Obviously, we do not know what will happen come 2009, when Obama is officially the President of the United States. There are indications that FOCA might not be he primary concern when he gets into office (certainly, he has more important things to deal with, from the financial crisis in the United States, to the growing conflict in India). He might put it on the back-burner and let it rest. But, on the other hand, there continues to be some concern that he will try to keep one of his campaign promises, and this is one he might think possible to do, and so he would do it just to show he can “accomplish something.” It is for this reason opposition to FOCA needs to continue to be made respectfully known.
If FOCA is passed, it looks like Catholics are getting ready to engage civil disobedience, which is a good thing. It would be appropriate to read Gandhi and Dorothy Day, to see how this can be done right. Our Bishops will be involved with this. Thus, as CNS News relates, we are now told that, “Bishop Paul Loverde of the Roman Catholic diocese of Arlington, Va., said last week that if the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) should become law and a Catholic hospital in his diocese is forced to provide abortions, he would refuse to let the hospital comply, but he would also not close the institution.” Of course, civil disobedience must be done respectfully, and only be used to disobey those laws which are unjust, and not be used to reject the whole of authority carte blanche. Just look at the examples of the Roman martyrs. They were to follow all the laws of Rome, save those which counter fundamentals of the Christian faith. They were told to show respect to the government, despite what evil the government might promote. Thus they were not to go looking for martyrdom; anyone who did would not be considered a real martyr. And that, we must remember, should be the case in any incident of civil disobedience. One must not go too far; there are limits to what is permissible.
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