My mind would boggle if I had any boggles left.
Cardinal Dolan, head of the USCCB and the ostensible leader of the fight against the unholy Obamacare mandates, admits that his own Diocese directly pays for employee health plans that cover contraception and abortion. Yes, the Cardinal Dolan and the Archdiocese of NY pay for the killing of children. Their excuse? They do it under protest.
Well, I am sure that will make the dead babies feel better to know that they were killed ‘under protest.’
But even as Cardinal Dolan insists that requiring some religiously affiliated employers to pay for contraception services would be an unprecedented, and intolerable, government intrusion on religious liberty, the archdiocese he heads has quietly been paying for such coverage, albeit reluctantly and indirectly, for thousands of its unionized employees for over a decade.
The Archdiocese of New York has previously acknowledged that some local Catholic institutions offer health insurance plans that include contraceptive drugs to comply with state law; now, it is also acknowledging that the archdiocese’s own money is used to pay for a union health plan that covers contraception and even abortion for workers at its affiliated nursing homes and clinics.
“We provide the services under protest,” said Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York.
I am sure the usual suspects will try to explain this away, these are Union rules, he inherited it, he has no choice.
THERE IS ALWAYS A CHOICE.
When it comes to the sanctioned and funded murder of innocents, the choice couldn’t be clearer.
Cardinal Dolan and the Archdiocese of NY are complicit in a grave and intrinsic moral evil.
There needs to be complete and total moral outrage over this issue by Catholics. We need to force Cardnal Dolan to do the right thing, for the babies’ sake and for his sake.
May 30, 2013 at 4:22 am
You can descend into a spiral of judging me as being guilty of judging another of being guilty of judging another or being guilty of judging someone else. That way lies madness.
That way lies truth. You have written some 20 comments in which you have pretty much insulted or impugned the character of every single person you have disagreed with. So before striking a sanctimonious pose, perhaps you ought to note the log in your eye.
May 30, 2013 at 6:35 am
My reaction to this is 'oh no, oh no, oh no…please not again!' It does often seem as if our bishops are fighting tooth and nail to undermine every scrap of moral authority they might have left.
May 30, 2013 at 6:36 am
Mr. Seldon has worked somewhat effectively to deflect attention from the issue at hand–that the Archdiocese of NY, led by the head of the USCCB, pays for abortions and contraceptives, all while urging the flock to stand strong against the HHS mandate. The hypocrisy is more than stunning. That this archdiocese has been participating for years in the ending of human lives is, apparently, less of a scandal than the supposed sin of detraction against a cardinal. Excuse me, but what a crock.
May 30, 2013 at 6:42 am
Well I'm sure glad he didnt' become Pope. We would all be paying for contraception and abortion, 'under protest' if he were in charge of the Church. Like one person said, I'm sure the babies are thankful they pay under protest. They are still dead. Our bishops need to wake up. What saint said that hell is paved with the skulls of bishops?
May 30, 2013 at 6:42 am
Well I'm sure glad he didnt' become Pope. We would all be paying for contraception and abortion, 'under protest' if he were in charge of the Church. Like one person said, I'm sure the babies are thankful they pay under protest. They are still dead. Our bishops need to wake up. What saint said that hell is paved with the skulls of bishops?
May 30, 2013 at 3:22 pm
Most of the above commentators assume that Cardinal Dolan is in the wrong. Only a few mentioned the magisterial teaching on cooperation with evil. Conservative Catholics boast of their faithfulness to the Magisterium and the Bishops — until something is said that contradicts their own ideas, assumptions, and limited understanding. Then they rail against any Bishop who contradicts their own views.
May 30, 2013 at 4:06 pm
Limited understanding, ronconte? What is there Left to understand here? It speaks for itself.
May 30, 2013 at 5:32 pm
"If the Archbolds are journalists, then I am Mickey Mouse."
Isn't this the part where someone gets punched in the face by Indiana Jones?
May 30, 2013 at 6:12 pm
…is this Crdl Dolan's attempt at talking "turkey"?
…then please, get someone in there that can translate "gobble-dee-gook"!
…because, we need an "EXORCIST" now!
May 30, 2013 at 6:33 pm
…Pat and Matt,
Just another day at the office, huh!…;)
Out of charity…
Tomorrow is the Blessed Mother's feast day of the Visitation lqast day of May!
I'd like to give "evil" some indigestion, let it chew on that bit of knowledge!
…they're is going to be, a whole lot of, choking, gagging and carrying on!
Correct all in error BVM!
May 30, 2013 at 10:31 pm
Well, Harry, I spoke with my priest in the confessional about this last night, and he says that it is no sin, and no detraction, to point out the obvious – both Cardinal Dolan and the Archdiocese of NY are complicit in grave sin. He was aware of the facts of the matter at the time and said that this is public knowledge, there is enough information available to make a judgment, and no exculpatory information has been presented by the archdiocese. He agrees that Pat did nothing wrong.
This man is by far the best, strictest, most hardcore old school Catholic Confessor I have been blessed to receive this incredibly necessary Sacrament from. He has helped me change my thinking on a number of matters. He continually adheres to the moral Doctrine of the Faith and all the Dogmas (which is another matter – upon which of the 400 odd Dogmas of the Church are you excommunicating those who disagree with you?) in a way that frequently repudiates both mass error in the Church and the dominant evils in our culture. And his sermons – posted anonymously – are very frequently heard by many many thousands of souls to great effect. But I'm sure he's also an excommunicate to you.
Something has disturbed me about your comments. They are a facsimile of truth, both slippery and insulting at the same time. They are not edifying, and they seem to have the sole purpose of defending the indefensible. You are confating the office with the man. But most of all, it's your near presentation of truth with subtle twists into error and unedifying broadsides against others that I think are the most disturbing. There is something very much not right here.
For Pat, good post. If our bishops are to stop behaving like wolves in shepherd's clothing, it is up to the laity, as Bishop Sheen said, to hold them to account.
May 30, 2013 at 10:47 pm
Ronconte, there is no 'assume'. By any reasonable Catholic standard, the cardinal and the archdiocese is in the wrong, have been in the wrong, and what do you want to bet, will continue in the wrong. They are not for us. They are not for the unborn, obviously. Questions going forward should include: How much money do I contribute to this organization that cooperates in the evil of abortion and contraception? Where do I go to worship with those who are NOT cooperating with such evil? What do I say to my children and potential converts about the situation? Should I ask my bishop if this is going on in my own diocese? What if it is? Etc…
A tangled web for us all, yes?
May 31, 2013 at 1:34 am
Well done, veneremurcernui! Exactly right!
May 31, 2013 at 3:11 am
Re: the "magisterial teaching on cooperation with evil", the only precept that comes close is Aquinas' principle of double effect. And this does not apply to Dolan's predicament.
The others e.g. lesser evil et al. never qualified as magisterial teaching although some Jesuits must have taught them.
May 31, 2013 at 2:06 pm
@Rick
Magisterial teaching on cooperation with evil is found in Evangelium Vitae (formal and material), the CCC (formal), and JP2's address to the Roman Rota: "For grave and proportionate motives they may therefore act in accord with the traditional principles of material cooperation."
@Everyone
Is the Church your teacher, or not? Why do you ignore the magisterial teachings on the three fonts of morality and on cooperation with evil? Have you not read that Jesus permitted the paying of taxes to the Romans, despite the misuse of some of that money to commit grave sins?
May 31, 2013 at 2:53 pm
This comment has been removed by the author.
May 31, 2013 at 3:05 pm
Here is the context of that quote. I don't think it applies to bishops who must teach and exemplify the faith.
"Professionals in the field of civil law should avoid being personally involved in anything that might imply a cooperation with divorce. For judges this may prove difficult, since the legal order does not recognize a conscientious objection to exempt them from giving sentence. For grave and proportionate motives they may therefore act in accord with the traditional principles of material cooperation. . . . Lawyers, as independent professionals, should always decline the use of their profession for an end that is contrary to justice, as is divorce. They can only cooperate in this kind of activity when, in the intention of the client, it is not directed to the break-up of the marriage, but to the securing of other legitimate effects that can only be obtained through such a judicial process in the established legal order."