Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Cardinal Dolan, Forced to Provide Contraceptive Coverage, Sins Not


Ave Maria Radio
by Kathy Schiffer
 
Negligence.  Ignorance.  Inertia.
 
These are some of the reasons why Catholic dioceses might offer employees’ health insurance plans which include coverage for contraception which violates Church teaching, according to Dr. Janet Smith.  
 
Dr. Smith, who holds the Father Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Ethics at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, was Al Kresta'’s guest on “Kresta in the Afternoon” May 28.  She was responding to a New York Times article which reported that Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, is providing contraception coverage to his own employees, while campaigning against such coverage on the national level.  
 
Is the Archdiocese of New York, as the article implies, being disingenuous or less than transparent by providing contraceptive coverage while opposing the HHS Mandate?  No, explained Smith.  
 
For one thing, state law in New York mandated that employers provide the coverage; and many U.S. bishops have assumed control of dioceses in which longstanding insurance policies include birth control and abortion coverage.  
 
Secondly, some in the Church during the years following the Second Vatican Council may have expected that canon law on the subject of contraception would eventually change; hence insurance policies which anticipated that change by offering contraceptive care may not have raised concern at the time.
 
A third explanation which Smith cited is that Cardinal Dolan'’s and the USCCB’s resistance to the HHS Mandate has caused some to review their existing health care policies.  As a result, many Catholic dioceses may only recently have “discovered” that the standard group insurance package which they purchased for their employees includes coverage for contraceptive services.
 
And Cardinal Dolan may simply be directing his energies where he feels they can have the most impact.  As head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Dolan has decided to fight the HHS Mandate on the national level.  If he wins at that level, it will be easier to win at the state level, not only in New York but around the country.
 
In the Archdiocese of New York, the late Cardinal John J. O'’Connor did, in fact, resist the state requirement that all employers provide insurance which included contraceptive services. After efforts in the early ‘90s to eliminate birth control coverage from the Archdiocese'’s medical plan, he eventually decided that there was no other option, if the Catholic Church was to continue to provide health care to its union-affiliated employees in the city of New York.
 
Not all the staff employed by the Archdiocese of New York currently have contraceptive coverage.  However, workers in the Catholic Health Care System, also known as ArchCare, do receive coverage for contraception and abortions because they are members of SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, a healthcare workers’ union. ArchCare belongs to the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes; that organization negotiates a joint labor contract with the union.  
 
Of the 3,000 unionized full-time workers in ArchCare, it is not known how many have chosen to avail themselves of the contraception benefit.
 
One last question raised by Al Kresta concerned the issue of "intrinsic evil".  Is the Church cooperating with evil if it affiliates with hospitals whose health care plan for unionized employees includes contraceptive coverage?
 
Dr. Smith laughed, noting that God gave us everything we have, even while knowing that some humans would do some terrible things:  God provided Adam and Eve with the tree and the apple, and He gave them the possibility of eating the apple from the tree.  God was not, however, complicit in their sin.  Similarly, if a thief puts a gun to your head and demands that you drive him to the airport, you are under duress and are not guilty of material cooperation for driving him.  In the same way the Catholic Church, required to include birth control and abortion in their insurance coverage, is not culpable if the insured then utilizes that coverage.

25 comments:

  1. Excellent statement. "Dr. Smith laughed." Love that.

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  2. "In the same way the Catholic Church, required to include birth control and abortion in their insurance coverage, is not culpable if the insured then utilizes that coverage."

    There is something really wrong with Dr. Smith's last statement. If this is so, why have all the Bishop's bothered to speak up against the HHS mandate?! This position represents a lost cause for the Catholic Church in America.

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    1. The lost cause is the Church's opposition to the HHS mandate. The President has made reasonable concessions. The HHS mandate is not a moral problem.

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    2. Really? Religious employers are exempt only if their purpose is to inculcate religious doctrine, they hire and serve exclusively people of their own faith, and they qualify as a church or religious order according to a very narrow definition in the tax code.

      Most religious institutions providing health, educational or charitable services to others have no protection. Not even Jesus and the apostles would have qualified for this exemption. Doesn't sound very reasonable.

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    3. "Most religious institutions . . . have no protection." Protection from what? There is no moral problem here for Catholic institutions. The HHS mandate IS a resonable solution. Opponents are shouting crisis from the rooftops where there is nothing to be concerned about. It's simply not a real problem. Worry about the poor instead, like the Pope. And be happy that President Obama is protection the vulnerable poor in providing health care. That's the much bigger issue.

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    4. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church; 2399 "The regulation of births represents one of the aspects of responsible fatherhood and motherhood. Legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception)." Enough said...

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    5. I have to agree with the first post here. I don't know how anyone can see it any other way.

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  3. Excuses, excuses, excuses. Cardinal Dolan needs to clean up his own backyard first.

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    1. Cardinal Dolan has been acting prudently and is protecting the Church from losing lawsuits. It's one thing to have "principles" but another thing to put them in practice, where a degree of flexibility and judgment must be exercised.

      Prudence is a virtue. Cardinal Dolan should be admired, not faulted.

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    2. That's all Dolan ahd the Catholic League mouth ever have is excuses.

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    3. We should be happy and rejoice in being persecuted for our faith in Jesus Christ and his church. The apostles were! Acts 5:41

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  4. The church shook hands with the devil 40 years ago, we could have started our own insurance company back then and would not have to put up with this now. You wanted to play politics and left your sheep for the slaughter. I am still catholic but not because of anything the church is doing, put I can't leave Christ in his greatest suffering I will stay with him and comfort him as St. John and the Blessed Mother did at this cross of todays so called catholic church. Follow this Pope he is speaking to you to stop turn around and find your sheep. Barb email akron210@yahoo.com

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    1. Barb, You have the vision to know the truth. We currently are losing all our rights in this country what is disgrace the Catholic Church is helping. Look at many of archdiocese throughout our United States there under an occupation by those who are not Roman Catholic, but are pretending to be a Roman Catholic. Every chance they get they sow their seeds of anti-catholic it's been going on now for over 40 yrs! Look at the Archdiocese of Detroit this is a most scandalous Archdiocese why do they support, abortion, gay marriage, Obama this smells like an occupation.

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  5. "The path to hell is paved with the skulls of bishops." St. John Chrysostom

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  6. Dear Dr. Smith,

    Get out of the (literally) God-damned car, you genius!

    What a stupid, trivial and un-serious statement on her part.

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    1. Bought & Paid For Dr. Smith YOU ARE A WAS A CATHOLIC!!!

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  7. Cardinal Dolan would not have spoken out so forcefully about the HHS mandate if he had not already been struggling with the issue of immoral insurance plans, at the state level. He inherited the moral mess in his archdiocese, and I trust that he, like all faithful Catholics, are exerting "all the energies that we can muster" to get out of this mess. The Church has always struggled with the issue of "meat sacrificed to idols." Meat, like healthcare, is good, but in this case, we must find an alternative product that does not violate our conscience.

    The social consequences of the HHS Mandate remind me of the Mark of the Beast, without which nobody is allowed to do buisness (Rev 13). Also, the lewdness encouraged by the current administration reminds me of the Jezebel (Rev 2), but we know who wins in the end (Rev 19)! http://goo.gl/P0OZy

    Let us Pray--Pope Francis has summoned the whole world to pray together before Jesus in the Eucharist--Everyone together at the same time, Tomorrow!

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  8. Wow. I don't EVER comment on blog posts (but follow Al's blog daily). But I'm blown away by Dr. Smith's statement in the final paragraph of this post. Did she really just compare God's putting the Tree of Knowledge in Eden with Diocesan Bishops making contraception available to their employees? I'm thinking that's a pretty outrageous comparison. REALLY? I'm still reeling here? Someone (someone, please, from Ave Maria Radio) reach out to me on this one (chadstolly@yahoo.com). And I love Janet Smith... she's the go-to person on this stuff. Did I get this right? The Bishops are not morally culpable for subsidizing contraception and abortion in their Diocese's health insurance because they "don't have a choice"? I'll be the first to jump to the Church's defense, but come on... this is some really serious gymnastics here.

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  9. Well, that was disturbing. You really want to stand by this one? Let's just say it..."It's okay for Catholics to cooperate and pay for other people's contraception and abortions...even the Church's own employees'. Yippee!"

    Janet Smith has really lost it. Leaders are so complicit in each other's evil these days. Doesn't bode well for the Church in America.

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  10. This blog post is ridiculous. Saints Peter and Paul died for the truth and died to teach & protect the souls of their sheep.

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  11. I don't think the body of Christ wants to just "survive" anymore, I think we want to thrive...and the only way to thrive is to stand for truth, pure unadulterated TRUTH! Come on Church, Leaders and parts of the body...stand firm and hold fast. Sainthood is the only way.

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  12. Hello, all--
    What a lot of good discussion this post engendered! Our interview was too short; and Dr. Janet Smith will be back for a FULL HOUR on Monday, June 3, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Tune in then, and call in if you can.

    Kathy

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  13. I think we should all examine ourselves.....before casting a stone.
    Really now, God is in control and will always be.
    Sue Clark

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  14. Abortion is such a grave matter that it could never be considered "proportionate" to cooperate in one. If the archdiocese was cooperating just in contraception through health plans, perhaps it was proportionate, if there was severe duress, to comply under protest. But now that those plans have been changed to cover abortions, they must be dropped to avoid leading faithful Catholics into the grave sin of choosing a health insurance product that dispenses the abortion pill.

    Here's a more detailed discussion on the issue of conscience and cooperation in evil: http://goo.gl/1yPCh

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  15. So in other words, Cardinal Dolan is barred from Communion and Janet Smith is actively trying to promote submission to evil, while watering down the conscience of the faithful, while also making non-arguments so absurd that an undergrad should be embarrassed to make them

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