This is a really tough issue for me. We are Catholic. I love a lot of things about the Catholic church. But as a family, we are having a really hard time remaining in the Catholic Church. We've been attending an Episcopal Church for about two months. I think the Church that we once truly loved has lost another family. I just can't reconcile some of the recent actions (and inaction) of the Church with my own Christian faith.

I know it doesn't really matter. I guess I just wanted non-Catholics to know that there are many, many Catholics really struggling with these issues.

Tell them to give up State funds and then the church can do what they want. (including nonprofit status and paying on taxes on property)

Anonymous wrote:There's absolutely nothing that contravenes Catholic Church teaching in requiring employers to provide an insurance plan with contraception coverage. This doesn't force Catholics to use birth control. It doesn't force anyone to prescribe birth control. It's a ginned up controversy.

Yes, absolutely. And further, the Church has proven itself to be, let's say . . . flexible with respect to some of its principles when it suits its purposes. Crying about principle now, in connection with a ginned-up controversy leaves me a little cold.

The really entertaining thing about this is that support for the HHS mandate is higher among Catholics than pretty much any other group:



http://wapo.st/xiTXfy

Maybe it's time for the Catholic bishops to "fire" their flock and replace them with white American evangelicals.

Seriously, though. It's amusing to hear pundits argue that Obama is in trouble with "Catholics" for his stance on this issue. The (unsupportable) position of the Catholic hierarchy couldn't be further from that of mainstream Catholic voters.

TheManWithAUsername wrote:Two things you should know about the posters of these threads (and probably already do):
1) they refuse even to address counterarguments;
2) they imagine themselves to be martyrs.

You forgot the third thing:
3) they don't follow 90% of church doctrine (including the use of contraception)

There's absolutely nothing that contravenes Catholic Church teaching in requiring employers to provide an insurance plan with contraception coverage. This doesn't force Catholics to use birth control. It doesn't force anyone to prescribe birth control. It's a ginned up controversy.

A part of me feels that since a Catholic working for an insurance company has to handle claims involving BC, it's no more of a restriction of religious freedom for an institution run by the Church to do so. The other part of me feels that as President of the entire country, O has to try to come to some agreement with the Catholic Church; and I think it should be possible to do so.

Anonymous wrote:As a Catholic, I sometimes feel like a lobster in warm water...with the temperatures slowly rising to boiling with mandates like this.

Funny. I feel the same way, except with the growing craziness coming out of the Church.

Two things you should know about the posters of these threads (and probably already do):
1) they refuse even to address counterarguments;
2) they imagine themselves to be martyrs.

Anonymous wrote: The administration's actions are a complete violation of conscience and a breach of religious liberty that the constitution protects.

"Although a State would be 'prohibiting the free exercise [of religion]' in violation of the [constitution] if it sought to ban the performance of (or abstention from) physical acts solely because of their religious motivation, the [Free Exercise] Clause does not relieve an individual of the obligation to comply with a law that incidentally forbids (or requires) the performance of an act that his religious belief requires (or forbids) if the law is not specifically directed to religious practice and is otherwise constitutional as applied to those who engage in the specified act for nonreligious reasons."

Well-known Catholic Antonin Scalia wrote that for the Supreme Court. The Constitution does not give you the right to opt out of every law that you think violates your moral code.

As a Catholic, I sometimes feel like a lobster in warm water...with the temperatures slowly rising to boiling with mandates like this.

OP, thanks for posting this. I started a thread about this last week, but as I suspected from the DCUM crowd, got little support. I'm glad to see your post and I whole-heartedly support it. I'm glad to see the Church won't stand for this and essentially will close those needed hospitals and curtail other services at its educational institutions if the administration continues to force it to do something that violates the collective Church doctrine. The administration's actions are a complete violation of conscience and a breach of religious liberty that the constitution protects.

As a catholic, I find this unpersuasive.

+1

As a catholic, I find this unpersuasive.