The Bishops' Call To Arms

I am planning a longer post on the liberty-and-soul-crushing HHS mandate, but man, has it stirred up a hornet's nest among the US bishops! Zubik of Pittsburg penned this for his people.

It is really hard to believe that it happened. It comes like a slap in the face. The Obama administration has just told the Catholics of the United States, “To Hell with you!” There is no other way to put it.

Card. Wuerl had this read at every mass in the diocese today, which enumerates in stark terms the choices now open to Catholic schools and hospitals:

For example, the mandate will allow a Catholic school one of three options: 1) violate its beliefs by providing coverage for medications and procedures we believe are immoral, 2) cease providing insurance coverage for all of its employees and face ongoing and ultimately ruinous fines, or 3) attempt to qualify for the exemption by hiring and serving only Catholics. A Catholic school simply cannot effectively teach Catholic doctrine while providing insurance to its teachers – and in the case of Catholic universities, to its students as well – that violates its own beliefs. Nor should it have to deny its employees access to affordable health care, a basic human right. Nor could it afford to pay crippling fines. Nor should it be forced to close its doors to non-Catholics.

I would argue that option 3 is the point of the rule: the relentless effort to herd Christians into the ghetto and turn the free exercise of religion into the impotent, shrunken, freedom of worship.

It is quite astonishing to me that the always diplomatic Wuerl had this to say:

There can no longer be any doubt that religious liberty in our country is in jeopardy. Only weeks ago, the Obama administration unsuccessfully argued to the Supreme Court that the government has the right to interfere in a church’s choice of its ministers. Thankfully, the Court unanimously rejected this radical position. Undeterred, the government has advanced on another front.

Even more surprising, a friend on the Left Coast just sent me this equally tough letter discussed in every pulpit in the Archdiocese of Portland today. Portland!

We cannot and will not comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second class citizens. We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our religious freedom.
In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties. I hope and trust she can count on this generation of Catholics to do the same. Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less.

I guess we are about to see whether the Administration has over-reached and wakened a sleeping giant that may well awaken on other issues as well, or if two generations of abdication of leadership and conforming to the zeitgeist has deadened consciences beyond revival.