[Apologetics] Wall Street Journal Editorial: Catholics in Court

[Art Kelly]

Catholics in Court

Wall Street Journal

Editorial

May 22, 2012

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230361050457741860074853773
4.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

 

The 12 federal lawsuits filed Monday by 43 Catholic plaintiffs against
the Obama Administration's birth-control mandate are a big political and
Constitutional moment. The nation's most prominent Catholic institutions
are saying that the same federal government they have viewed for decades
as an ally in their fight for social justice is now a threat to their
religious liberty. 

 

This can't have been an easy decision, especially because the plaintiffs
are hardly founding members of the tea party. They include the
Archdioceses of New York and Washington but also Catholic University in
Washington, D.C., and even the University of Notre Dame. 

 

The famously liberal Notre Dame gave President Obama an honorary degree
in 2009 despite his support for abortion rights. At the time, Notre Dame
President John Jenkins applauded Mr. Obama's "willingness to engage with
those who disagree with him and encourage people of faith to bring their
beliefs to the public debate." 

 

So much for that. The lawsuit signals that far from engaging with "those
who disagree," Mr. Obama has rebuffed Catholic leaders in their attempt
to work out a compromise over the Administration's mandate that all
insurance plans offer contraception and sterilization services,
including abortifacients. "If the government wants to provide such
services," Father Jenkins said in a statement Monday, "means are
available that do not compel religious organizations to serve as its
agents."

 

But the Administration deliberately rejected any such means, exempting a
religious employer only if it is a nonprofit whose goal is the
"inculcation of religious values" and which primarily employs and serves
people who share the same values. That leaves out legions of parochial
schools, universities, hospitals, soup kitchens and other charities
whose beliefs are also threatened by the mandate.

 

The Department of Health and Human Services offered a fig leaf in
February, foisting the mandate onto insurance companies rather than
religious employers. But the insurers would pass along the mandate's
cost to the employers in any case, and institutions like Notre Dame that
self-insure would still be subsidizing policies that violate core church
teaching. As Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York put it, this so-called
"safe habor" effectively gives religious institutions "a year to figure
out how to violate [their] consciences."

 

The suit charges that the mandate violates the First Amendment's Free
Exercise Clause, as well as the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act,
which requires that the federal government meet a higher legal standard
for any law that interferes with religious liberty. "If the Government
can force religious institutions to violate their beliefs in such a
manner," argues the Notre Dame suit, "there is no apparent limit to the
Government's power." 

 

The Administration and Democrats have tried to obscure the real nature
of this dispute by claiming that the church wants to deny contraception
to women. But birth control will continue to be widely available and
easily affordable no matter what the legal outcome. Nine out of 10
health plans currently provide it. 

 

The real and startling question at issue is whether the entitlement
state can pound everything, including religious belief, to its political
will. Few previous Administrations would have dared such a high-stakes
Constitutional battle, but Mr. Obama's willfulness reveals the change
that is taking place in liberal politics. 

 

Once upon a time the political left viewed Catholics and especially the
bishops as their allies in using government to create more equal
opportunity and redistribute income. But today's Democratic Party puts a
higher cultural value on sexual politics and expanded reproductive
freedom. We trust the courts will instruct the Administration that the
Constitution still puts religious liberty first.

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Disclaimer: The Republican National Committee provided the above article
as a service to its employees and other selected individuals.  Any
opinions expressed therein are those of the article's author and do not
necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the RNC.

 

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