Darn Catholics

Last Friday President Obama told Catholics that he 'compromised' with the Church by 'caving' in to the Church's desire to NOT pay for contraceptives, morning-after abortion pills, and, presumably, out-right genocide of any type.  The issue, according to the President, was a matter of interpretation by Catholics and other religious leaders who opposed the legislation as a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution.  The actual reason for the dust-up in the Press and the Pulpit was due to the fact that, "They" just didn't 'get it'.  This isn't a matter of Constitutional breach, it's simply a 'misunderstanding'.  


So the President offered a compromise:  They would not have to provide contraception in their health plans, but female employees wanting coverage could obtain it directly from the insurance companies. The arrangement would not add any cost to the employee’s premium, the argument being that prevention of childbirth is cheaper than childbirth.


In their statement, however, the bishops say that among the groups needing “clear protection” from the contraception mandate are “religious and secular for-profit employers.” That would sweep in a far larger variety of organizations.

Richard M. Doerflinger, an official of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was asked whether that meant that a Catholic owner of a sporting-goods store who believed that use of birth-control pills is immoral should be able to offer health insurance excluding that coverage. He said it did.
 
“That person should have the freedom to choose the health plan that does not violate his convictions. It doesn’t mean he will be able to find it, but the government shouldn’t have anything to say about it,” Doerflinger said Saturday.

In addition, religiously affiliated insurance companies are not exempt from the mandate. Friday’s announcement also left unresolved what a Catholic-affiliated organization that self-insures and objects to contraception would do, as there is no insurance company to provide coverage directly to employees.   (Source:  Washington Post)



So what's a Petulant Progressive President to do?  What he always does when someone stands in his way...  He clears the field.

Yes, bust out the torches, rouse the malcontents, and grab them pitchforks!  It's time to destroy the Catholic Church.  

Seriously, what good are 'Minions' if you're not going to use them?  Oh, look, here comes a useful Minion now, writing for Reuters!


Reuters, 02/13/2012:  "Monsignors' mutiny" revealed by Vatican leaks

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Call it Conspiracy City. Call it Scandal City. Call it Leak City. These days the holy city has been in the news for anything but holy reasons.

"It is a total mess," said one high-ranking Vatican official who spoke, like all others, on the condition of anonymity.

The Machiavellian maneuvering and machinations that have come to light in the Vatican recently are worthy of a novel about a sinister power struggle at a medieval court.

Senior church officials interviewed this month said almost daily embarrassments that have put the Vatican on the defensive could force Pope Benedict to act to clean up the image of its administration - at a time when the church faces a deeper crisis of authority and relevance in the wider world.

Some of those sources said the outcome of a power struggle inside the Holy See may even have a longer-term effect, on the choice of the man to succeed Benedict when he dies.

From leaked letters by an archbishop who was transferred after he blew the whistle on what he saw as a web of corruption and cronyism, to a leaked poison pen memo which puts a number of cardinals in a bad light, to new suspicions about its bank, Vatican spokesmen have had their work cut out responding.

The flurry of leaks has come at an embarrassing time - just before a usually joyful ceremony this week known as a consistory, when Benedict will admit more prelates into the College of Cardinals, the exclusive men's club that will one day pick the next Roman Catholic leader from among their own ranks.

"This consistory will be taking place in an atmosphere that is certainly not very glorious or exalting," said one bishop with direct knowledge of Vatican affairs.

The sources agreed that the leaks were part of an internal campaign - a sort of "mutiny of the monsignors" - against the pope's right-hand man, Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

Bertone, 77, has a reputation as a heavy-handed administrator and power-broker whose style has alienated many in the Curia, the bureaucracy that runs the central administration of the 1.3 billion-strong Roman Catholic Church.

He came to the job, traditionally occupied by a career diplomat, in 2006 with no experience of working in the church's diplomatic corps, which manages its international relations. Benedict chose him, rather, because he had worked under the future pontiff, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, in the Vatican's powerful doctrinal office.

...


The Vatican sources said some cardinals asked the pope to replace Bertone because of administrative lapses, including the failure to warn the pope that a renegade bishop re-admitted to the Church in 2009 was a well-known Holocaust denier.

But they said the pope, at 84 and increasingly showing the signs of his age, is not eager to break in a new right-hand man.

"It's so complicated and the pope is so helpless," said the monsignor.

The bishop said: "The pope is very isolated. He lives in his own world and some say the information he receives is filtered. He is interested in his books and his sermons but he is not very interested in government."

Blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada...

So, according to Reuters and the Obama Administration, the Catholic Church has 'internal' issues, they certainly do NOT have an issue with the Executive and Legislative Branchs' 'perceived' violation of the First Amendment - that would be CRAZY...

Yup.  Crazy (with a capital CRAZE) 

And to make matters even more interesting, Jack Lew, President Obama's Chief of Staff, announced to the world that "the White House had done enough to appease religious critics". 


Washington Examiner, February 13, 2012:   HHS mandate shows fight in Catholic Church

President Obama's chief of staff said that the contraception mandate will not be revised any further, despite opposition from church groups, and he dismissed ongoing critics as revealing internal division within the Roman Catholic Church.

"I can't speak to differences within the Catholic Church," White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew said on Fox News Sunday when reminded that "the most powerful statement by the Catholic Church in this country" was a denunciation of Obama's attempt at accomodation. "I would point to the statement put out by the Catholic Health Association, which knows a fair amount about what it requires to  [provide] health care in this country," he added.

Lew argued that "people can disagree" with the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate "on the margins," but declared that the White House had done enough to appease religious critics. "I think what the president announced on Friday is a balanced approach that meets the concerns raised both in terms of access to health care and in terms of protecting religious liberties," Lew said.


That's right, the White House has "done enough to appease religious critics"...  Requiring insurance companies to give contraceptives away for FREE to anyone asking?  Why, that's tried and true old-fashioned-Obama-giving-more-of-other-people's-money-away-solution (just please don't ask who's going to be paying for these 'contraceptives' in their insurance premiums - that could get messy). 

As a card-carrying Catholic, I feel the need to turn the other cheek to President Obama's continuing assaults to our liberty, our religion and our God-Given right to bare our cartoon butts in our blog posts...

  So help me 'Bart'.