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PDF versionBishops step back into politics with conscience considerations
by Joshua J. McElwee on Oct. 05, 2011
The U.S. bishops stepped firmly back into the political arena this week, with two moves aimed at influencing both government policies and Catholic voters. Taken together, the moves seem to indicate a new focus for the bishops’ conference on stressing issues of conscience in political debates.
Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, last Friday announced a new bishops’ “committee for religious freedom.” Set to employ two full-time staffers at the bishops’ D.C. headquarters, Dolan said the committee was aimed at fighting federal government programs or policies that “would infringe upon the right of conscience of people of faith.”
The bishops’ executive committee, which is chaired by Dolan, yesterday re-issued a 30-page document on the responsibilities of Catholic voters, along with a newly written two-page introduction that warns against “misguided appeals to `conscience’ to ignore fundamental moral claims.”
The new bishops’ committee, Dolan said, was partially motivated by new proposed guidelines from the Department of Health and Human Services that would mandate the coverage of contraception and sterilization in private health insurance plans.
The bishops had previously campaigned for individuals to submit comments opposing the new guidelines, setting up a Web site, www.usccb.org/conscience, and asking people to chime in before the end of a public comment period Sept. 30.
The policy is now under review by the Department of Health and Human Services.
As the bishops came back into the political realm this week, NCR commentators and reporters have been analyzing the moves.
Michael Sean Winters, over at his Distinctly Catholic blog yesterday, said the newly written introduction to “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” a voting guide the bishops have issued every election year since 1976, appropriately toed the line between telling people how to vote, and telling them how to form their own consciences.
For stories and commentary posted to the NCR Web site regarding the bishops’ moves, see:
- Bishops warn that church teaching is nonpartisan, by David Gibson, RNS, Oct. 4
- Faithful Citizenship update, by Michael Sean Winters, Oct. 4
- More comments filed objecting to HHS mandate, by Mark Pattison, CNS, Oct. 4
- Bishops reissue 'Faithful Citizenship' with introduction, Nancy Frazier O’Brien, CNS, Oct. 4
- Bishops aim to protect religious liberty, by Dennis Coday, Sept. 30
- Countdown on conscience, by Michael Sean Winters, Sept. 28
- CHA issues comment on conscience protection, by Michael Sean Winters, Sept. 23
- Bishops mobilize to guard consciences on contraception, by Nancy Frazier O’Brien, CNS, Sept. 12
Cogito Ergo I must be
Cogito Ergo I must be Catholic.
So we must fight to preserve our right to exercise our conscience unless our exercise of such conscience violates the Bishops' political agenda in which case, we must eschew our conscience. Boy, I thought our government was screwed up.
Mystical Smokescreen
Mystical Smokescreen ........K. Michaels, you hit the nail on the head. To see what the pope, the bishops and their right wing funders are really up to in the 2012 US elections, please note the comment under the heading "FARCE OR PLOY?" accessible by clicking on to http://ncronline.org/news/politics/bishops-aim-protect-religious-liberty . At a time when Catholics are reeling from the unending stories of kids being raped by priests protected by complicit bishops, why does the hierarchy add insult to injury by treating Catholics as utter morons. The bishops churn out endlessly nice sounding statements, with NT quotes and poll tested slogans, then completly disregard the statements and do whatever advances their personal fortunes. Meanwhile, the full time professional apologists who feed at the bishops' trough continuously remind us of these pretty, but irrelevant, statements. There are only so many bridges in Brooklyn available for sale to Catholics.
"A rose by any other
"A rose by any other name..."
Is it just a coincidence that the USCCB began this Political Action Committee just as DON'T ASK DON'T TELL was being laid to rest, and military chaplains were authorized to perform SAME-SEX MARRIAGES in military chapels?
http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/the-military-chapel
Clever ploy: use the DOMA to restore DADT.
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2011/October/Archdiocese-No-Gay-Weddings-a...
Memo to USCCB:
When will "DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL" be repealed in the Catholic PRIESTHOOD?
cf. page 236:
http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=N3ivgEF4eGEC&pg=PA236&lpg=PA236&dq=D...
Would some appropriately
Would some appropriately licensed lawyer please challenge the Church's tax-exempt status?
To listen to these men, one
To listen to these men, one would never believe they have a millstone around their necks.
Nothing will ever white wash what they have been involved in and no doubt still covering up. Religious freedom? certainly infringing on the rights of conscience of the faithful, including the rights of clergy who have fathered children and want to protect them and the mothers who bore them, at the moment relegating them to whores.
Apart from that, there aren't too many other rights left worldwide, that haven't been breached to protect the establishment and their faithful funded cushy positions on the way up the ecclesiastical ladder.
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