HHS Mandate

 

Bishops reiterate strong opposition to HHS mandate at end of fall General Assembly in Baltimore

By Dave Andrusko

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, right, of New York, outgoing president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, congratulates Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, after he was elected conference president during the group’s annual fall meeting in Baltimore on Tuesday. Kurtz served the last three years as vice-president of the conference.
(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

At the same meeting this week that the nation’s Roman Catholic Bishops elected Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Kentucky to be their new president, they issued a “Special Message” that told the Obama administration the bishops remain adamantly opposed to the Obama HHS mandate which they say represents the government “refusing to uphold its obligation to respect the rights of religious believers.”
The mandate compels groups, including religious universities, hospitals, and charities, to provide health coverage for drugs and procedures that violate their religious or moral convictions, or pay exorbitant fines.
In their Special Message issued Wednesday, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops carefully explained that they had “three basic problems with the HHS mandate.”
First, that “it establishes a false architecture of religious liberty that excludes our ministries and so reduces freedom of religion to freedom of worship”; second, this “coercive HHS mandate… violates our deeply-held beliefs’; and third, “it compels our faithful people in business to act against our teachings, failing to provide them any exemption at all.”
The bishops also wrote

“Despite our repeated efforts to work and dialogue toward a solution, those problems remain. Not only does the mandate undermine our ministries’ ability to witness to our faith, which is their core mission, but the penalties it imposes also lay a great burden on those ministries, threatening their very ability to survive and to serve the many who rely on their care.”

And

“As the government’s implementation of the mandate against us approaches, we bishops stand united in our resolve to resist this heavy burden and protect our religious freedom. Even as each bishop struggles to address the mandate, together we are striving to develop alternate avenues of response to this difficult situation.”

Just how draconian those penalties are and how important the issues raised by the mandate are were on display in court this week. Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik spoke at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab in Pittsburgh. They were asking the judge to grant Catholic Charities and Erie-area Catholic institutions an injunction against the mandate which begins January 1.
Rich Lord of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Bishop Zubik “was joined by other officials from Catholic organizations, who said they would brave million-dollar fines for violating the Affordable Care Act in order to maintain the integrity of their beliefs — but added that those fines would cripple their charitable work.”

In his story Lord reported

“The issue is not the amount of money,” Bishop Zubik said. “The issue is the integrity of our beliefs.”

“Is it your intent that you will not sign the self-certification form?” Judge Schwab asked Bishop Zubik.

“That would be my intent,” the bishop said, even though it would subject Catholic Charities to fines.

After the hearing, the bishop added that the independence of the church is at stake.

“The government is now reversing what our founding fathers said was religion,” which included not just worship, but also living by one’s beliefs, he said. “Don’t force us to do anything that goes against our conscience, even indirectly.”

Source: NRLC News