Comments on: Religious Freedom and Protecting Healthcare for Women and Children

By: john639

john639 — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 05:38:26 +0000

I actually do not believe there is any war on religion. This country has many different faiths and practices. To say that this one single male dominated belief (of prohibiting BC) should rule the land seems to be more of a controlling issue than any sort of religious war. Our country prohibits many other religious beliefs. I personally don’t like one sigle faith ruling our countries healthcare issues. I think that is dangerous and a very bad precedent. Tomorrow another faith could decide women have no right to work and will demand their companies stop employing women. Already over 1,500 bills to limit or deny women’s rights have been introduced on every level. This War on Women is a very dangerous road to travel indeed.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 03:47:48 +0000

One last parting thought:

“Religious Freedom should be a personal right, not an institutional right.”

No, it’s both or neither. You cannot have one without the other. And the funny thing is, our opponents will argue either way when it suits them; as of right now the administration is at least pretending to care about the institutions, but individuals have been left in the cold.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 03:38:12 +0000

Another young woman here to say “Thank you!”

I took oral contraceptives for many years (for legitimate, but mild, medical problems). I had vague misgivings about being on hormones, and the more I learned, the less I liked it. It took me two tries to go off — the first time I lasted about a year and then went back with my tail between my legs. I finally did it, the last straw being an article about how it passes out of the body and doesn’t get removed from the water, where it mutates fish and other aquatic life. Now I’m managing.

Taking these pills to keep from getting pregnant is a bit like smoking to keep from gaining weight, no? And as with cigarette smoke, people may have thought it only affected them, but it turns out that’s not true.

Anyway, I certainly am in no place to throw stones at anyone, and I won’t stop them from going down to Walgreens or Target if they don’t want to listen. The problem is when they want it for free, and insist that objectors provide it to them. That is a phony “right.”

Thank you again. I feel like I know who is REALLY on our side. (For those of you who don’t know, the Church does not just do a little good here and there, it’s one of the largest, most active huanitarian organizations in the world, and if forced out of her broad outreach you will likely miss her in ways you are not even aware of).

By: Steven

Steven — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 18:28:43 +0000

To John Cahill,
If there is censorship on this site…then how come your comment got on here?? It just could be that many people from around the USA and the world agree with Cardinal Dolan.

By: mary gibbs

mary gibbs — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 05:19:52 +0000

thank you, cardinal dolan, for leading this effort to secure our religious rights under the first amendment. However, I received in answer to my request, from The Newman Society, three pages of catholic colleges, hospitals, etc. (institutions) which currently supply their employees, patients, etc., with contraceptives or contraceptive insurance coverage, approximately fifteen in number. I do not understand this at all. However, there are many things about the Catholic Church of the past forty-five years that I do not understand. Obama was right when he said Catholic priests no longer preach against contraception. When I was young, and even while I was raising a young family, Msgr.Thos J. McCarthy, would instruct the ushers to close the front doors of the church so passersby would not hear him haranguing and berating us parishioners for contracepting & other sins against the 6th commandment. What’s changed?

By: Steven

Steven — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 01:28:06 +0000

John…
I can’t believe you fail to believe the exercise of religious freedom is being violated here! It’s amazing:) The Federal government is mandating to the Church you don’t have freedom to exercise your religious belief about contraception and abortion. If that isn’t restricting the free exercise of religion..then what is? It is a clear violation of the 1st amendment in which the State or Federal government is mandating a coverage which goes against our religious beliefs. That is preventing the Church from practicing our Faith fully! The haven’t shut down the Mass but who knows what is next from Liberal Americans. It always starts out small John…so small that some people can’t see it…like you.

By: Concerned Female Catholic

Concerned Female Catholic — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 22:59:06 +0000

“When it comes to the health of women, their babies, and their children, the Catholic Church is there, the most effective private provider of such care anywhere around.” The previous statement does not ring true for those of us working in the church, with the current threat of our health care being eliminated if the government backs the church into a corner. It’s been hard enough to secure a job that provides health care with the job market and economy as it is. Women’s health care is even more expensive than men’s to purchase on your own. I used to feel working for the church was a safe haven, now I just feel it’s like any other corporation using my benefits as pawn in a political game. There are too many variables in this fight…at the cost of what?

By: John

John — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 16:39:55 +0000

A further note: a recent “New York Times” article listed several Catholic universities, hospitals, and institutions that pay for birth-control pills in their insurance plans. One of them was Cardinal Dolan’s Archdiocese of New York. Can anyone from the Archdiocese verify this?

By: John

John — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 16:34:28 +0000

I do not doubt the excellent work of Catholic Charities in providing healthcare to women, men, and children and hope that the work will go on. It is difficult for me. however, to understand, even after reading Cardinal Dolan’s online text, in what ways the Catholic Church’s freedom to perform these works is being challenged. This has been an ongoing problem with the entire “religious freedom” position of the Church; no specific examples of how any Catholic’s right to practice his/her faith is in jeopardy. The US Constitution prevents the government from “prohibiting the free exercise” of one’s religion. How do any of the current US healthcare laws “prohibit” a Catholic from going to Mass, receiving the Eucharist, becoming baptized, attending religious schools, marrying in a religious ceremony, etc.?

By: Irene

Irene — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:20:46 +0000

@John Cahill. I agree with you that this blog is an echo chamber. I’m not sure about the censorship, it might just be a self-selecting audience: all of the Cardinal’s conservative political posts generate validating comments by conservative Catholics. As a member of the Archdiocese of NY, though, I am certain that the comments on this site do not reflect the thinking of the overall Catholic community here. We actually do count a few progressive (gasp!) Catholics among us in NYC.