred” than the First Amendment right of Catholic institutions to be and act faithfully Catholic.

On Sept. 30, CUA president John Garvey called new Health and Human Services (HHS) regulations a “collective violation” of Catholic beliefs by the federal government. Despite the outcry from abortion proponents, Mr. Garvey has it exactly right. HHS has mandated that health insurance plans include coverage for sterilization, contraception and certain abortion-inducing drugs, even when offered by Catholic institutions, which consider such practices to be gravely immoral.

Although HHS does exempt some religious employers, attorneys advising the Cardinal Newman Society tell us that the “exemption” is so narrow that it likely would exclude religious charities, hospitals and colleges, which are not controlled directly by the church and which provide services such as education, medical treatment and food donations to non-Catholics as well as Catholics.

Mr. Garvey is not the only one defending his rights. Last month, 18 other Catholic colleges joined in an appeal to HHS coordinated by the Center for the Advancement of Catholic Higher Education, a division of the Cardinal Newman Society located at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Md. Writing on their behalf, attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) argued that “federal law simply prohibits the federal government from violating the religious and moral beliefs” of any individual or institution.

“No federal rule has defined being ‘religious’ as narrowly and discriminatorily as the [HHS] mandate appears to do, and no regulation has ever so directly proposed to violate plain statutory and constitutional religious freedoms,” wrote ADF’s Kevin Theriot and Matthew S. Bowman.

While Catholic college leaders are understandably concerned about the mandate’s impact on employee health insurance, they are especially offended that they would be forced to help facilitate sexual activity among students. By refusing to exempt student insurance plans, HHS is ensuring that even Catholic girls attending Catholic colleges will be tempted by cost-free sterilization and contraception.

[…]

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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11 Comments

  1. Rich says:

    I don’t know what’s more scandalous: that these “Catholics” like O’Brien and Kissling are engaging in such behavior, or that their bishops haven’t seemed to have done anything about the fact that O’Brien and Kissling may still consider themselves “Catholic”.

  2. Theodore says:

    It’s amazing that the LDS Church can stay on message better that the Catholic Church. Mormons who advocate “freedom of choice” i.e., polygamy, are quickly excommunicated as falling outside of Mormon doctrine, even though a stronger case could be made for Mormons preaching or even practicing plural marriage than Catholics advocating or supporting abortion. As others have said, where is the will to enforce the teachings and doctrines of the Catholic Church in this matter?

  3. Supertradmum says:

    I think after receiving his so-called honorary degree from Notre Dame, POTUS and his administration thought they could push through the anti-religious agenda they have always had. Please remember the egocentric, post-modernist mindset. Dr. Sanity, whose brilliant blog ended in her frustration with the system and country she loves so much, listed this from a book explained below: these are the beliefs of the new post-modernists who run our country and Europe and now, places beyond Europe.

    List is on her website and description of the now is below.
    http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2011/05/political-left-and-seven-deadly-sins-of.html
    “In a book titled WHY IS IT ALWAYS ABOUT YOU? The Seven Deadly Sins of Narcissism, authors Hotchkiss and Masterson identify what they call the “seven deadly sins” of narcissism and their origin
    The ideology of the political left in all its various iterations–socialist, communist, radical environmentalism, progressive; call it what you will– is, at its core an essentially narcissistic and self-indulgent pursuit of power, with all the unhealthy psychological attributes that implies

    This is not to suggest that narcissism or sociopathy exit merely within the political left. Clearly it does not. But, having made that qualification, today’s progressive leftist is steeped in and encouraged by an ideology that rewards only feelings and not critical thinking or truth; fantasy and not reality; and good intentions instead of actual outcome in the real world. The seven deadly sins of narcissism outlined above lead the the poor, innocent and unsuspecting lefist into cognitive dissonance in his thinking patterns and wreak all sorts of misery and spiritual destruction on the people who are the targets of the leftists’ supposed goodwill.

    But they neither care nor notice, since the primary determinant of why they do what they do is to make themselves feel good; to escape for one brief moment the emptiness of their own individual souls and the self-hatred and rage that motivate them.”

    May I add that this is a direct result of an ego-centric view of life, a life without God, the Ten Commandments, Jesus or any other real reference to sin and salvation. The Church, our great gift, is, simply, not a reality for these people, just an obstacle. I have met many people like this.

    In other words, a spiritual or metaphysical reality never occurs to them-and the idea of any religion having any say in the political realm is beyond their little ole’ leftist imaginations.

  4. Long time reader, first time poster. I’m taking courses at the Catholic University of America and am very proud of President Garvey, who is determined to make Catholic identity a priority of the university. Here is the video of the inauguration address he gave earlier this year. It was excellent to be there, he is very intelligent and very Catholic and not afraid to admit it or take on a challenge. (For the joke at the beginning, you have to know that the mascot of CUA is the cardinal.)

  5. Charivari Rob says:

    Another developing battle on the mandated-coverage front – have you heard how the government is excluding the Church from further participation in a program to support refugees of human trafficking? USCCB Migrants & Refugees committe wouldn’t provide coverage for you-know-what.

  6. Supertradmum says:

    Yes, saw that. Here is a link for people: http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-10/catholic-group-dropped-from-u-s-aid-contract.html

    I check bloomberg daily..the ACLU was behind this…

  7. Gail F says:

    How can anyone argue, with a straight face, that not providing free birth control interferes with women’s capacity to make moral decisions? Every woman affected can still make the decision to use birth control medicine and/or devices — but if they make that decision, they’ll have to pay for it. The universities would be saying, “Hey, we think that is the WRONG decision” by not paying for it, but the women can still do it.

  8. Supertradmum says:

    Again, the present government really does not care about reproductive rights. The administration does not care about religious freedom. The egotists in power only care about themselves and what will give them power. We rational ones have a hard time understanding the new progressive, post-modernist politician who is totally self-centered to the point of being out of touch with reality. All the decisions of the present generation of politicians from the left are based on an ideology of the Omnipotent/Grandiose Self. The narcissistic raging in the streets is applauded by the King of Narcissism. When this administration makes a statement, do not take it for the ideology that it seems to be holding, but as yet another way to stay in power.These politicians actually hide behind the terms of socialism and liberalism, as it suits their purposes. Because the Catholic bishops and the Catholic colleges and universities are not responding in a manner the “god” in the White House anticipated, there will be a temper-tantrum, a persecution of all those who cannot be manipulated.

  9. pm125 says:

    Frances Kissling, founder of Catholics for Choice, also accused CUA of being “intolerant” and “politicizing some of the most sacred decisions people make about sexuality and reproduction.”

    She forgot the Sixth Commandment? The words in quotes describe and define her organization.

  10. Nicole says:

    Well…I merely wonder when the “excommunicate and anathema” sword is ever going to come out in the external forum…although I am pretty suspicious that it already has struck a lot of the people, in the internal forum, who claim to be Catholic, yet advocate abortion, elective sterilization, artificial birth control and elective circumcision as if the Bishops and the Popes (current and past) don’t/didn’t know what they’re talking about or don’t/didn’t have the authority when they forbade such things…

  11. CatholicCaliGirl says:

    How can these people say they are Catholic when the things they advocate (abortion, euthenasia, etc.,) go against some of the most important teachings of the Catholic Church? they are an insult, and their souls need prayers and confession.

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