Distinctly Catholic

Here is the link to the audio from my discussion on "Radio Times" this morning with my freind Sally Steenland from the Center for American Progress and Radio Times' host Marty Moss-Coane.

In the Columbus Dispatch, Sister Judith Ann Karam, CEO of a Catholic health care system in Cleveland, called on Vice President Joe Biden to help "fix" the overly restrictive conscience exemption. Sr. Judith pointed out that she and others advocated for the Affordable Care Act. Her words should serve as a caution to those who are rushing to give the administration cover on the issue: The sisters who run Catholic health care were critical, indeed decisive, in getting the ACA passed. They have been thrown under the bus. And progressive Catholics are defending Obama? C'mon folks. The issue is not about contraception, it is about whether or not Catholic institutions can continue to follow their mission in good conscience.

As regular readers know, I am up here in Connecticut this week and yesterday’s news and this morning’s papers were dominated by coverage of Governor Dannel Malloy’s State of the State address. Having not been paying close attention to state politics, I thought this would be a yawn for me but Gov. Malloy did not just set out the fiscal challenges facing the state. He called for wholesale reform of public schools including changing the tenure system for teachers.

Calls for changing tenure are not new, but coming from a Democratic governor in an very blue state, and at a time when public employee unions are understandably sensitive after a series of attacks on their most basic rights in Wisconsin, Ohio, Arizona, and elsewhere, I was surprised. Why would a Democratic governor tangle with his base so soon after coming off a big fight last year with public employee unions about give-backs to balance the budget?

Here is the link to the audio of my discussion yesterday with Professor Mark Silk on the Colin McEnroe Show. Silk knows more about religion and how it intersects with politics than almost any other two scholars combined and it is always a joy to be on a show with someone like him.

Just a reminder that I will be on the Marty Moss-Coane show on Philadelphia's WHYY tomorrow discussing both the Falwell book and the HHS mandates.

Yesterday, Politico reported that David Axelrod, the President’s chief political strategist, admitted that the administration needs to revisit the issue of conscience exemptions and the HHS mandates. Axelrod, however, also re-stated the administration’s lame arguments for the original decision.

Also, yesterday, the editors of Commonweal opined that while the administration’s decision was bad, the bishops have over-reacted and that it is time to find a compromise.

I know that some readers come only to certain parts of the NCR website, but all readers should consult John Allen's report on the sex abuse conference going on in Rome. John, whose rolodex is the envy of all Vatican reporters, brings us behind the scenes, and past the stereotypes, to show how the culture of the Vatican itself is changing, slowly to be sure, but changing nonetheless.

Weekend before last, I was determined to undertake no writing and no heavy reading. What better way to kill time than an old and wonderful movie. I watched “Gandhi.” Of course, I had been writing a great deal about the issue of religious liberty, and the movie reminded me that we should avoid histrionics, to be sure, but that religious liberty is something that must be defended – and not just liberty but a culture of religious tolerance to support that liberty.

The highpoint of the movie “Gandhi” is not when the Union Jack is lowered over New Delhi. It is not the end of British rule that really provides the drama: It is the question of keeping India united. Gandhi succeeded in ending British rule but he was unable to keep India from breaking apart into two countries, one Muslim and one Hindu, and violence between members of the two creeds forced mass displacement of people on both sides of the border. Pakistan and India have fought several undeclared wars since and the paranoia of Pakistan’s military remains a hurdle in U.S.-Pakistani relations, especially as we improve relations with India which is the world’s largest democracy.

If you watched the cable news stations or the Sunday morning talks shows on the networks, you know that the controversy over the Obama administration's decision to force Catholic institutions to pay for insurance that covers abortifacients, sterilization and contraception has landed squarely in the mainstream media and that most commentators understand that this was a really stupid move by the White House. This morning in the Washington Post, Kathleen Parker, who is not a ranter by any stretch, looks at the HHS decision and the controversy surrounding the Komen Foundation.

I had thought that by now, 2012, it was impossible to be shocked by an example of episcopal moral idiocy regarding the sexual abuse of minors. For every bishop like Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, who has self-evidently tried to do the right thing by the victims of this horror, there is a grand jury report, actually two, in Philadelphia cataloguing indifference or worse. For every archdiocese like Washington, where three consecutive archbishops – Hickey, McCarrick and Wuerl – have handled accusations of abuse with swiftness and justice, there is a diocese like Kansas City-St. Joseph, which is under criminal indictment for failing to follow civil law, let alone moral law. And for every brave and decisive bishop like Wilton Gregory, who as chairman of the USCCB in 2002 refused to ignore the gravity of the crisis or accept half-measures to face it, there is a bishop like Fabian Bruskewitz who still refuses to even permit an audit of his diocese’s compliance with child protection procedures. As I say, I thought I was beyond shock.