George Weigel, known now as a "Catholic scholar," was the official biographer for John Paul II, his hero. In regard to the ginned up controversy over Catholic hospitals offering contraception coverage for non-Catholic employees--that's all it's about, folks--Weigel said:
"This has struck a tribal nerve in Catholicism," Catholic scholar George Weigel said to Chuck Todd on the Daily Rundown. "The Catholic Church has been beaten up over the last 10 or 11 years and I think Catholics are tired of the government and others beating up on the church."
I doubt every bit of that. In the first place, since 98% of Roman Catholics practice some form of birth control, where's the nerve been struck? Only among the culture-warrior bishops and bureaucratic apparatchiks of Roman-dom.
The Catholic church has been beaten up over the last 10 or 11 years? As Charles Pierce puts it: "The Church has been 'beaten up' over the last 10 or 12 years because, at its highest possible echelons, it functioned as an international conspiracy to obstruct justice regarding the crime of sexual assault."
Perhaps my experience with Roman Catholics is not representative, but, of the many whom I know, precisely none would say that the government is beating up on the church. In fact, they are more likely to say that the biggest problem in the church is clueless bishops.
In any case, it appears the administration is preparing to cave on its utterly reasonable health care requirements. Why should Catholic hospitals be exempt from offering contraception coverage to non-Catholic employees? How is that not an infringement on the religious beliefs of those employees?
Besides, how it is some kind of persecution for an organization providing health care to follow the law if it wishes to retain a tax break?
Their power play looks like it's working. Which is too bad because it's all a big bluff.
It did work, sort of. Democrats were divided - "liberal" Catholics having just demonstrated the limits of their liberalism (have fun with your contraceptives, folks)and Obama doesn't want to take any chances in an election year. That said, this "compromise" is not like his others - he preserved the principle and didn't hand over the store. We'll see how it works out, but right now things don't look too bad.
Posted by: Hypatia | February 10, 2012 at 01:57 PM
In a real rarity, it looks like Obama out-foxed 'em. The two contending sides appear to be content, while Romney (and the rest) went out on a limb with their various anti-contraception views, which are quite likely to get tossed back at them in the fall.
I don't often give the Obama political shop much credit, but they may deserve it on this one.
Posted by: John Petty | February 10, 2012 at 03:37 PM