This is a battle that the Obama administration has picked on purpose and the reason may be becoming clear.
As everyone knows, the ultimate goal of progressives is to have a single monolithic healthcare system run by monolithic progressives. Obama and the other progressives have been very up front about the fact that Obamacare is merely a fist step toward this ultimate goal.
But this first step may contain fuel that will ultimately burn down our existing healthcare system for good, the HHS mandate.
Cardinal George has warned that if the HHS mandate is not reversed that the Church will be forced out of all social services, most importantly hospitals.
This is exactly what they want. Progressives realize the key role that Church institutions play in all social services and most keenly in the healthcare arena. Without the Church institutions, healthcare would cease to function in this country. This fact is not lost on progressives. At the same time, the progressives understand that the Church is the biggest obstacle they face to the implementation of their amoral and utilitarian agenda. They need the Church’s institutions, but they don’t want the Church.
They need a crisis.
If the Church threatens to carry out its obligations to cease these functions because they are forced to violate their moral code, the Obama administration will use this “mortal threat” to healthcare in the US to immediately nationalize all these institutions to protect Americans from “theological blackmail.” Voila, all your institutions are belong to us.
This is the goal of this manufactured crisis. They are not trying to kill Catholic healthcare in this country, they want to own it.
February 27, 2012 at 6:40 pm
I wish I could have written that.
February 27, 2012 at 7:38 pm
I've been saying that he's going to pull a King Henry VIII against Catholics by taking all our stuff….. thanks for confirming my fears.
February 27, 2012 at 8:35 pm
The Supreme Court needs to find Obamacare unconstitutional.
February 27, 2012 at 9:58 pm
The solution is to convert all Catholic hospitals to monasteries. The buildings are then still used for religious purposes and the government cannot seize them. If we simply close them, the government will use eminent domain to seize them.
February 27, 2012 at 11:35 pm
I agree with your speculation about emmiment domain. I would not be surprised if the administration invoked the Kelo ruling to forcibly transfer Catholic hospitals to more "compliant" owners.
February 28, 2012 at 1:45 am
Spot on. Scary, scary road we are on.
February 28, 2012 at 3:00 am
Why do we call these people progressives? They are aggressives!
February 28, 2012 at 3:00 am
Very perspicuous. The goal of all Big Government/socialist Administrations is to control, nay destroy, all independent, public/civic life, from large organisations such as the Catholic Church, which engage in civic activities such as providing education and medical care, to the smallest, such as the family unit itself. It wants all power to reside in agencies of the State, which it can control, whilst people, having no familial or civic means or supports, become more and more dependant on the State, even down to accepting the State as determiner of what is good or evil, at any point in time. Lynda
February 28, 2012 at 5:12 am
All we need is the government to pass the equalization of opportunity act now…
February 28, 2012 at 11:06 am
You're all forgetting something else:
If we're forced by the state to shut down our hospitals (as they've forced us to shut down our adoption programs, or forced other churches to shut down homeless shelters, soup kitchens, etc.) they will then have set the stage to ask, "What, exactly, do these religious institutions *do* that warrants tax-exempt status?"
When they (who have quashed our charitable work) decide we don't "contribute" to society, they'll yank our tax exempt status and that will result in many churches — Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist — shutting their doors from the cost.
This isn't about getting their hands on Catholic hospitals (although that's just a bonus); it's about systematically removing Christianity (specifically) and Catholicism (especially) from the public sphere.
I, for one, am disappointed by all this talk about shutting down. Just don't obey the law. Don't pay for contraception. Don't pay the fines. Don't compromise our principles and morals. Just keep on going and give Obama a taste of massive civil disobedience.
Now is not the time to roll over, but the time to fight.
February 28, 2012 at 11:52 am
Amy,if we don't pay, the government will simply wait until the accumulated fines equal the value of the property and seize it.
February 28, 2012 at 4:04 pm
The best defense is a good offense. Quit the doomsaying and attack the antilife hoarde with truth. Put them on the defensive. Use the power of binding and loosening to make It mortally sinful to support any Democrat in any way. Punt them. Obama has recently set precedent for churches to be openly partisan without risking charitable tax status by calling on "black" congregations to proseletize from the ouloit on his behalf in their churches. What is good for the goose…
February 28, 2012 at 4:06 pm
Ouloit = pulpit (fat fingers-small keys)
February 28, 2012 at 4:20 pm
The DNC is the declared enemy of the church. To aid the enemy is treason. Treason is punishable by death. Therefore since the enemy (the DNC) has declared war, supporting them nets "mortal" consequence. What we bind on earth…
Since the consequence is not material, the secular authority has no power to interfere with its imposition.
February 28, 2012 at 4:32 pm
Post signs on, in, and around all Catholic medical facilities: "closing (obamacare implementation date) due to DNC.
March 1, 2012 at 12:39 am
I say vote the Republicans into both houses of Congress and then, if Obama is re-elected, impeach/convict him. There is certainly enough evidence.