To the Editor:
I would like to respond to Sister Pat Miller’s health care reform presentation (The Catholic Messenger, Sept. 13). Sister mistakenly implies that both the federal administration and the Church are working on a compromise regarding the contraceptive mandate.
The only compromise is that the Church’s institutions have a year to comply with the mandate instead of complying with it as of this past August. Sister also mistakenly claims that the Hyde Amendment “still holds.” This is not true as Rep. Chris Smith states:
“Now, under Obamacare, taxpayers subsidies in the form of refundable, advanceable credits paid directly to the insurance company will subsidize insurance plans offered on the exchange that include abortion on demand — even late term abortion. Obamacare further breaks with longstanding law by establishing a new abortion surcharge and secrecy clause.
“Bottom line, the executive order and new rule implements the same accounting gimmick, abortion surcharge and secrecy clause that was in the original text of the bill.”
As Catholics we are morally obligated to assist the poor. This does not mean that we relinquish our responsibility to the state. This flies in the face of the principle of subsidiarity to which the Church holds. This responsibility lies with the people and localized agencies, many of which are charitable institutions and are being forced out of service to the poor by the federal government.
Religious and lay people alike have a moral duty to carefully research the facts and evaluate the good and evil in light of authentic Church teaching lest we end up handing over our God-given rights to the State.
Eileen Heinold
Davenport