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Bishops flex lobbying muscle

29 Nov 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"Guide me in your truth and teach me," the psalmist asks of the Lord in this Sunday's psalm. The U.S. Roman Catholic bishops have been lobbying Congress to come up with a health care bill more in line with what the church teaches. Their efforts contributed to the inclusion of restrictive abortion language in the U.S. House health care bill. The version of the bill currently being debated in the Senate, however, does not contain that language. The bishops have consistently identified three priority areas in the health care debate: abortion, religious conscience clauses, and immigrant rights. They urged the Senate to change its version of the bill in order to keep in place federal law on abortion funding and conscience protection on abortion; protect access to health care for immigrants; and include strong provisions for adequate affordability. "I don't think the Catholics in the pews will get quite as focused on a message of immigrants as they have been on the question of abortion," said Stephen Schneck, a professor of politics at Catholic University of America. "And I'm not convinced the church leaders are willing to expend the political capital with those Catholics in order to promote the cause." Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), a Catholic who participated in the intense negotiations over the final abortion language in the House, said the pressure from the church to ease restrictions on immigrants was "not even close" to the abortion language tug-of-war. Sister Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity who is president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, called the House bill historic and said it "brings our nation closer to ensuring quality, affordable health care for everyone and to reversing the injustice of millions of un- and underinsured women, men, and children." Success in the House came after the church ran a classic lobbying operation: deploying paid staff to Capitol Hill, tapping influential bishops to make private appeals to key congressional leaders, and distributing bulletin inserts to 19,000 parishes with easy instructions and sample wording for sending a message to local representatives. The bishops say they've found a lobbying model that could provide them a stronger voice in future policy debates. "It was a good example of how we, as a conference, can work together to have a positive influence on legislation," said Bishop William Murphy, head of the domestic justice and human development committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Some lawmakers and others, however, have questioned whether the bishops' activities constitute substantial political lobbying and therefore endanger the church's tax-exempt status. Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) has suggested that IRS rules may be too lenient. "The IRS is less restrictive about church involvement in efforts to influence legislation than it is about involvement in campaigns and elections," Woolsey said. "Given the political behavior of USCCB in this case, maybe it shouldn't be." The church's strategic decisions are significant because with Catholics representing the largest single religious group among members of Congress--at 30 percent--the church can gain access across party lines. Another reason the bishops could find an entry into the health care debate is the church's vast array of clinics and hospitals that often serve those most in need, including legal and illegal immigrants. Source: Articles by Jeanne Cummings for Politico, Patricia Zapor for Catholic News Service,Eliza Newlin Carney for the National Journal Online, and a USCCB news release

immigrants lynn woolsey united states conference of catholic bishops william murphy lobbying carol keehan mike doyle stephen schneck conscience health care reform abortion congress bishops tax exempt
Sometimes fevered health care debate continues

27 Dec 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

During the Sunday, January 3 Mass celebrating the Epiphany of the Lord, we hear the psalmist praise the Lord as the one who "shall rescue the poor when he cries out, and the afflicted when he has no one to help him." President Obama campaigned on a promise to make health care more affordable and accessible to millions who currently lack the resources to obtain it. He and the Democrat-controlled U.S. Congress have spent much of the past year struggling to fulfill that promise amidst an atmosphere of often bitter partisanship. At year end they appeared close to a victory, but the final outcome is still uncertain. Health care reform was also at or near the top of lists of religion stories of the year, in part because of controversies over abortion and the role the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other faith groups played in shaping the debate. Some accused religious leaders of stepping too far into partisan politics, while others defended the practice to be in keeping with the role of moral leadership.

barack obama abortion health care reform united states conference of catholic bishops
Lively Catholic debate over health-care bill abortion provisions

21 Mar 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Differences over complex questions is nothing new to religious groups, as we see in the Sunday gospel's debate between Jesus and Jewish religious leaders about the woman caught in adultery. Leaders of Catholic women's orders representing 59,000 nuns sent lawmakers a letter Wednesday urging them to pass the Senate health-care bill. The measure contains abortion funding restrictions that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said don't go far enough."Despite false claims to the contrary, the Senate bill will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions," said the letter signed by 60 leaders of women's religious orders. "It will uphold longstanding conscience protections and it will make historic new investments . . . in support of pregnant women. This is the real pro-life stance, and we as Catholics are all for it."The USCCB and the National Right to Life Committee have denounced the bill as containing a backdoor subsidy for abortion. But the nuns and the Catholic Health Association--representing some 600 hospitals--said restrictions in the Senate bill would still prevent taxpayer funding for abortion, although the legal mechanism for doing so is different from what the bishops prefer."This is politics; this isn't a question of faith and morals," said Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, a national Catholic social activism lobby. "We are the ones who work every day with people who are suffering because they don't have health care. We cannot turn our backs on them, so for us, health care reform is a faith-based response to human need." Source: An article by Erica Werner for the Associated Press

abortion funding usccb national right to life committee catholic health association simone campbell network united states conference of catholic bishops religious orders health care reform abortion nuns
Bishops check tradition at the door in surprise election

21 Nov 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

There was little doubt in the elders' choice of David to succeed Saul in today's Old Testament reading. The same cannot be said of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops election of Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York to succeed outgoing president Cardinal Francis George. The bishops’ 128-111 vote to make Dolan president instead of current vice president Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson marks the first time since the bishops’ conference was reorganized into its current form in 1966 that a sitting vice president who sought the presidency did not win the election. Dolan called his election a “humbling moment. . . . It was unexpected. There were 10 candidates. The posture of the bishops, of course, is you don’t really run for office, you run from it,” he said with a laugh. He declined to speculate on factors behind his surprise election. A sampling of bishops interviewed after the vote suggested the choice of Dolan was at least in part about changing the process of assuming the vice president would be elected president. But many suggested it also signaled a shift toward a more conservative stance within the USCCB. The conservative tilt of the bishops’ conference was apparent in the election for vice president. The final runoff vote was between the two most conservative candidates of the eight bishops on the ballot: Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, who wants to ban pro-choice politicians from receiving Communion, and Louisville Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, chair of the bishops’ committee on the defense of marriage--the committee assigned to fight gay marriage. Kurtz won the vote 147 to 91. It now falls on Dolan--to borrow language from today's reading from the Letter to the Colossians--as the representative “head of the body, the church” in the U.S. to try to “reconcile all things.” Source: Articles by Patricia Zapor for Catholic News Service, Daniel Burke for Religion News Service,Greg Erlandson for Our Sunday Visitor, and Michael Sean Winters for the National Catholic Reporter

timothy dolan united states conference of catholic bishops usccb joseph kurtz gerald kicanas
We acknowledge one (another’s) baptism

28 Nov 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Isaiah envisioned all the nations streaming toward the mountain of the Lord’s house. The Catholic Church and four U.S. Reformed churches were in the house of Lord together, at least for baptism, when the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) approved an agreement last week to recognize baptisms performed by four Protestant denominations, a move that one archbishop called “a milestone on the ecumenical journey.” The agreement is the result of six years of study and discussion between the representatives of the U.S. Catholic bishops and the Presbyterian Church-USA, the Reformed Church in America, the Christian Reformed Church, and the United Church of Christ. In calling the vote a milestone, Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta, chairman of the USCCB Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, went on to say, "Together with our Reformed brothers and sisters" from the four churches, "we Catholic bishops can once again affirm baptism as the basis of the real, even if incomplete, unity we share in Christ." The agreement had already been ratified by the Presbyterian Church. With the USCCB approval, any baptisms performed in either Catholic or Presbyterian churches will be mutually recognized, as long as the proper formula is used and documented. The other three Protestant communities are to consider the agreement at their national meetings in the coming months. Gregory explained that the agreement will "allow Catholic ministers to presume that baptisms performed in these communities are 'true baptism' as understood in Catholic doctrine and law." Source: Articles by Nancy Frazier for Catholic News Service, Religion News Service via Ecumenical News International, and Global Zenit News

baptism Ecumenism united states conference of catholic bishops usccb presbyterian church-usa reformed church in america christian reformed church united church of christ wilton gregory
The world’s population: How many is too many?

06 Nov 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Those who are alive when Jesus comes down from heaven will be elevated to “the clouds to meet the Lord,” predicts Saint Paul in this Sunday’s reading from the First Letter to the Thessalonians. In Paul’s time such an event might have involved up to 200 million people, the estimated world population at the time. This week that total passed the 7 billion mark and many are asking how everyone’s basic needs will be met. Countries around the world marked the United Nations projection that the world's population would reach 7 billion Monday with lavish ceremonies for newborn infants symbolizing the milestone. At the same time, concerns were voiced that there may be too many humans for the planet's resources. The Global Footprint Network warned that humanity is already living beyond the Earth’s capacity to regenerate resources, and that by 2050 we will need two planets to keep pace with population and rising consumption. The debate on population growth is a contentious one, with advocates on one side calling for increased availability and promotion of contraceptives, while others, including the Catholic Church, argue the problem isn’t population size but responsible consumption and adequate distribution of resources. Demographer Joel Cohen of Rockefeller University warned that rapid population growth "makes almost every other problem more difficult to solve. If we could slow our growth rate, we have an easier job in dealing with all the other things like education, health, employment, housing, food, the environment, and so on," said Cohen. Others point out that while total world population continues to increase, the rate of increase has slowed dramatically over the past 40 years to the point where many industrialized nations are beginning to face a new set of problems brought about by declining birth rates and increasing populations of the aged. In “Make Room for People,” a position paper for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Stephen W. Mosher argues that while a growing population “can naturally create temporary shortages of certain raw materials, goods, and services, innovators and entrepreneurs can be drawn [on] to extract resources and to produce and distribute more goods in ways that sustain the natural environment and contribute to human development. “At the end of this creative process you will have more goods available at lower prices--precisely because of population growth. People need to be understood as the answer to problems, and not the cause of all problems,” said Mosher. Sources: Articles by Robert J. Walker and Robert Engelman for the Christian Science Monitor, Stephen W. Mosherfor the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Jim Forsyth for Reuters, CBS News, and the Associated Press

united states conference of catholic bishops population joel cohen sustainability stephen w mosher global footprint network
Religious liberty under fire, Catholic bishops assert

20 Nov 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Images of the Lord as shepherd dominate the readings for this Sunday’s solemnity of Christ the King. The psalmist, for example, wants for nothing because the Lord is the shepherd. The American Catholic bishops, in their role as shepherds of the U.S. church, expressed their dissatisfaction at the state of religious liberty in the nation during their annual three-day fall assembly in Baltimore this week. The psalmist says that the shepherd “guides me in right paths.” The bishops, however, feel stymied in their efforts to help guide the debate over moral issues in the public square. Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., the chairman of the bishops’ newly established committee on religious liberty, said the church would urge priests and laypeople to take up the religious liberty cause. Some commentators have criticized the bishops’ priorities, saying they are playing into the culture wars. John Gehring, Catholic outreach coordinator with Faith in Public Life, a religious advocacy group in Washington, said: “The bishops speak in hushed tones when it comes to poverty and economic justice issues, and use a big megaphone when it comes to abortion and religious liberty issues.” Sources: Articles by Nancy Frazier O’Brien, Mark Pattison, Patricia Zapor, and Carol Zimmermannfor Catholic News Service and Laurie Goodstein for the New York Times

same-sex marriage religious freedom timothy dolan united states conference of catholic bishops religious liberty william e lori contraception
Vatican critiques leadership group of U.S. women religious

29 Apr 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The liturgical readings focus “on the difference between good and bad leadership,” declares the “Inner Word” reflection in this Sunday’s issue of Exploring the Word. The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a "doctrinal assessment" last week, saying it was compelled to intervene in the case of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), the umbrella organization that represents 80 percent of American nuns, to correct "serious doctrinal problems."The Vatican, calling for reform amid what it termed a doctrinal “crisis” within the LCWR, appointed Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle to oversee the reform. The assessment states, “it is clear that greater emphasis needs to be placed both on the relationship of the LCWR with the Conference of Bishops, and on the need to provide a sound doctrinal foundation in the faith of the church.”Saying that he hoped he could "help the sisters and the LCWR recognize that we are all in this together," the archbishop called the reform a "great opportunity" for women religious, U.S. bishops, and the Vatican to “strengthen and improve all of our relationships on every level.”The LCWR responded to the assessment in a statement on its website: “The national board of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious will meet May 29-June 1, 2012 to begin its discussion of the conclusions of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s doctrinal assessment and the implementation plan put forth by that Vatican office.“The board will conduct its meeting in an atmosphere of prayer, contemplation, and dialogue and will develop a plan to involve LCWR membership in similar processes. The conference plans to move slowly, not rushing to judgment. We will engage in dialogue where possible and be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit. We ask your prayer for us and for the church in this critical time.” Sources: Articles by Francis X. Rocca for Catholic News Service and Michelle Baumanfor Catholic News Agency and a blog post by Fr. James Martin, S.J. for America

congregation for the doctrine of the faith united states conference of catholic bishops nuns sisters lcwr leadership conference of women religious doctrine peter j sartain
Catholics debate ethical bottom line of GOP budget cuts

06 May 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth,” this Sunday’s selection from the First Letter of John exhorts, or as this week's PrepareTheWord reflection says: “Love is not what you say but what you do and intend.” Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, architect of the Republican federal budget plan, has been busy writing columns and giving speeches arguing that the budget expresses values embodied in Catholic social teaching, but Catholic bishops and theologians counter that the proposed cuts to programs aiding the neediest violate core principles of Catholic social teaching. The latest foray occurred last week when Ryan spoke at Georgetown University. He invoked Pope Benedict XVI in defending the budget plan, which contains cuts to federal food aid and Medicaid healthcare for the poor as well as to education grants in order to shrink deficits while preserving defense spending and low tax rates for the wealthy and corporations. "The overarching threat to our whole society today is the exploding federal debt," Ryan said. "The Holy Father, Pope Benedict, has charged that governments, communities, and individuals running up high debt levels are 'living at the expense of future generations' and 'living in untruth.' " The psalmist promises this Sunday that among those who respect the Lord “the lowly shall eat their fill.” Ninety Georgetown faculty members and priests signed a letter rebuking the Ryan budget plan for being antithetical to such values. "We would be remiss in our duty to you and our students if we did not challenge your continuing misuse of Catholic teaching to defend a budget plan that decimates food programs for struggling families, radically weakens protections for the elderly and sick, and gives more tax breaks to the wealthiest few," the faculty members wrote. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) also issued a statement rebutting Ryan's assertion that his budget expresses Catholic social teaching. Ryan fought back, stating that the bishops’ letter did not represent all American bishops. The USCCB retorted that its statement did, indeed, represent the views of the bishops. “The pope dislikes the debt as much as anyone,” said Father Thomas J. Reese, S.J. of Georgetown after the speech. “But Pope Benedict would not want to balance the budget on the backs of the poor. In fact, Pope Benedict, along with the bishops, would have no problem with raising taxes as part of a comprehensive budget solution.” Sources: Articles by Lauren Markoe for Religion News Service and David Lawder for Reuters

benedict xvi thomas reese united states conference of catholic bishops usccb paul ryan budget georgetown university catholic social teaching
Catholic institutions hope lawsuits may please the courts

27 May 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday’s gospel reading from John 15, Jesus encourages his disciples to testify on his behalf just as the Advocate whom he sends will testify to him. Legal advocates representing a number of Catholic institutions will be testifying in court in coming months as they seek to stop a government mandate that most of their health care plans cover contraceptives. Forty-four Catholic dioceses, schools, hospitals, social agencies, and other institutions filed a dozen lawsuits in federal courts around the country on Monday, arguing that the rule violates their religious freedom.President Barack Obama had tried to defuse the controversy over the requirement back in February after religious groups complained that the exemption, which applied only to houses of worship and groups that employ only members of a specific faith, was too narrow. The president's proposal was not to expand the exemption but to allow religious universities and charities to have their health insurers offer and pay for the coverage. Even taking the actual benefits out of the hands of the religious organization “does not solve our moral dilemma,” said John Garvey, president of Catholic University of America, which is among the plaintiffs. “The only change the ‘accommodation’ offers is that the insurance company rather than the university would notify subscribers that the policy covers the mandated services.”In California, however, Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of the Diocese of Stockton expressed some guarded concerns about the opening of this latest front in the U.S. bishops’ continuing religious liberty campaign. Blaire, chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, affirmed his support for the goal of defending religious liberty but said, “I do think there are probably some different concerns with how it is being done.”Blaire said that he was concerned “that it be clear that what we are dealing with is a matter of religious liberty . . . . I think there are different groups that are trying to co-opt this and make it into a political issue, and that’s why we need to have a deeper discussion as bishops.” Sources: Articles by Nancy Frazier O'Brien for Catholic News Service, Ian Duncon for the Los AngelesTimes, Kaiser Health News, Julie Rovner for National Public Radio, and Kevin Clarke for America

religious freedom united states conference of catholic bishops insurance coverage contraception lawsuits stephen blaire

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