Bp. Slattery (D.Tulsa) on Pres. Obama’s “Plan B”

His Excellency Most Rev. Edward Slattery, Bishop of Tulsa, has issued a response to Pres. Obama’s latest “accommodation”, which I liken to his taking the “Plan B” pill.

Text below, but here is his VIDEO!

[wp_youtube]JLWnl1P4slg[/wp_youtube]

Bishop Slattery responds to President Obama’s HHS mandate
2/10/2012 – Bishop Edward J. Slattery

February 10, 2012
Saint Scholastica

Today, the President of the United States has issued what he referred to as an accommodation on the mandate from Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services issued on January 20 of this year. This mandate would have required – among other things – that religious institutions provide through their insurance policies hormonal contraception, abortifacients and direct sterilization, even though such a mandate violates our conscience and run counter to the 1st Amendment guarantee for the free exercise of Religion.

We are grateful that the President has begun to listen to the voices raised in opposition to this intrusion on our first amendment rights, and we are encouraged that he understands the urgency of this matter. However, we are dismayed that he does not understand the root issues which are involved here.

There will be a time, there must be a time, when Americans of good will and strong conscience discuss these points in a rational and non-idealogical conversation. [Do I hear an “Amen!”?  Nothing has come yet from the White House except an ideological imposition.]

• First, no one is asking why it is that the Catholic Church is opposed to
artificial birth control, direct sterilization and abortifacients. For two thousand years, the Church has understood that all of these methods that prevent life damage marriages and thereby weaken the fabric of society.
• Secondly, in describing artificial birth control, direct sterilization and
abortifacients as “Preventive care” it is apparent that the ideology which
underlies this governmental intrusion is that pregnancy is a disease
and that the conception of life should be prevented.
• Thirdly, the question of who ultimately pays for this immoral coverage has remained unanswered by the President. Free coverage is never free; someone will have to pay for this coverage in their premium.

These three points will have to be addressed at some time, but what I want to address here is the constitutional issue. President Obama agreed that religious institutions would not be compelled to directly pay for coverage which betrays their religious tenants or violates their conscience. This would include churches and those charitable institutions, schools and hospitals by which churches fulfill their mission.

However, the Constitution of the United States does not merely guarantee the freedom of religion to institutions, but to every American.

This includes every businessman or woman who willingly provides health insurance to his or her employees. It includes every single mother, every married couple, and every individual who does not wish to cooperate in this sin. No one should be required to betray their religious and moral beliefs or violate their conscience.

I want to encourage people not to be afraid of the sacrifices which are required to love one another with a genuine, faithful and life-giving love. Through these we are made holy and are formed more fully into what God wants us to be. Thank you.

WDTPRS kudos to Bp. Slattery.  Extra kudos for using modern tools to communicate!

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25 Comments

  1. Mary Jane says:

    Bravo!! I am so thrilled that bishops are continuing to take a firm stand against this so-called “compromise”.

  2. acardnal says:

    Great response! The bishops much continue to protest.

    This changes nothing with regard to Religious Liberty and freedom of conscience issues. With this “accommodation” Catholic and other religious institutions have no option to provide insurance coverage that does NOT cover contraception/sterilization/abortafacients because ALL insurance carriers must provide it! So, the Church institutions will be forced to engage in sinful behavior IF they choose to provide health insurance to their employees. This ‘accommodation’ changes nothing with regard to sinful behavior and moral culpability.

  3. rodin says:

    I tried twice to post a response on Bishop Slattery’s site, but it would not work so I will post it here.

    Thank you Bishop Slattery for another wonderful statement. By way of a short addendum I wish to point out that the idea of protecting developing life did not originate with Christianity. It goes back at least to 500 years before Christ to the oath attributed to Hippocrates. One can assume that many people and physicians of that time had already arrived at the underlying natural/moral law. It is a shame that in the much vaunted twenty-first century that basic truth has been lost.

  4. acardnal says:

    The administration MUST provide conscience clause exemptions for religious institutions. If it gets to the Supreme Court they will lose again -unanimously – as they did a few months ago regarding the Lutheran church. Obama just doesn’t get it.

  5. Supertradmum says:

    This is superb. And, bishops could have been talking publicly a long time ago. Note that in, from Wiki, “Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965),[1] was a landmark case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Constitution protected a right to privacy. The case involved a Connecticut law that prohibited the use of contraceptives. By a vote of 7–2, the Supreme Court invalidated the law on the grounds that it violated the “right to marital privacy”.

    I never in my life hear a bishop talk against in the following years. Roe v. Wade followed this. Can we turn the tide now with the great bishops we have now? I hope so. God bless this good bishop.

  6. Dismas says:

    Finally!!!!

    “run counter to the 1st Amendment”

    “what I want to address here is the constitutional issue.”

    “However, the Constitution of the United States does not merely guarantee the freedom of religion to institutions, but to every American.”

    Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ, King of Endless Glory for Bishop Slattery!!!

  7. Supertradmum says:

    sorry about typos, still have sprained hand and am getting new glasses next week, bear with the imperfect.

  8. chantgirl says:

    Deo Gratias!

  9. acardnal says:

    Supertradmum: not to worry. we don’t even see the typos just the substance. keep on writing.

  10. “ideological” not “idealogical.”

  11. Paul M says:

    Bravo, Bishop Slattery! Your clarity at this critical moment will impact people nationwide.

  12. AnnAsher says:

    I love Bishop Slattery. Some days, I want to move to Tulsa. Many have done just that.

  13. acardnal says:

    Bishop Slattery and Bishop Bruskewitz of Lincoln, NE will both be a great loss as they have reached – or soon will – the canonical age that invokes resignation. Let us pray their health remains good and the Holy Father retains them. (Bp. Slattery is 71 and Bishop B. 76).

  14. Elizabeth R says:

    Re moving to Tulsa – I moved to St Louis right before Archbishop (now Cardinal) Burke was transferred to Rome. St Louis is much better than Boston, so I’m still glad I did, but it wasn’t quite what I’d hoped for.

  15. acardnal says:

    Can’t tell you how many times I’ve moved only to have my hopes dashed. “The grass is always greener” is not always true.

  16. Denis says:

    I’m glad that Bishop Slattery pointed out the obscenity involved in saying that contraception is ‘preventive medicine.’ There is no hope for a society that treats pregnancy as a disease.

  17. Marc says:

    I think that Bishop Slattery is sugar coating it when he states: “we are dismayed that he does not understand the root issues which are involved here.” I think the POTUS does understand the root issues, he just doesn’t care.

  18. Stephen D says:

    I hope that the Bishops of England and Wales, who have accepted mandatory and gross anti-Catholic sex-education in our schools without a murmur, will take a lesson from Bishop Slattery and his like (but I am not optimistic)

  19. Supertradmum says:

    StephenD, Sadly, as I know from having taught RCIA in England years ago and getting tarred and feathered by some in the group,(I gave the teaching on Humanae Vitae and one on Papal Infallibility) that there is a prevalent contraceptive mentality among Catholics and other Christians in England, which I think is actually worse than in the States. As to the Bishops, and the priests, well, do as I do, and pray and fast for them. The shadow will fall over religious freedom in GB as well, and is incrementally. There are more strong bishops in the States then there are in England in ratio.

  20. acardnal,

    I wouldn’t worry about the age Bishop Slattery. He’s a strong 71 and as long as he stays healthy, I don’t think he will be going anywhere at 75. God-willing, he may be in that post another 7-9 years (though if he is like any other human being, might long for retirement, but it’s hard to feel sorry for yourself when the Pope is… well … yeah).

    Bruskewitz is a strong 74. I don’t see the Holy Father accepting his resignation at 75 either.

  21. gc5341 says:

    We must pray to Jesus for our bishops to continue to lead this fight until we have conquered Obama and defeated his need to provide “free” contraceptive coverage for all women. The Church must be united as an army against the devil and his current general, Barack Obama. We must then cast Obama from the White House this November or else our freedoms will be taken away in a second Obama administration.

  22. tioedong says:

    Good for Bishop Slatterty…I used to live in his diocses.

    But it’s not just in the US: pray for the Philippines, which is being pressured by rich American NGO’s and the Obama administration to pass an RH bill that would force Catholic doctors and midwives and even private hospitals to “give out” birth control.
    Archbishop Tangle now warns us that there will be an explosion of pedophile type accusations in the near future. I’m sure some accusations are true, but the timing suggests it will be used to destroy the church, similar to the accusations in Ireland, to pass the bill.

    Alas the Protestants will not help the church in this matter because too many of them are run by American liberal protestants, and the conservative protestants get members by demonizing the Catholic church. The only ones on the bishop’s side in the fight are the Muslims….

  23. irishgirl says:

    Thank you, Bishop Slattery! He’s one Bishop who ‘gets it’ (along with Bishop Bruskiewitz)….must have something to do with the water in the Midwest. ; )
    @gc5341-you are so, so right! We Catholics have to stay united, and push and push and push until Obama and his evil minions are defeated….BIG TIME! We can’t let our guard down now!

  24. Father G says:

    Bravo!!!!!
    Although I am not in his diocese, I plan to read his response at the Masses I’ll be celebrating this weekend.

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