{"id":277,"date":"2012-06-11T21:35:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-11T21:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/hhs-mandate-defender-sees-catholic-institutions-as-distractions\/"},"modified":"2012-06-11T21:35:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-11T21:35:00","slug":"hhs-mandate-defender-sees-catholic-institutions-as-distractions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/06\/hhs-mandate-defender-sees-catholic-institutions-as-distractions\/","title":{"rendered":"HHS mandate defender sees Catholic institutions as distractions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Washington D.C., Jun 11, 2012 \/ 03:35 pm (CNA<\/a>).- Washington Post columnist Anthony Stevens-Arroyo is a Catholic who does not believe the Obama Administration is attacking religious liberty by mandating Catholic institutions to pay for birth control in their employee health plans.<\/p>\n

\tBut he also doesn\u2019t think the Church should even be in the business of operating universities, hospitals and other agencies that serve the public welfare.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI believe it is a distraction and an imperfection in the Catholic Church for us to be running institutions like hospitals where the Church is receiving money, and has public obligations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI think that the Church running corporations, taking tax money, engaging in anti-union practices \u2026 I think all of that complicates the role of the Church as a beacon of truth. I would like the Church to return to its primitive state when the Church was not a part of any establishment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tStevens-Arroyo told CNA June 5 he would like to see Catholic universities \u201cbe restricted in terms of what is Catholic to the department of theology.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI don\u2019t think you can bring Catholic thinking or Catholic thought into football teams or into the dorms of a frat house,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\tIn his view,\u00a0 trying to do so creates \u201can intolerable tension\u201d on Church responsibilities and leads to \u201chuge compromises\u201d in behavior, like monitoring the actions of students and faculty.<\/p>\n

\tHe believes his approach favors what he sees as the Church\u2019s return to \u201cthe purity of the Gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tStevens-Arroyo is a religion scholar and a professor emeritus of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at Brooklyn College. He also writes at the Washington Post\u2019s \u201cOn Faith\u201d section and at its \u201cCatholic America\u201d blog.<\/p>\n

\tHis comments come after 43 Catholic dioceses and institutions, including the University of Notre Dame, filed suit against the Obama administration challenging a mandate requiring that most employers provide coverage for sterilization and contraception, including some potentially abortion-causing drugs.<\/p>\n

\tStevens-Arroyo rejected the claim that the mandate is an \u201cattack\u201d on religious liberty. He contended that the mandate controversy is \u201ca conflict between the religious rights of the employer and the religious rights of the employee.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tA Catholic university, he said, should not require faculty and students to abide by \u201cmoral rigidity\u201d or it will face \u201cthe contradiction between running a corporation and preaching the gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tHe argued that there is a difference between \u201cdirect and indirect cooperation\u201d in an immoral action.<\/p>\n

\tThe Church, in his view, would only be paying for insurance that covers contraceptives. The moral burden would be on the employee to choose whether to use it or not.<\/p>\n

\tThe U.S. bishops have rejected this distinction. In a March 7 memo, the U.S. bishops\u2019 attorney, Anthony Picarello, argued that the Administration\u2019s regulations still force an employer to fund and facilitate objectionable coverage of morally objectionable medications and procedures.<\/p>\n

\tUnder the regulations, any health care plan is a cause of employees\u2019 access to \u201cthe \u2018free\u2019 coverage of objectionable items,\u201d Picarello explained.<\/p>\n

\tWhile Catholic institutions say they are being coerced, Stevens-Arroyo says they are the ones trying to coerce their employees to go along with the Church\u2019s moral teaching.<\/p>\n

\tStevens-Arroyo believes that the HHS mandate is \u201cstill in negotiation\u201d and predicted that its final form will only affect entities that accept tax money, including universities that accept federal monies for student loans, and not any religious non-profits that are self-funded.<\/p>\n

\tThe mandate presently affects almost all employers with 50 employees or more, regardless of whether they receive taxpayer funding.<\/p>\n

\tThe Catholic bishops have warned that the regulation could force Catholic schools, hospitals and charitable agencies around the nation to close down.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

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