Catholic pulpits and pews are increasingly inflamed with talk of a war on religion after the Obama administrations recent decision on employers birth control coverage.
There can be no doubt that religious liberty in our country is in jeopardy" Monsignor W. Ronald Jameson warned on Saturday from inside Washingtons historic Cathedral of St. Matthew. This is the time to speak up. This is the time for all voices to be heard."
Jamesons dire warning to the Catholic faithful was focused on the controversial ruling that President Obama made last week mandating that all employers as part of the 2010 health care overhaul must cover in full the cost of female contraception. The Roman Catholic Church as a matter of doctrine opposes the use of birth control.
In an op-ed published Monday in USA Today the presidents top health official Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius defended the ruling as striking the right balance between respecting religious freedom and providing critical health services to women.
This is not an easy issue" Sebelius wrote adding that the Obama administration had taken pains to make allowances for the church. We specifically carved out from the policy religious organizations that primarily employ people of their own faith. This exemption includes churches and other houses of worship and could also include other church-affiliated organizations."
In a rebuttal editorial published on the same day however USA Today condemned the rule as bad policy and bad politics." If enacted the papers editors said Catholic-run institutions that employ diverse populations would be put in the impossibly awkward position of facilitating contraception even though the church teaches that it is intrinsically wrong."
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney also noted the exemption but told reporters Monday: Those institutions where women of all faiths many faiths work need to have the same kind of coverage that all other American women have."
Leading Catholics and other religious figures pointed out that large Catholic-affiliated organizations schools and colleges hospitals charities and the like employ tens of thousands of people of all religious faiths and as such will not qualify for the administrations exemption. The White House and HHS in turn have granted such organizations an extra year to come into compliance with the rule.
On the campaign trail the Republican presidential candidates have turned the issue into a rallying cry. Front-runner Mitt Romney on Monday used Twitter to appeal to Catholic voters and link them to a petition his campaign crafted. If youve had enough of the Obama Administrations attacks on religious liberty" Romney tweeted stand with me & sign the petition."
That was mild compared with the strong medicine doled out by Newt Gingrich. The Obama administration has declared war on religious freedom in this country" the former House speaker sternly told reporters in a news conference in Las Vegas on Saturday night. This is a decision so totally outrageous an illustration of such radical secular ideology that I believe the churchs hierarchy will oppose it every inch of the way."
In an interview with Fox News religion correspondent Lauren Green John Garvey the president of Catholic University of America framed the issue more charitably. I dont think that this is a case of the government as out to get religious institutions as though theyre the focus of its attack. Its more a kind of lack of concern or appreciation for real religious concerns and values" Garvey said.
It shows an attitude on the governments part that religion is something well protect if its just happening in church on Sunday or in the mosque on Friday but if it has to do with your daily activity or the life you want to lead its not something we want to protect."
What remains uncertain is whether President Obama who won the Catholic vote in 2008 by a 9 percentage-point margin will pay a political price for the ruling this coming November.
Even if Gingrichs prediction of robust opposition from the church hierarchy proves true and the nationwide spate of sermons devoted to the topic over the last two weekends suggests it will the predilections of ordinary Catholic parishioners appear more difficult to gauge. Polling conducted by the Pew Research Center has found Catholics as evenly divided over the legality of abortion for example as the rest of the country.
However the importance of the Catholic vote cannot be underestimated. Of the 68 million Catholics in America roughly 35 million voted in 2008 accounting for 27 percent of the total electorate. And a review of data from seven battleground states Florida Iowa Michigan Nevada Pennsylvania Ohio and Wisconsin shows Catholics comprising roughly one-quarter or more of the electorate in each.
Catholic pulpits and pews are increasingly inflamed with talk of a war on religion after the Obama administrations recent decision on employers birth control coverage.
There can be no doubt that religious liberty in our country is in jeopardy" Monsignor W. Ronald Jameson warned on Saturday from inside Washingtons historic Cathedral of St. Matthew. This is the time to speak up. This is the time for all voices to be heard."
Jamesons dire warning to the Catholic faithful was focused on the controversial ruling that President Obama made last week mandating that all employers as part of the 2010 health care overhaul must cover in full the cost of female contraception. The Roman Catholic Church as a matter of doctrine opposes the use of birth control.
In an op-ed published Monday in USA Today the presidents top health official Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius defended the ruling as striking the right balance between respecting religious freedom and providing critical health services to women.
This is not an easy issue" Sebelius wrote adding that the Obama administration had taken pains to make allowances for the church. We specifically carved out from the policy religious organizations that primarily employ people of their own faith. This exemption includes churches and other houses of worship and could also include other church-affiliated organizations."
In a rebuttal editorial published on the same day however USA Today condemned the rule as bad policy and bad politics." If enacted the papers editors said Catholic-run institutions that employ diverse populations would be put in the impossibly awkward position of facilitating contraception even though the church teaches that it is intrinsically wrong."
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney also noted the exemption but told reporters Monday: Those institutions where women of all faiths many faiths work need to have the same kind of coverage that all other American women have."
Leading Catholics and other religious figures pointed out that large Catholic-affiliated organizations schools and colleges hospitals charities and the like employ tens of thousands of people of all religious faiths and as such will not qualify for the administrations exemption. The White House and HHS in turn have granted such organizations an extra year to come into compliance with the rule.
On the campaign trail the Republican presidential candidates have turned the issue into a rallying cry. Front-runner Mitt Romney on Monday used Twitter to appeal to Catholic voters and link them to a petition his campaign crafted. If youve had enough of the Obama Administrations attacks on religious liberty" Romney tweeted stand with me & sign the petition."
That was mild compared with the strong medicine doled out by Newt Gingrich. The Obama administration has declared war on religious freedom in this country" the former House speaker sternly told reporters in a news conference in Las Vegas on Saturday night. This is a decision so totally outrageous an illustration of such radical secular ideology that I believe the churchs hierarchy will oppose it every inch of the way."
In an interview with Fox News religion correspondent Lauren Green John Garvey the president of Catholic University of America framed the issue more charitably. I dont think that this is a case of the government as out to get religious institutions as though theyre the focus of its attack. Its more a kind of lack of concern or appreciation for real religious concerns and values" Garvey said.
It shows an attitude on the governments part that religion is something well protect if its just happening in church on Sunday or in the mosque on Friday but if it has to do with your daily activity or the life you want to lead its not something we want to protect."
What remains uncertain is whether President Obama who won the Catholic vote in 2008 by a 9 percentage-point margin will pay a political price for the ruling this coming November.
Even if Gingrichs prediction of robust opposition from the church hierarchy proves true and the nationwide spate of sermons devoted to the topic over the last two weekends suggests it will the predilections of ordinary Catholic parishioners appear more difficult to gauge. Polling conducted by the Pew Research Center has found Catholics as evenly divided over the legality of abortion for example as the rest of the country.
However the importance of the Catholic vote cannot be underestimated. Of the 68 million Catholics in America roughly 35 million voted in 2008 accounting for 27 percent of the total electorate. And a review of data from seven battleground states Florida Iowa Michigan Nevada Pennsylvania Ohio and Wisconsin shows Catholics comprising roughly one-quarter or more of the electorate in each.
