White House tells US bishops: listen to liberal Catholics

From CatholicCulture.org:

White House tells US bishops: listen to liberal Catholics

March 02, 2012

From Our Store: The Documents of the Second Vatican Council: A Summary and Guide (eBook)

The Obama administration has made it clear that it will not back away from a mandate requiring contraceptive coverage in health-care plans, reports Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, the president of the US bishops’ conference.

Rather than attempting to reach an agreement with the Catholic hierarchy, the Obama administration is telling bishops that they should take their lead from other Catholics, Cardinal Dolan says. White House aides urged the bishops to listen to liberal Catholics who have accepted the administration’s plan, such as the editors ofAmerica magazine.

In an update on the political battle over the Obama mandate, Cardinal Dolan writes:

And a recent meeting between staff of the bishops’ conference and the White House staff ended with the President’s people informing us that the broader concerns of religious freedom--that is, revisiting the straight-jacketing mandates, or broadening the maligned exemption--are all off the table. Instead, they advised the bishops’ conference that we should listen to the “enlightened” voices of accommodation, such as the recent hardly-surprising but terribly unfortunate editorial in America.

Cardinal Dolan says that the US bishops would continue to seek a reversal of the Obama plan, urging Congress to broaden conscience protections. However he added that a more promising approach might be a court challenge. The cardinal observes that the recent Supreme Court decision in theHosanna-Tabor case was “a a dramatic rebuff to the administration, but one apparently unheeded by the White House.”

“This has not been a fight of our choosing,” Cardinal Dolan says. “We’d rather not be in it.” But he promises that the bishops will continue their battle to rescind the Obama mandate.

Additional sources for this story
Some links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• I Owe You an Update (New York archdiocese)