I am the product of 14 years of Catholic school and am a practicing Catholic, actively involved in the church all of my life. As a woman with a career in politics and women's leadership, I have quietly worked within the church to make change and have cautiously offered my voice only when I felt it was essential. But, I can be quiet no longer.
Recently, the Catholic leadership came out in opposition to the mandate in our new healthcare law that all health insurance providers offer coverage for prescribed birth control, even for employees in some Catholic Institutions. But, let's be clear about what the real issue is here. It is not about government controls, and it is not about infringement of our religious beliefs. It is about a church that has lost touch with reality. The leadership of the Catholic Church either is ignoring or is unaware of the disconnect between Catholic teaching and Catholic reality.
First, there is an important yet often overlooked reality about Catholic moral teaching: it mandates that Catholics make decisions with an "informed conscience." This means that we must educate ourselves about the issues so that we understand Catholic social teaching and make decisions based on reflection, prayer, and counsel. Moreover, under Catholic teaching, our decisions about issues like birth control are ultimately our own and should be considered with humanae vitae in mind.
As Catholics we are also called to be responsible parents. Responsible parenting means making decisions about whether we are equipped to be good parents and to provide for our children -- which, for many of us in today's economy, can be a challenging decision. Neither the "informed conscience" nor responsible parenting can be taken lightly. Both are important tenets of our faith that many people do not understand -- even, apparently, our bishops.
Second, there is a practical reality. Just because an option is there, does not mean we have to take it. If an informed Catholic woman does not believe that she should be taking birth control, she shouldn't and doesn't have to. But that does not mean the option should be unavailable to others. To further illustrate the point, the Catholic Church has established policy (referred to as "indirect or remote cooperation") to address precisely this sort of issue. This allows Catholics to indirectly provide support to activities that diverge from Catholic social teaching -- such as paying taxes that fund wars or the death penalty. If we are not directly contributing, it is acceptable under Catholic doctrine. And in this instance, it's the insurance companies who pay for the contraceptives, not the universities or the hospitals.
Third, there is a statistical reality showing why this rule makes sense. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 79.5% of people aged 18 to 24 have had sexual intercourse, and, of those, 2.2% become pregnant. While Catholic authorities would say that unmarried young adults should not be sexually active to begin with, this position ignores reality and serves only to isolate young people -- dismissing the issue as someone else's problem.
But Catholic students are no different from the broader population. In 2009, the Boston College Undergraduate Government held a vote on whether the university should offer more sexual health services, including STI testing, condoms, and prescription birth control. The vote saw a record turnout, and an overwhelming 89% of students supported making these services available. The truth is in these numbers.
Fourth, there is a face to the reality. My cousin was a junior at Fordham University on a full scholarship when she became unexpectedly pregnant two and half years ago. She had been unable to get birth control from Fordham health services -- no university doctor would prescribe birth control, and she could not afford to pay for an out-of-network doctor. One failed condom later, she was pregnant.
My cousin chose to keep the baby, despite her knowledge that six of her other classmates had undergone abortions that year. Upon reporting her pregnancy to the administration, however, they made it clear that she was no longer welcome in student housing. Once she was no longer living in the dorms, her housing scholarship was revoked. Faced with paying New York City rent, she was a 20-year-old student living by her beliefs without a financial safety net.
Against all odds, living on food stamps, and without any support from the University, she managed to graduate and is now teaching theology at a Catholic high school.
Fordham is no different from other Catholic and Jesuit Universities around the country. Three years ago, as a hopeful adoptive parent, I called more than 15 major Catholic universities trying to find an office that provided support for pregnant students. Much to my dismay, I learned that these institutions no longer provide such services to students. Worse still, none of the university administrators was able to identify either a counselor or a healthcare professional who worked with pregnant students on campus.
As a church, Catholics need to focus energy on serving those who are making hard decisions -- like my cousin -- to keep a baby and stand by her beliefs. But we also need to re-examine the ways we are supporting (or failing to support) women and men who are struggling with sexuality, the economy, and the difficult decisions involved in responsible parenting. Pointing fingers at a governmental action designed to provide options to people facing tough choices is not the answer. On issues such as this, the Catholic Church needs to inform its own conscience and allow its members to do the same.
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Carol Howard Merritt: Christianity and Contraception: Would Jesus Dispense Birth Control?
One point you failed to mention, the Catholic Church is not just a US Church. The Church teaches universally. The Church is not going to change its teachings because US Catholics disagree with the teaching or the majority of US citizens think the rule is the best thing since sliced bread. The fact remains that the Catholic Church has not / does not / will not change on this.
We are heading for a collision that will not be pretty and the social consequences if the Church stands by its convictions ( I am sure they will ) will be terrible if forced to accept something that is clearly against their teaching. Of all people, you should know that the Catholic understanding of human rights is not just about abortion or birth control. It is about good health care, education, shelter, immigration / migration and the dignity of workers for all nations and all people.
Your depiction of the old concept of 'informed consent' is enbarrassingly shallow and faulty. A deep topic which becomes in your article little more than a poster slogan like 'Free Love'. Here's a small quote from the current Pope, in his role as a theologian:
"In any event, it is always from the truth that the dignity of conscience derives. In the case of the correct conscience, it is a question of the objective truth received by man; in the case of the erroneous conscience, it is a question of what man, mistakenly, subjectively considers to be true. It is never acceptable to confuse a 'subjective' error about moral good with the 'objective' truth rationally proposed to man in virtue of his end, or to make the moral value of an act performed with a true and correct conscience equivalent to the moral value of an act performed by following the judgment of an erroneous conscience".
If being a good parent is simply providing lots of material goodies, many of us are currently very poor parents indeed.
Let's think this through - If the Church has so much influence on government, why are they caught on the horns of a delimma with the new health care mandate?
All Catholics pay taxes just as you do. They owe you absolutely nothing.
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By the way, we'd be happy to have those who are leaving come join us in our church. We support access to contraception, sex education, and freedom of choice. I'm guessing I wont see you this Sunday?
First point: This is not a Constitutional challenge.
The first Amendment of the Constitution of the United States
protects a person’s right to “free exercise of religion,” not the “establishment
of religion.”
Exempting churches from federal law would create an “establishment of religion” which would be unconstitutional.
When we look at America’s not so distant history, were Africans and American Indians allowed the “free exercise of religion?” They were considered savages and unfortunate races—and their beliefs were decimated and considered spawns of "satan."
We would rather live in a world where ALL people have “free exercise of religion.” Rather than a country that “protects” established religions at the cost and destruction of others.
Second: Contraception again involves a woman’s womb—the church does not and cannot own the womb—that would be slavery. Black woman as well as ALL American should understand the absolute MORAL DETRIMENT that happened when Black woman’s wombs were owned. The church should know as well.
Third: It is a challenge on personhood. Though one’s religion may establish “personhood” at conception, the Constitution of the United States establishes it at birth, 14th Amendment: “….born on this soil,” which is not the same as conceived.
The Catholic Church has created a furor about the Affordable Healthcare Act provision for providing contraceptives to American women while the Church does not have a conscience about violating the U.S. Immigration laws by promoting "sanctuary" for Illegal Aliens due for deportation in it's churches.
Your second point is illusionary - the Church is not seeking to control, nor can they control - a woman's womb. This is a question of principle and conscience. Bringing race into the issue is ludicrous.
Your third point is a fantasy - the Constitution does not define the beginning of life, only the practical political status of a life once it leaves the womb.
Three strikes and you're out. Batter up.
Another issue I have with what you say is that not all women who take birth control pills are taking them to prevent pregnancy!! Many women, including me, take them for other medical reasons.
Also, given your line of reasoning, perhaps you would also be against any women who has miscarried. After all, that's how a diagnosis for a miscarriage is written up... as a "spontaneous abortion".
First, the mandate also requires providing for 'morning after' pills and sterilization. These are admittedly not just 'regular' birth control.
Second, no method of birth control is 100% effective nor is there a guarantee that each person will use it consistently as they should. There are pregnancies which result despite contraception, so obviously a fertilized egg is a very real possiblity. Since most birth control methods affect the lining of the uterus in such a way as to make it less hospitable for egg implantation (that's why some women take contraception to lessen menstrual flow, because it thins the endometrium), they are for all practical purposes abortifaciÂents.
No matter whether you call it a 'miscarriage' or 'spontaneous abortion', it is not a direct result of human interaction. Medical abortions or contraception are.
Finally, even if a contraceptive were not an abortifaciÂent it is still objectionable to the Church because it closes the conjugal act to Life.
The catholic superstition has the right to say that if one uses contraception one is no longer a catholic but wether have no right to prevent Catholics from using contraception and no right to get involved in the sex life of non-Catholics.
This is NOT a religious war against Catholics but an enforcement of freedom OF and FROM superstition for everyone, Catholics included.
Over population endorsed by any religion has no place.
Taking any right of anyone, be they female, gay, black or even educated in the name of superstitutious nonsense is just wrong.
The superstitious nonsense that is paraded as absolute truth by church's does not preclude the real truth, equality. Every time some religious men decide to take a right from anyone, even in the name of their supernatural nonsense, it is step backward.
This is not an issue of making anyone use contraception, it is a case of allowing a free choice to use it or not.
Ol' Brown Foam would take everything from women that they have gained in the last 100 years. Rather than looking at a woman as a mobile uterus, the way his Catholic Church and the Baptists do, perhaps it is the time for all these 19th Century Men to realize that women are people too, not just a baby machine to be used like a test tube or a toothbrush.
The only religious war going on here is the war against peoples right be who they are without fear of pregnancy, by religion. After all, pregnancy is not supposed to be a punishment, it is supposed to be a desired event.
You Religionists need to realize that, though you may not agree, sex IS fun! People like to do it, sometimes by themselves, sometimes together and not always for procreation... get over it!
Drinking til you puke is fun too - until the next morning.
If you wish to live absolutely free of any moral conscience, this is your shining moment.
Wake up catholics. Leave the ancient mythology behind. Stop pretending to be catholic and just have the guts to say this is a archaic institution still practicing discrimination and hatred for the people they dislike because some unknown authors put together a book of storied that tells them to do so.
Nothing is more subjective than the bible. The catholic church will continue its slide into insignificance while even crazier god freaks fight these insane battles.