[For the Record] (Emphases mine)
DIOCESE OF SAN BERNARDINO
OFFICE OF THE BISHOP
March 11,2014
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My greetings to you in this season of Lent. lt is my hope and prayer that you are
able to grow in your faith and draw nearer to our Lord in these 40 days through
prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
The purpose of this letter is to provide some clarification and some direction
regarding the new federal healthcare law. As you may know, the Affordable
Healthcare Act requires that all legal residents of the country carry health insurance
by April 1. Failure to comply with this law will result in fines that increase
progressively each year.
lt is understandable that many may have questions and fears about how to comply with this law. This is reflected in the reports of low health insurance enrollment among members of our Hispanic communities. However, to ignore this law or put it off will result in negative financial consequences for you and your family.
While the insurance requirement does not apply to those who have undocumented
status, it does apply to their children if those children have legal residency in the
United States. Please be aware of this and your responsibility to sign your child up
for health insurance immediately.
lt is true that our Church has raised objection to elements of the law that relate to contraception and abortion services that might be provided through it. We continue to address these issues with lawmakers and through the courts, which l fully support.
However, these factors do not mean that we, as Catholics, should disobey the new health care law. If we happen to have an insurance plan that includes services that are objectionable to our faith, which most plans in California do, our response is to not utilize these services. We do this through an informed conscience and reflection on the teachings of our Church about the value and dignity of every human life and God’s plan for creation.
The Affordable Care Act is now part of civil law and as faithful citizens we are
obligated to follow it. Furthermore, it offers an opportunity for many individuals and
families who have never had health insurance to obtain it. This will aflim the dignity
of many people and improve their quality of life, a chief reason why the Bishops of
the United States have been advocating for health care refon”n for decades.
ln conclusion, l would urge those who have not yet signed up for health insurance to
do so before the end of this month. This can be done through the Medi-Cal program
or through a private health insurance exchange called Covered California,
depending on your income. if you need help with this process I would recommend
that you first contact Catholic Charities San Bernardino-Riverside at (909) 383-1239
or, in the Coachella /alley, at (760) 342-0157. Catholic Charities is a certified Medi-
Cal enroller and can also connect you directly to a certified Covered California
enrollment counselor. The two Catholic hospitals in our diocese, St. Bernardine
Medical Center (San Bemardino) and St. Mary Medical Center (Apple Valley) are
also involved in the information and enrollment process for Covered California.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter. Increasingly, we face the
challenge of reconciling our faith with matters of public policy. Let us continue to
pray and reflect in these moments so that we might be faithful citizens and
witnesses to the life-giving power of the Gospel.
May God bless you in your Lenten journey.
In Christ,
Most Reverend Gerald Fl. Bames
Bishop ofthe Diocese of San Bemardino
GRB:elp
March 13, 2014 at 2:20 pm
This is pure insanity……from calling abortion and contraception "services" to talk about not "disobeying" the new health care law.
It is not disrespectful to call this Bishop a tool of satan….because that is exactly what he is.
March 13, 2014 at 2:25 pm
I hope somebody runs the headline:
California Bans Wake-Up Sex.
And in the body of the article somehow get across the fact that sex within a marriage may actually be more fun than sex in California.
March 13, 2014 at 2:44 pm
Your Excellency, and all other clerics who address us as "brothers and sisters",
I am not your brother; if I was a woman I would not be your sister. I am a Catholic subject to authority. You are the authority, therefore, in one way, you are a King, or at least a Duke.
Having gotten that out of the way, let me tell you that your suggestion that we all march in lockstep to support this ridiculous law is yet another example of Episcopal cowardice in the face of a ferocious enemy. As such it sickens me to read your words.
When Your Excellency decides to grow a backbone, then will I listen once again to your words.
March 13, 2014 at 2:51 pm
I have begun exploring the theory that the revolutions of the 19th century largely got rid of the remaining nobility- both in the Church and temporal authorities. Previous to the revolutionary period, people with an ability to think long term were selected for; post-revolution there were still long term thinkers, but they were no longer selected for and often discriminated against since their aims tended not to fit in with the socialist agenda. So, now we have a regime of the middle class. Here is a bishop with middle class thinking, comfortable in his little life. He either does not know anyone noble or cannot understand anyone noble, and therefore does not understand Christ very well, and his true sense of brotherhood is with his fellow bureaucrats, who developed this illegal law.
March 13, 2014 at 5:52 pm
Just sad.
March 13, 2014 at 6:27 pm
Just the most obvious example. Slavery in the USA was once the law of the land. It is no more (unless if you are a wedding photographer or baker). The law was changed. It was bloody and expensive, but a law that permeated a society is gone. Even the law on homosexuality has almost been completely changed in a less bloody decade.
Why are almost all public official Democrats pro abortion? Because they have never had to pay a price for that position. We want something in Obamacare changed (a religious freedom exemption), but we won't insist that our desired change precede ANY support for that elitist monstrosity. "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, and we shall never surrender."
May I respectfully say, the bishop is a good man, I presume, he's also a dunce.
March 13, 2014 at 6:32 pm
Perhaps the bishop is trying to please the Powers so that he will be invited to the Al Smith dinner with all the cool kids?
But he is certainly not teaching the Faith as a bishop.
March 13, 2014 at 6:32 pm
Let the faithful to Obama, sign up for Obamacare.
March 13, 2014 at 6:34 pm
It's George Bush's fault. And the priests. And the teachers. And the police. And Vladimir Putin.
March 13, 2014 at 6:56 pm
No king but Caesar, huh? Nice going, your excellency.
March 13, 2014 at 7:40 pm
Lex inuesta non est lex. So said Augustine, Aquinas, and oh yeah, Martin Luther King Jr.
March 14, 2014 at 7:07 am
Be sure to take a couple of selfies before! The I do's help expedite the litigious aspects of the post encounter phase. In part, due to the risk factor and likelyhood that there maybe, injurious behaviors, the possibility that one may experience some undisclosed, life altering, biohazardous, pathogenic exposure, contact and or complication from such proximity and interaction.
Well, you can always document the whole encounter before going to your lawyer.
March 14, 2014 at 5:10 pm
love=sex…sex=desire….desire=rights…. sex=rights… How can we have a future when our laws are based on feelings and desires?
March 14, 2014 at 5:33 pm
I find it very interesting that the Bishop directs us to follow the law to the letter if we are to be faithful citizens. However, there is nothing wrong with the Bishops sheltering illegal aliens. The failure to report these individuals to Customs and Immigration is also one of these laws that are supposed to be obeyed but instead is rather ignored so as to push a particular political agenda. Obama should put the U.S. Bishops on one of his political action committees.
March 15, 2014 at 12:34 pm
When you sign up for OBAMACARE, you financially support what it stands for in entirety. If people do not sign up, it will fail. Bishop Barnes must be a Democrat, wanting Obama and his evil to succeed.
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CCC: " 1759 "An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention" (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Dec. praec. 6). The end does not justify the means."
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CCC: " 909 "Moreover, by uniting their forces let the laity so remedy the institutions and conditions of the world when the latter are an inducement to sin, that these may be conformed to the norms of justice, favoring rather than hindering the practice of virtue. By so doing they will impregnate culture and human works with a moral value."
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CCC: " 898 By reason of their special vocation it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God's will. . . . It pertains to them in a special way so to illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are closely associated that these may always be effected and grow according to Christ and maybe to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer."
March 15, 2014 at 12:56 pm
CCC: " 1903 Authority is exercised legitimately only when it seeks the common good of the group concerned and if it employs morally licit means to attain it. If rulers were to enact unjust laws or take measures contrary to the moral order, such arrangements would not be binding in conscience. In such a case, authority breaks down completely and results in shameful abuse."
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So when is Bishop Gerald Barnes going to read the: "Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition" ?
Is this why he does not encourage all literate persons in his Diocese to read it at home?
CCC: " 1868 Sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a responsibility for the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them:
– by participating directly and voluntarily in them;
– by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them;
– by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so;
– by protecting evil-doers. "
March 16, 2014 at 5:21 pm
He needs a lesson in cooperating with intrinsic evil. His admonition is scandalous.
March 17, 2014 at 2:00 pm
"The Affordable Care Act is now part of civil law and as faithful citizens we are obligated to follow it. Furthermore, it offers an opportunity for many individuals and families who have never had health insurance to obtain it."
And what pray tell happens when the Chief Executive of the United States fails to follow his own law? The President has illegally signed orders to circumvent his own laws for political gain. Further more the opportunity for uninsured families to get affordable private insurance is now less than it was before ObamaCare was made law. In most cases, the ObamaCare sign-up process puts most people into Medicaid, which is not insurance. Additionally, ObamaCare steals $70 billion from Medicare annually. The sum total by 2019 will be $700 billion taken from the elderly in order to back fill shortages with ObamaCare. Finally, most people cannot afford ObamaCare. Those 7 million that lost their private insurance either earn too much money to qualify for the subsidies, or they do not qualify for Medicaid – in many cases it both.
Leave the politics to others.