Bishops Planned Battle on Birth Control Coverage Rule - NYTimes.com

Archbishop Timothy Dolan

So the Bishops were spoiling for a fight.  Why?  Because they really want the Democrats to lose?  Because they were frosted when the nuns helped put Obamacare over the top? Because they are loyal to the Pope?  I would have to say it is the last.  They are the Pope's men.  
Unfortunately there seems to be no room for unorthodoxy in the Catholic Church's hierarchy.  Those of us who were inspired by Vatican Council II in our youth got the wrong idea.  This organization has survived for 2000 years by orthodoxy not flexibility.  Of course change does come.  Mainly through reflection on tradition in light of the experience of the faithful.  Catholics are not biblical literalists.  They don't think that `God said it, I believe it and that settles it.'
Unfortunately the transmission belt from the practice of the faithful to the priesthood is very thinly developed.  That underlies this latest contraception flareup.  The bishops adhere to the papal teaching of Paul VI in Humae Vitae: no artificial birth control.  But the faithful have concluded that sexual and personal responsibility as partners and as parents is better served by use of contraceptives.  Guttmacher Institute surveys show that Catholics use artificial birth control as often as does the rest of the population.  
The real change that needs to be made is not in the Obama administration's health policy but in the Church's birth control policy. - GWC
Bishops Planned Battle on Birth Control Coverage Rule - NYTimes.com: "When after much internal debate the Obama administration finally announced its decision to require religiously affiliated hospitals and universities to cover birth control in their insurance plans, the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops were fully prepared for battle."

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