The U.S. Army prevented Catholic chaplains in the military services from reading a pastoral letter from their bishop at all masses on Sunday, January 29, in violation of the rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion guaranteed by the Constitution.
The letter from the Catholic Archbishop for Military Services, Timothy Broglio, called for resistance to the Obama administration’s policy directive that requires most employer health-insurance plans in the United States to include provision for contraceptives – including sterilization and abortifacient drugs. The administration presents this provision as part of a worker’s compensation.
According to the policy, exemptions could be granted only for “religious employers” which have as their purpose the “inculcation of religious values”, which “primarily employs persons who share the religious tenets of the organization”, and which “serves primarily persons who share the religious tenets of the organization”.
But, as the Head of the Catholic Charities USA observed, “the ministry of Jesus Christ himself” would not qualify for the exemption.
Nor would Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic hospitals (which care for 1 in 6 patients in the country), food banks, shelters for the homeless, and many Catholic schools.
Some diocesan offices would not qualify, much less would Catholic business owners who strive to conduct their businesses in accordance with their religious beliefs.
The policy directive was issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), headed by a Catholic, Kathleen Sibelius. It allowed Catholic employers one year to make such provision.
Employers which violate the HHS mandate, and fail to provide the coverage the HHS deems necessary under the Affordable Care Act, incur an annual penalty of approximately US$2000 per employee. The only alternative for Catholic employers who object to the HHS mandate would be to cease operating.
The policy was immediately opposed by the Catholic Church in the United States, led by New York’s Cardinal-elect Timothy Dolan, President of the Bishops Conference, who called on fellow bishops to express their opposition to the measure. Subsequently, pastoral letters were read at masses in churches throughout the country on Sunday, January 29, but not in US Army chapels.
Archbishop Broglio emailed his pastoral letter to the Catholic military chaplains on January 26, with instructions that it be read at all masses in military chapels on the following Sunday, according to a statement from the Archdiocese of Military Services, on February 3.
In the letter, he called on Catholics “to resist the policy initiative, recently affirmed by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, for federally mandated health insurance covering sterilization, abortifacients and contraception, because it represents a violation of the freedom of religion recognized by the U.S. Constitution.”
Subsequently, however, the Army’s Office of the Chief of Chaplains sent an email to senior chaplains “advising them that the Archbishop’s letter was not coordinated with that office and asked that it not be read from the pulpit”, the statement revealed.
It said the Chief’s office “directed that the letter was to be mentioned in the Mass announcements and distributed in printed form in the back of the chapel”.
Basing himself on solid legal precedent, the Archbishop charged that the Army directive “constituted a violation of his Constitutionally-protected right of free speech and the free exercise of religion, as well as those same rights of all military chaplains and their congregants”, the statement said.
The archbishop, a former Vatican diplomat and private secretary to the Cardinal Secretary of State, Angelo Sodano, discussed the matter with the Secretary of the Army, John McHugh.
During the discussion, “it was agreed that it was a mistake to stop the reading of the Archbishop’s letter”, the statement said. Moreover, it revealed that the Archbishop agreed to remove the line in the pastoral letter that said: “We cannot — we will not — comply with this unjust law.”
He did so, at the suggestion of Secretary McHugh “over the concern that it could potentially be misunderstood as a call to civil disobedience.”
Many political commentators in the USA believe this controversial policy could cost Obama dearly at the next election, unless he reverses it before then.
“The fallout is cataclysmic for the White House and President Obama”, Mark Shields, a syndicated columnist, and David Brooks, a New York Times writer, said on a Public Broadcasting Service program last week.
Brooks recalled that Obama gained 54% of the Catholic vote in the 2008 election, but risks losing much of that support next November because of this policy. He argued that Government should give people with different values the possibilities to operate as they see fit.
“A Government that says ‘one size fits all’, and ‘you’ve got to do it our way or not all’, is a Government that insults a lot of people”, he stated.
Shields agreed.
He labeled the policy as “indefensible”, and said it has upset Catholics, Evangelicals and others.
“The conscience clause is deep in our (American) tradition”, and is important not only to Catholics but also to Seventh Day Adventists, Orthodox Jews, and many others, he stated.
Brooks called this development “the most underreported story” of recent months.
He and Shields predicted the issue could become a much bigger question in the run-up to the November elections.