Catholic Social Thought and the HHS Mandate

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 1:28 pm By Francis J. Beckwith

That’s the title of my most recent piece at The Catholic Thing. Here’s how it begins: As almost everyone on earth now knows, Professor Obama has offered his “compromise” to the HHS regulations that require that all employers, including most religious employers, that provide health insurance to their employees must include coverage of contraception, sterilization, and abortifacients free of charge. It was a faux compromise. The insurance company, not the employer, must inform the employee that these options exist, while the... Read more

Contraception and Catholicism: What the Church Really Teaches

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 1:28 pm By Francis J. Beckwith

That’s the title of a piece authored by University of South Carolina philosopher, Christopher Tollefsen, who this year is serving as a Visiting Fellow in the James Program at Princeton University. The essay published this morning on National Review Online. Here’s how it begins: Catholic teaching on contraception is at the heart of the controversy over the Health and Human Services mandate. Catholic hospitals and universities are unwilling to purchase insurance plans that provide contraceptive coverage. To critics, this unwillingness... Read more

Read All About It!: President Obama to exempt religious organizations..[+Update]

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 1:28 pm By Francis J. Beckwith

from the list of tax-exempt non-profits that a citizen can work for in order to have the government forgive the student’s college loan. Read all about in the Washington Post On Faith blog. Here’s an excerpt: Are clergy and teachers of religious faith/thought public servants? Is their work on par with that of others who work for 501c3 non-for-profit groups and for government agencies? It used to be, but as of January 31st, the federal government has changed its mind... Read more

The Dangers of Anti-Sharia Laws

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 1:28 pm By Francis J. Beckwith

That’s the title of a well-reasoned article published in the March 2012 issue of First Things. Authored by the University of St. Thomas Law School professor Robert K. Vischer, here’s how it begins: The law in several states now requires pro-life pharmacists to dispense the morning-after pill, Christian adoption agencies to place children with same-sex couples, and religious entities to pay for their employees’ contraceptives. The list of such violations of religious freedom keeps growing, along with the insistence that... Read more

Wall Street Journal: Birth-Control Mandate: Unconstitutional and Illegal

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 1:28 pm By Francis J. Beckwith

David Rivkin and Ed Whelan write in the Wall Street Journal (15 February 2012): Last Friday, the White House announced that it would revise the controversial ObamaCare birth-control mandate to address religious-liberty concerns. Its proposed modifications are a farce. The Department of Health and Human Services would still require employers with religious objections to select an insurance company to provide contraceptives and drugs that induce abortions to its employees. The employers would pay for the drugs through higher premiums. For... Read more

Two Key Questions that Unlock the HHS “compromise” debate

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 1:28 pm By Francis J. Beckwith

Do religious-based organizations, such as Catholic hospitals and universities, and businesses owned by devout religious believers including Catholics, Evangelicals, Orthodox Jews, and Muslims, have the right under Obamacare to negotiate an agreement with an insurance company so that the insurance policy the employer offers to its employees does not include contraception, abortion, sterilization, etc.? Does an entrepreneur under Obamacare have a right to create an insurance company that in fact meets the needs of such employers? If the answer to... Read more

The Right Not to Do Wrong and the Politics of Ruse: Matthew Franck on the HHS “accommodation”

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 1:28 pm By Francis J. Beckwith

Over at Public Discourse, Matthew J. Franck, the Director of the William E. and Carol G. Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution of the Witherspoon Institute, has published a clear and informative account of why President Obama’s HHS accommodation is deeply flawed. What I like about Franck’s essay is that he addresses some of the objections raised by some defenders of the accommodations on this blog and elsewhere. Here’s an excerpt: As I say, non-religious Americans will not be able... Read more

Last updated on: July 17, 2023 at 1:54 pm By Francis J. Beckwith

Archbishop Chaput: “HHS mandate insulting and dangerous”

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 1:28 pm By Francis J. Beckwith

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia had this to say in this morning’s Philadelphia Inquirer: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services refused on Jan. 20 to broaden the exception to its mandate that nearly all Catholic employers must cover contraception, abortifacients, and sterilization in their health-care plans. An “accommodation” offered Friday by the White House did not solve the problem. Instead, it triggered withering criticism from legal scholars such as Notre Dame’s Carter Snead, Harvard’s Mary Ann Glendon,... Read more

Cardinal George of Chicago: “We cannot — we will not — comply with this unjust law.”

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 1:28 pm By Francis J. Beckwith

The following is an open letter authored by Francis Cardinal George, the Catholic Archbishop of Chicago. It is addressed to the Catholics of his diocese: Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ: I write to you concerning a most serious matter that negatively impacts the church in the United States directly, and that strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all citizens of any faith. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced on Jan. 20 that almost... Read more

In Philemon, what does Paul call Onesimus?