Will Obama really retreat over his edict that Catholic institutions must provide contraception? Probably not. And how will US Catholics vote then?

What a well balanced blog. I agree totally with Dr Oddie about the NHS and about Rick Santorum’s unelectability. As a liberal Catholic I am glad that he is prepared to consider the possibility that the majority of Catholics in America, in particular those who voted for Obama in 2008, do not support the bishops about contraception. To me that is a very positive sign.

I also watch quite a lot of Fox News, and laugh at its self-proclaimed “Fair and Balanced” reporting. However although Fox is the highest rating news channel in America, its highest rated programme is watched by less than 2 million people, or about 1% of the American electorate. 

If Obama gets a second term, then I guess practising American Catholics if not all of us here in the UK too, will have to prepare for persecution of some kind.  Not that most Catholics will be worried.  No doubt their consciences are already compromised and being Catholic rather than acting Catholic is enough for them.

Don’t discount Santorum yet.  In my opinion he is the type of leader who makes history.  And I am sure he a true servant of God.  Those leaders don’t come along very often. But when they do come it is at crucial moments in Christian history.  A bit like Churchill I guess. Also recent polls suggest that he could beat Obama.  This is really a make or break US election…..not a more-of-the-same type election. 

Actually just on one only day did Santorum outscore Obama in the polls.

But this is really a battle between those that would destroy Christian Civilisation and those that would restore it.

If you substitute “over-indulgent nanny state” for “the NHS,” then Santorum’s statement makes a lot more sense. It’s likely that’s more what he actually meant, and was just using the NHS as an example of it.

I have read about the “6 in 10″ Catholics supporting the mandate, too, but I’m not sure where that number came from. If it was a poll of predominantly white, upper-middle-class “Catholics” in, say, New York City or California, then it wouldn’t be very surprising but also wouldn’t be an accurate measurement of overall American Catholic opinion.

There have been several signs that this mandate is too much even for liberals: E.J. Dionne of the Wash. Post wrote against it, as did Commonweal magazine (a strong Obama supporter) and Sr. Keehan who is CEO of the Catholic Health Association of the United States.

As you’ve probably read by now, Obama has offered a “compromise” that (in my view) appears to be little more than a rewording of the original mandate. Instead of Catholic organizations paying for contraception, it says, the insurance companies will pay for it. Ah yes, but who pays the insurance companies? Obviously, the Catholic organizations.

The important part for Obama here is that this “new” mandate has the support of Sr. Keehan. (As well as Planned Parenthood.) Sr. Keehan, of course, has the responsibility of ensuring that Catholic hospitals and clinics are able to keep operating. However, she has also been criticized for seeming to favor Obama over the bishops ( http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/cardinal-george-sr.-keehan-chose-obama-over-catholic-bishops/ ).

As a politically aware and active American Catholic, who does not like President Obama and will not vote for him, I am confident that his handling of this issue will not hurt him very much. The Catholics who are most upset about it are those least likely to vote for Obama anyway. The majority of US Catholics couldn’t care less.

That should not surprise. Most US Catholics, like most Catholics anywhere, are rather selective about which moral teachings of the Church they take seriously. Most do not take the teaching against contraception seriously: maybe about 10% actually believe it, and fewer than that actually try to live consistently by it. For the vast majority, though, it’s simply a non-issue. The prospect of Catholic hospitals, schools, and charities being forced to pay for contraception and sterilization will strike them as no more problematic than being forced to pay taxes for things of which they really do morally disapprove..

The HHS mandate is such a thorn to all Americans of good will that many groups & persons are standing “shoulder to shoulder” with the American Catholic Church on this issue including Jews, Muslims, atheists, Evangelicals, liberals, conservatives, etc…. except radical feminists. They know that if this current administration can force this reasonably large institution to not practice its beliefs, what will stop it from going after them? Everyone knows this mandate is a direct assault on the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution.

The polling firm, Rasmussen Reports is more accurate with its surveying than its competitors. It has only 28% of American Catholics agreeing with the mandate. See: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_scott_rasmussen/team_obama_fumbles_ruling_offends_catholics.

President Obama’s mandate seems to have united many, many Catholics of all stripes against him. I believe he will not get the same percentage of Catholic voters like he did in 2008, most likely noticeably less.

Obama’s polling numbers are not in the re-electable range according to Dick Morris. IMO, if he wins it will be because of massive voting fraud, — you know, doing things the Chicago Way.

The backing down or what is now being spun as “tweaking” of the mandate has just begun–it’s hot off the press.  Obama himself announced it at an underwhelming press conference today where he didn’t want to be questioned about this unprecedented move to redefine the public space that religion, especially Catholicism, is allowed to occupy in American life. The backlash against this mandate has been big and will grow. Mike Huckabee, at CPAC today said “We are all Catholics now.” This rhetorical flourish has swept the press. The first amendment is clearly at stake. Religious freedom here is the core issue, not free and mandated birth control for all—Americans can generally see this and they recognize a brazen intrusion on the part of the administration here.  And no it is not true that US Catholics support this mandate. A number of progressive American Catholic pundits, amongst them Chris Matthews, has said that Obama is ‘going after’ the Catholic Church. Health and Human Services czar Kathleen Sebellius (and alleged Catholic) has redefined completely what a “religious” organization is in the US and her definition won’t withstand the scrutiny of the public or of the courts. Obama has overreached again. Fr. Jenkins of Notre Dame, Ex-Ambassador Douglas Kmiec,  Sr. Keehan of the Catholic Health Association, and many many other Catholic leaders were completely misled by Obama’s supposed respect for freedom of conscience which he promised during his graduation address at Notre Dame. 

 Unfortunately i think it will fool many people, who lets be honest, wanted to be fooled by Obama in the first place. Any man (read monster) who can not only consistently vote for partial birth abortion but actually voted to withhold life assistance to babies actually BORN!…… well the writing was always on the wall. 54% of Catholics actually voted for this guy, to their eternal shame.
My hopes and prayers are that the bishops have finally woken up and will stop trying to appease this monster and will instead finally fight for the faith WITHOUT COMPROMISE anymore. There has been a MASSIVE groundswell of support for them on this issue, not just from Catholics.The fact they cut a deal for themselves (and they thought for hospitals/schools) but left the lay Catholic business owners to fend for themselves was shameful and cowardly and Obama brutally exposed the folly of sleeping with the enemy. But they did FINALLY draw a line in the sand and to the shock of Obama and liberals everywhere Catholics/ protestants/Jews and true libertarians everywhere united and stood up loud and proud like i have never seen before in my lifetime. The backlash was amazing (and i never watched fox news once to gauge that). There has been an explosive reaction to this (read the readers comments across the board on the lamestream media) with many people openly calling for civil disobedience. Obama simply HAD to back back down…….for now.

A perceptive and concise summary of American Catholic realpolitik –alas.  

“People who do not support the bishops” may or may not be Protestants. It rather depends what those bishops are doing and thinking. If you did not support the bishops when they all (except for St John Fisher) caved in to Henry VIII’s usurpation of ecclesiastical authority and move into schism in the 1530s, then you were most certainly a Catholic.

God I really hope so ! Obama is clearly a liar and will try to divide and rule. By the way how it Keehan get to such a prominent position in catholic healthcare when she is clearly politically ” inept by not recognising how untrustworthy Obama is and why has she not been binned given her opposition to the hierarchy in the US?  

Stick with the programme and make sure you get all the religious communities on board . That way Obama’s assault on religion will be seen as an attack on the first amendment rather than simply the catholics getting hacked off about their own problem. The opportunity is here and I hope to god the catholic hierarchy works to get everybody on board. They do however seem to be all sining from the same hymn sheet. AMDG

The problem lies in analysing the ‘Catholic’ vote. Lapsed Catholics tend to be ardent Obama style liberals. Practising Catholics are more nuanced but the majority will probably oppose Obama’s anti-life stances. In this case, however, even the ‘liberal’ Cathilcs seem to be outraged.

The six adult Catholics in my family did not vote for Obama. Another member was asked not to vote if it was going to be for Obama–and so refrained. The sad thing about voters is that they do not study the candidates to make themselves aware of the agenda of each. But we knew enough though to cast a vote against the lesser of evils (Republican candidate) who did not win… The Democratic Party’s platform is always pro abortion, pro homosexual agenda, and for more taxation. Who can support that?
In November we will march out— after a lot of prayer– and vote against Mr. B O.
May God save America!!!

It will be interesting to watch how much significant change Mr. Obama
can bring to America’s imperialist and violent foreign policy. Only time
can tell whether he has actually inherited the legacy of blatant
hypocrisy, immoral double-standards and shameful contradictions of
former American presidents or not. The world will eagerly wait to watch
how much he builds or destroys in the coming days.
Freebies

 Obama won’t back down fundamentally of course, but he has appeared to back down now. A mere strategy to APPEAR reasonable and now make the Bishops look unreasonable. Thereby splitting their supporters, which appears to have already begun (will someone please fire Sr. Keehan). Like any good Communist Obama knows how effective the divide and conquer policy has been. He will take one step back now if it means he can take two steps forward in the future. He will not stop his evil campaign so i hope and pray the Bishops stand firm and finally take him on. America and the West desperately need the Catholic Church to finally stand up and fight evil head on…..it is a critical moment in world history right now…WWIII could break out any day…..the lamestream media are not reporting how close we are to that scenario currently in Syria.

This “mandate” decision is a consummate mistake and as I said earlier the tweaking has begun. He has placed himself in a terrible spot. Moderates and Independents have already fled his ranks. If he does back down he will have a very narrow constituency made up of the extreme left. The bishops show absolutely no sign of backing down at the moment. They have rejected his latest “compromise.” Catholic business owners will still be forced to go against their consciences. You will notice that even Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles has fled his ranks and at the moment over 140+ American bishops have spoken out against this violation of religious freedom. Cardinal George of Chicago is expected to release a blistering reply to this mandate which will give you more grist for the mill.

One observation here should be added. A great majority of bishops were quite receptive to Obama’s taking over of healthcare. A few, like Chaput for instance, warned of creeping federal intrusion into areas of religious belief and conscience. But the majority of the American episcopacy fell all over themselves to wag their fingers at those of us who warned about intrusion into end of life decisions, sexual issues. George Will and others have rightly chastised the American bishops for their conciliation and “cheerleading” for Obama and his authoritarian take over of healthcare. Now they are shocked that Obama has gone so far. Give me a proverbial break.

It angers me when bishops, bloggers, or anyone else tries to tell me how to vote.  I am perfectly capable of making up my own mind on these things.  It is a damned cheek for anyone to tell me that I can’t be a proper Catholic if I vote for such-and-such a candidate.

 Your time is short….do your worst…..

I’m British, but lived in the USA until last year.  In 2008, I worked on the Obama campaign as a team leader.  Almost every one of us in that office were pro-life Catholics, supporting Obama for a variety of reasons, not least of which was health care since I don’t believe we can be truly pro-life while a sizable sector of society struggles without adequate care. I was also privileged to meet Obama and must say that I have rarely met anyone as kind or as sincere.  However, I said at the time and still say that one of his biggest problems is that he listens to too many people to get too many opinions, and I think that what we face now is a result of that.  When, as so many have pointed out, there are so many Catholics who disregard the teachings of our Church, how is a non-Catholic supposed to make sense of it all?   Unlike some, we do not view this as a war on religion, or on Catholics, but as a collision of ideologies and perceived rights, yet even from that perspective, I and my American husband are in an untenable position.  We stand firmly with the Bishops but at the same time cannot support the right-wing policies of those who do not stand with the Bishops on other major issues – war, health care, the death penalty, provision for those who have lost their jobs, to name just a few.  So what will this almost-American and her American husband do this year?  Without a major turnaround on the part of the Administration, we will probably sit out the political process altogether and I suspect that a number of Catholics who stand with the Church on EVERY issue might well find themselves having to do the same.

I think we know that in life we have to make choices.   Obama is all too aware that the Catholic vote is important but when 6 out of 10 catholics support his policies on contraception it is up to our church to separate the wheat from the chaff and be unequivocal about what their stance should be.   Ex- communication for any Catholic officials who promote Obamas policies on contraception would provide suitable example.   All Catholics should sign a declaration of agreement with the tenets of our faith which would include a signed acceptance of the churches stance on homosexuality, contraception and the teachings of our Bible.  The heroic disciples of our past who went out to spread the word and didnt care who they offended when they did it are clearly not there.   If our church is not going to defend these principles then maybe we need to start again from the ground up as our Bishops appear  too soft and ineffectual against a barrage of atheist nastiness within the media and politics.

We are led by too many naieve and pathetically soft individuals.  Sr Keehan is probably overwhelmed by the ridiculous notion that O ‘ Bama is actually Irish.
 

I’m not prepared to think about who should and should not be excommunicated, or for what sins.  That is beyond my competence.  As for the Bishops being too soft, I cannot imagine what it is like to walk in their shoes.  When I was a little girl growing up, these men were held in high regard.  Today, they get it from all sides and I am not going to add to their burden by suggesting what they should do.  I suggest that we pray for them.

I never mentioned contraception or homosexuality, so you shouldn’t jump to conclusions.  What is “my sort”?  I was prompted to post on this blog because of the grossly intemperate remarks about Obama, as if he is the antichrist or something.  And I merely pointed out that the Church changes its teaching from time to time, not on essentials (the Creed is absolutely basic for example) but on the more peripheral issues such as Limbo.