WE’RE NOT THERE YET

I hear from more and more folks about their support of the bishops and our unified fight for religious freedom. Thank you. Your support in this effort is needed and appreciated more than you know. Please keep up the work. Stay in contact with our legislators in Washington. Let them know that you know this is an assault on American freedom. This is not a “war on women.” This is not a “contraception controversy.” This is a violation of our American civil liberty and a violation of the United States Constitution – an outrage to patriotic Americans.

Earlier today I read a post on the Campus Notes – The Cardinal Newman Society blog regarding Fr. Paul Scalia, son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, inviting Catholics to consider the model of St. Thomas More when defending their rights in this struggle. St. Thomas More, you will remember was beheaded for refusing to take the oath of loyalty to King Henry VIII after Henry divorced his wife, publically repudiated and displaced the pope, and set himself as the head of the church in England.

Fr. Scalia points out that history shows stunning signs of repetition in the current HHS mandate of the Administration. I share a bit of the article with you here.

We do well to recall this history in light of the unjust Health and Human Services mandate handed down this Jan. 20. The similarities are striking and instructive.

Just as in St. Thomas’ day it was a moral issue that precipitated the larger crisis, so also in our day. The Church’s teaching on contraception is at the core of this crisis. We can – and should – say many things about this teaching. It is one of the most important, challenging and beautiful of the Church’s doctrines. But the teaching itself – as important as it is – really just occasions another, broader issue. The crisis now before us between the bishops and the administration turns on the rights of the Church and the rights of man: the Church’s right of self-governance and the rights of individual conscience.

Henry VIII redefined the Church in England. It is not too much to say that by the HHS mandate, the administration seeks to do likewise in the United States. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, asks the question: Can a government bureau define for us or any faith community what is ministry and how it can be exercised? Of course not. The Church has the right to define herself and not be told by outside authorities what does or does not define her work.

And not only that, by certain statements, the administration and some members of Congress have, in effect, lectured the bishops about what the Church should do or think. By so doing, they have inserted themselves into the internal workings of the Church. For example, they have observed that many if not most Catholic women use contraception at some point, and therefore we should not make an issue of the mandate.

Unfortunately, their observation has some legitimacy: This has been one of the most neglected teachings of the Church in the past 40 or so years. Sadly, there has been a great deal of confusion, division and sometimes disobedience regarding it. But these are issues for the Church herself to address. Such internal matters of the Church are certainly not the business of public authorities to lecture us on or, worse, to exploit for political purposes. All we ask is that the Church be allowed to be the Church – without any outside coercion regarding our identity, doctrine and ministry. We do not need government officials to tell us who we are, what we believe or what our ministry is. We know these things well.

There is a second similarity between St. Thomas More’s crisis and our own. Henry VIII’s actions did not end with the Church as an institution. They extended to individuals, beginning with Thomas More in his retirement. So also this present crisis concerns not only the rights of the Church as an institution but also the right of every individual not to have his conscience forced. Since the mandate is imposed not only on Catholic institutions, but on all providers of employee health insurance, the individual Catholic as private citizen will suffer the injustice of this law. Just as Thomas More was not left unoppressed, neither will the individual Catholic be today. He too can be made to violate his conscience by conformity to this ruling.

Finally, there is a third parallel between our crisis and More’s. Just as Catholics were penalized in England, so also – as Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago, has speculated – the Church and individual Catholic employers may have to pay a fine for not obeying the mandate. In effect, a fee to be Catholic.

Fr. Scalia points out that while history tends to repeat itself, it does not inevitably do so. If it does, however, then we must deliberately choose to imitate – to repeat – the witness of St. Thomas More.

You can read the piece by Fr. Scalia in its entirety at these links: the  Arlington Catholic Herald, the Catholic News Agency and The Cardinal Newman Society

Stay informed and I’ll see you at Sunday Mass!

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