Catholicvote.org
First, the most significant news — Cardinal Raymond Burke has shared his thoughts for the first time about the HHS mandate:
Jenn Giroux, the former Executive Director of HLI America, profiles some excerpts from the interview:
Thomas McKenna: “It is beautiful to see how the faithful have rallied behind the Hierarchy….How does your Eminence comment on the union of solidarity of our bishops?”Cardinal Burke: “Yes, I have received emails and other communications from lay faithful who say that they are supporting their bishops 100% and they have communicated to their bishops their gratitude and assured them that they want them to continue to be courageous and not to be deceived by any kind of false accommodations which in fact continue this same kind of agenda which sadly we have witnessed for too long in our country which is totally secular and therefore is anti-life and anti-family. I admire very much the courage of the bishops. At the same time I believe they would say it along with me that they are doing no more than their duty. A bishop has to protect his flock and when any individual or government attempts to force the flock to act against conscience in one of its most fundamental precepts then the bishops have to come to defend those who are entrusted to their pastoral care. So I am deeply grateful to all of the bishops who have spoken about this and who are encouraging the members of their flock to also speak up because our government needs to understand that what is being done with this mandate is contrary first of all to the fundamental human right, the right to the free exercise of one’s conscience and at the same time contrary to the very foundation of our nation.”Thomas McKenna: “So a Catholic employer, really getting down to it, he does not, or she does not provide this because that way they would be, in a sense, cooperating with the sin…the sin of contraception or the sin of providing a contraceptive that would abort a child, is this correct?”Cardinal Burke: “This is correct. It is not only a matter of what we call “material cooperation” in the sense that the employer by giving this insurance benefit is materially providing for the contraception but it is also “formal cooperation” because he is knowingly and deliberatelydoing this, making this available to people. There is no way to justify it. It is simply wrong.”Responding to the comments, Giroux says, “This comment by a high ranking Cardinal is the clearest explanation to date on the issue of an employer’s culpability when providing contraception, sterilization, and abortion inducing drug options in the insurance plans for employees.” [Steven Ertelt]
On the ground here in the U.S., it’s becoming more evident that along with the Catholic bishops and faithful solidifying their opposition to the mandate, the President is beginning to lose the messaging war with the wider public, as Peggy Noonan mentioned in her syndicated column for the Wall Street Journal last week:
“We know what criticisms and avenues of attack have pierced [the President]. At the top of the speech [to the Associated Press] he lauded, at some length and in a new way, local Catholic churches and social service agencies. That suggests internal polling shows he’s been damaged by the birth-control mandate.
Further research done by Steve Wagner of QEV Analytics agrees with Noonan’s assessment:
Steve Wagner of public opinion research firm QEV Analytics has taken a private poll, also of swing-state voters, specifically on the mandate, for the Catholic Association, a nonprofit. When he broke down the numbers for women under 50, he told me that he found two striking results.The first is that nearly half of women under 50 attend religious services weekly. The second is that a majority oppose in principle what the administration is doing.When asked, for example, whether the federal government has the right to force morally objectionable coverage on religious institutions, 52% of these women say “No.” An even larger percentage, 59%, say that insurance companies should handle contraceptives the way they do other drugs (instead of having to provide them free). All of which suggests that Republicans who advance a religious liberty argument when asked about the contraception mandate will find a receptive audience. [Bill McGurn in the WSJ]
President Obama continues to not do himself any favors, if he hopes to win back the Catholics he has alienated over this mandate. Just look at who he invited to the White House for Easter (emphasis mine):
The other guests disclosed by the White House were Kirbyjon Caldwell, senior pastor of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston; Peg Chemberlin, president of the National Council of Churches; Sharon Watkins, president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); Julius Scruggs, president of the National Baptist Convention of America; Israel Gaither, national commander of the Salvation Army; Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association; and Nancy Wilson, moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches. [Baptist Press News]
Once again, the President invites Sr. Keehan as the “Catholic” representative. This is probably because no Catholic bishop would allow the President to use them as political cover.
All this reinforces two simple points for all Catholics to absorb: we are winning and don’t let up.
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