Most of us heard the news that in the "eleventh hour" before the HHS contraception mandate was set to bare its teeth against Catholic agencies, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor blocked the Obama cartel from enforcing that mandate against agencies using the Christian Brothers Employee Benefits Trust. Among the orders who were spared was the Little Sisters of the Poor. It is nothing short of miraculous that Sotomayor, an Obama appointee and pro-abortion person would stand against the demagogue who placed her in that post. Some opine that Sotomayor is remembering that she's Catholic. While that would indeed be lovely, I think the cause is something more mundane - she is remembering that her function is to uphold the United States Constitution, with its all-important checks and balances and limits of power.
Sadly this point seems to be lost on Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, president of the USCCB. In the wake of Sotomayor's action, he is "requesting" that Obama temporarily exempt religious institutions from the contraception/abortifacient mandate. According to the United States Constitution, the President of the United States is charged with enforcing laws that have been enacted by Congress and signed by him. He does not have sole discretion about what laws get enforced and what laws don't get enforced. He is not a dictator, as much as Obama pictures himself to be. In placing this wrong-headed petition before Obama, the Archbishop is tacitly (and hopefully unwittingly) affirming this unconstitutional view of presidential authority.
But the problems with the Archbishop's request are even more fundamental. There is no denying that Obamacare would not have been law of the land had it not been for the support of Catholics in high places and even that of the USCCB. That's right. The USCCB came out in support of Obamacare, minus the obvious abortion provisions. They failed to acknowledge two facts: 1) the inherent antipathy any socialized medical system will have for God and life and 2) the Messiah Most Mindless would lie through his teeth to garner any kind of support and then stab his supporters in the back.
If Archbishop Kurtz truly seeks to protect the Church against the overreach of Obamacare, he will first have to acknowledge the pivotal role that the USCCB played in bringing about this disaster on the entire country. He and his brother bishops will have to repent of their role and their readiness to sell their souls to the progressives in power to obtain a few measly crumbs of considerations and concessions. They will then be obliged, as a body, to oppose Obamacare in its entirety and bring all their resources to bear on the utter annihilation of the Obamacare menace.
That groveling letter will earn no concessions for the Church - at least none that really matter. It shows a complete lack of regard for those Catholics who do not work in Church-affiliated enterprises. It asks for an exercise of authority outside the bounds of the United States Constitution and shows complete cowardice in the face of a de facto tyrant. It's time for the bishops to face up to reality and start acting like men of God as opposed to wimps.
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You know, I wish the bishops would express concern about all those who had their health insurance dropped or their premiums raised to unaffordable levels because of the "Affordable" Care Act.
ReplyDeleteBut I haven't heard a bishop raise a peep about this. Why? Because the victims aren't illegal immigrants, unborn children or "the poor." Also, because the bishops (like all good wannabe liberals) are so infatuated with their "ideas" on "social justice" that they really don't give a damn about the consequences of those ideas. Finally, because the bishops care only for their own baillywicks.
These hypocritical bastards would make good kindling once God decides to light the match, as it were.
BURN, BABY, BURN!!!!!!!
"facts: 1) the inherent antipathy any socialized medical system will have for God and life"
ReplyDeleteExcuse me! I have lived (and been treated) in three countries with socialised medicine, and to the best of experience there is not one iota of antipathy to either God or life in any of them. You right wing citizens of the USA seem to be so wedded to your so called free enterprise model that you are unwilling to even admit that there are other more successful ways of doing things than "your way".
I am delighted that your experiences have been satisfactory. That is not the case here, with death panels arising and good doctors quitting right and left; such is inevitable when government is given the authority of emperors to decide who gets treatment and who doesn't.
DeleteYou'd better add Pope Benedict to your enemies list. He wrote:
ReplyDelete"Health justice should be among the priorities of governments and international institutions. Establishing this goal requires a true distributive justice that guarantees to all, on the basis of objective needs, adequate care. The social doctrine of the Church has always evidenced the importance of distributive justice in the different sectors of human relations. Justice requires guaranteed universal access to health care."
Interesting quote, that - except I don't think it can be attributed to Pope Benedict. I tried to google the phrase "Health justice should be among the priorities of goverments" and came up with nothing. The sites that remotely touched upon those concepts had nothing to do with the Vatican. I then googled "true distributive justice that guarantees to all" and found this http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/secretariat_state/2013/documents/rc_seg-st_20130528_tomasi-accesso-farmaci_en.html
DeleteThis was NOT written by Pope Benedict, but still worth reading so that the googled phrase can be understood in proper context. For instance, we read "The Report made frequent references to the obligation of States to set the conditions for access to medicine. While governmental fulfillment of such responsibility is a clear prerequisite, the strong engagement of non-governmental and religious organizations in providing both medicines and a wide range of treatment and preventive measures to ensure the full enjoyment of the right to health also should have been acknowledged."
Kinda puts it all in context, eh? Government's role is to "set the conditions for access to medicine". With massive numbers of policy cancellations, etc, Obamacare is obstructing access to medical care and government is arrogating to itself the arbiter of health care. Witness the almost fanatical zeal with which this Obama cartel is pounding upon the Little Sisters of the Poor to get them to swallow immoral practices.
But I digress. Your quote, allegedly from the Pope Emertus, is a misquote. I trust the misquote was inadvertent.