Statement of the Catholic bishop of Spokane on the Obama administration's contraception mandate

I saw this post at Libertas et Memoria and thought I'd share.

From: Libertas et Memoria

Bishop Cupich of Spokane has finally issued an a statement attacking the president's plan to force Catholic institutions to pay for contraception in their health care coverage. The bishop's statement may be read here. Please go and read it carefully.  I have some thoughts on the statement:

• First, the bishop deserves credit for this clear and direct statement.  He correctly identifies the two general problems with the Obama administration's mandate: 1) it is a gross government overreach into areas traditionally held to be outside the scope of government authority; and 2) it is a gross violation of religious liberty. This is a strong statement from the bishop -- perhaps not as strong as some of us would like, but stronger than what I feared the bishop would produce.

• Second, a critique. The bishop does not clarify what he plans to do to protect the integrity of Catholic doctrine should the administration's policy go into effect. I would have liked to see some specificity on that point -- not a complete action plan but some idea that he is, as a successor of the Apostles, intent on not compromising Catholic doctrine in the face of state and federal efforts to thwart the Church's freedom.

• Third, there is a well-placed note about the Washington State legislature in the statement re: abortion funding.  It would be good though if the bishop would speak out more about what the state legislature is doing, both in terms of mandating abortion funding and in terms of the redefinition of marriage. The bishops in general need to be far more vocal on these issues than they have been.

• Finally, on a related note, it is now clear that the bishops' refusal to actively engage on issues surrounding marriage and the family for the last 45 years has been a disastrous policy. Both internally, within the Church, and externally, in the public square, the bishops have simply been asleep at the wheel -- tepidly defending Catholic teaching but refusing to enforce Catholic dogma on wayward politicians. They have ignored to catastrophic effect the catechizing and preaching on the Church's doctrine to Catholics in the pew. And this failure to tend the Lord's vineyard is now bearing ill fruit. The Vice President of the United States is a Catholic. The Secretary of Health and Human Services is a Catholic. The Democratic Minority Leader in the House of Representatives is a Catholic. And to what effect? They are all taking part in the now-active persecution of the Church.

• The bishops as a whole, and our bishop in particular, need to realize that we are now at a Henry VIII moment in our society. Will the Church be free to live the Gospel? Or will the Church's freedom only exist at the behest and boon of an ever more rapacious government? Will the bishops bend their knees to tyrants or will they kneel in obedience to God? They cannot back down from this fight.  Not without doing great damage to their witness to the Gospel.