Indeed even in their final call to action, when the bishops say that they hope to “correct this problem,” they do not issue a clear call for the rejection of the administration’s proposal and/or the removal of those elected officials who have devised and supported it. Perhaps fearful of being caught up in partisan politics, the bishops shrink from drawing the obvious conclusion from this revealing episode: that the Obama administration is contemptuous of religious freedom and determined to undermine the authority of the Catholic hierarchy.
President Obama, on the other hand, is not averse to a political battle with the bishops. And if he is willing to risk a direct confrontation with the bishops in this, an election year, one can only imagine how blithely he would ride roughshod over Catholic protests during a second presidential term, when he would not need to worry about re-election!
Were the leaders of the USCCB fully conscious of the political challenges that now face them? Thanks to the reporting work of Rocco Palmo, we now have some insight into their thinking. Palmo obtained and posted a confidential memo to the members of the USCCB, outlining the thoughts behind the second official statement from the bishops’ conference.
(The confidential memo, like the second statement from the USCCB on the revised mandate, was signed by Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the president of the bishops’ conference, and by four bishops who chair committees within the USCCB: Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of the pro-life committee, Cardinal Donald Wuerl of the doctrinal committee, Bishop Stephen Blaire of the domestic-policy committee, and Bishop William Lori of the religious liberty committee.)
The bishops’ memo reiterated the main objections to the Obama mandate, and stressed that some questions—such as the effects on institutions that self-insure—remain unclear. They also raised a question that had not yet figured prominently in USCCB statements, regarding the effect of the mandate on non-religious employers. Although the bishops have devoted their attention to the moral crisis that would face Church-run organizations required by law to furnish contraceptives for their employees, the same crisis already faces Catholic individuals (or others morally opposed to contraception) working at secular firms. A Catholic nun running a charitable agency might qualify for some degree of exemption from the Obama mandate; a Catholic layman running a manufacturing firm would not. “This presents a grave moral problem to be addressed,” the USCCB leaders reminded their brother bishops. That brief mention of the problem is a welcome reminder that Church leaders have a duty not only to secure the rights not only of Church-related institutions, but of all the faithful. This idea was explained by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1992:
Where a matter of the common good is concerned, it is inappropriate for Church authorities to endorse or remain neutral toward adverse legislation even if it grants exceptions to Church organizations and institutions. The Church has the responsibility to promote family life and the public morality of the entire civil society on the basis of fundamental moral values, not simply to protect herself from the application of harmful laws.
It will be interesting to see whether the recognition of this duty, now mentioned in an internal memo, becomes evident in the American bishops’ public statements.
In their memo the five bishops who are leading the debate outlined three main principles driving their strategy. The first was a commitment to protect religious liberty, and the third was a determination to oppose a wider use of contraception, sterilization, and the use of abortifacient drugs. But in light of the analysis above, the bishops’ middle point is most interesting:
Second, it is the place of the Church, not of government to define its religious identity and ministry.
So the USCCB leaders recognize the thrust of the Obama administration’s political offensive. They realize that the White House has set out to divide and conquer, to separate the Catholic laity from their bishops. Now surely they see that when groups like the Catholic Health Association and Catholic Charities USA side with the Obama administration, they are contributing to the erosion of the bishops’ authority and the splintering of the Church. So this is not merely an important political battle; it is a critical test of the bishops’ overall authority.
