The Congress of Catholic Bishops
By Bill Press
Tribune Media Services
Consider this scenario. After months of debate, the national legislature is set to cast a historic vote. But, before legislators can vote yea or nay, the bill must first be sent to the country’s Supreme Religious Council for its approval. Only after unelected clerics give their blessing are elected politicians permitted to vote.
Did that happen in Iran? No, it happened right here, in the House of Representatives, during last week’s vote on health care reform.
A carefully crafted piece of legislation — the result of months of debate by three different House committees — was before the House for a final vote. But, at the 11th hour, lobbyists for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops descended on the Capitol, declared they could not accept provisions in the bill restricting federal funding of abortion, demanded that the language be made tougher — and dutiful Democrats did just what the bishops ordered.
In so doing, they might just as well have tossed the First Amendment, and its separation of church and state, right out the window.
Pro-choice organizations are furious at Democrats for approving the tightest restrictions on women’s reproductive rights since Roe v. Wade, and rightfully so. As President Obama has said on numerous occasions, there was no need for any restrictive language in the health care bill at all, since the Hyde Amendment, prohibiting the use of federal funds for abortion, has been the law of the land since 1976.
Not only that, House Democrats had already agreed to language carefully engineered by California’s Lois Capps (D-California) which enabled private insurance plans, purchased by individuals with their own money, to cover an abortion procedure, but only as long as the plan kept personal funds segregated from any public funds it received for low-income patients. Catholic bishops rejected that idea of segregated funds for abortion, even though segregated funding — for books and pencils only — is the very argument they themselves have put forward as a justification for Catholic schools receiving federal education funding.
But abortion is only part of the story. Civil liberty advocates should be equally angry over such a blatant violation of the Constitution. In effect, members of Congress gave Catholic bishops a veto over federal legislation: power that no group of religious leaders should hold over a secular, popularly elected Congress. Who elected the bishops, anyway? And whom do they represent? They certainly don’t represent all Americans. And according to a recent poll conducted for Catholics for Choice, they don’t even represent all Catholics — 68 percent of whom disagree with the bishops’ position in opposition to all health care reform legislation unless it contains new anti-abortion limits.
Besides, at the risk of being accused of Catholic-bashing, why is there special treatment for Catholic bishops? Can you imagine the complaints from Democrats if religious conservatives James Dobson and Pat Robertson had been given the same access? Or the howls of outrage from conservatives if Congress first took time out to ask Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson for their blessing? Not to mention the universal uproar were a group of Muslim clerics consulted before the vote. No other group of religious leaders would have been given that special access to the corridors of power. And Catholic bishops shouldn’t, either.
Equally distressing for me, as a Catholic, is the fact that reproductive rights for women is the one issue on which male, celibate Catholic bishops feel compelled to get so politically involved. You would never see them storming the barricades of Congress over legislation dealing with poverty, war, torture, the death penalty, global warming, or any other moral issue. It appears they only get worked up over two issues: abortion and gay marriage.
Of course, the same First Amendment that was trashed in this case also gives every American, including bishops, the right to speak out and get politically involved. But if Catholic bishops are going to demand a voice in legislation, then they must do what all other special interests in Washington do: register as lobbyists and pay their taxes. If they insist on playing politics, then we should insist on taking away the Catholic Church’s tax-exempt status.
This is exactly what James Madison was trying to prevent when he wrote the First Amendment. In fact, it’s a good thing bishops weren’t invited into Independence Hall in 1787. They’d never have approved the Constitution, because it didn’t contain the word “God.”
© 2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
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I think you’re just p.o’d that you support and defend, as a ‘right,’ the murder of innocent unborn babies, and the Catholic bishops don’t. Aren’t the parents of those babies human beings? Are you still peddeling the lie that non-humans have human parents, Bill?
looks billy-the-baby-murder-loving-press dosen’t have an argument. and you wonder why we claim rabid pro-choicers like you are murderers.
Mr Press, I do believe you should have consult your pastor and bishop. I am sure that they would be able to help you with your faith dilemma. As a Catholic, you know that abortion is evil and wrong. This is the teaching of the church. The bishops did nothing wrong – they told congress that if they kept abortion in the bill that they would have to call Catholics to action. Members of congress realized that they needed to compromise. Well I have no right to judge your intentions, I can not understand how you can ignore the destruction of life. As a Catholic, as a Christian, as a follower of Christ, you know that you are called to stand up for the weakest, those with no voice, and that does include the unborn. I use to take the road of, well personally I am opposed to abortion, but I can’t force my beliefs on someone else. After much prayer and reflection, I realized that I was wrong. It is not an issue of forcing my beliefs on another person – it is standing up for the rights of a person without a voice. Our society is so quick to protect the baby seals, the whales, the turtles, the earth (which is not a bad thing), but we find it ok to not protect those who need it the most. I would really encourage you to speak with your pastor and bishop about this – pray about it, you know deep down what is right. And you shouldn’t be attacking your church – when you do this – really think Mr Press what Jesus is thinking when you do this. Can you honestly tell me that you could face the Lord and explain why you could stand back and allow abortion to go on without trying to fight it? I realize that the laws allow for abortion, but that doesn’t make it right. We need to be sure that tax payer money is not going to be used for it, we need to protect doctors/nurses who would be faced with having to perform such a “procedure”, and we need to protect hospitals, Catholic and non-Catholic that do not perform abortions to stay that way – and they shouldn’t be punished for it. Democrats always say that are the defenders of human rights (and I use to be a democrat), that why is it that they can’t defend the most basic of human rights – the right to life…..from conception to natural death. Prayer my friend – as one Catholic to another, I pray that you can see this evil for what it is, and learn to love your Church.
As we know, yes … the Catholics really stick to their guns … like they do with their stance against the Death Penalty …
Gee, blame Democrat X for abortion … but worship George W. Bush as their savior, despite being directly responsible for over 100 prisoners executed … why didn’t he pander to the Catholics there and change their sentences from Death (like the Catholics normally oppose) to “life without parole”?
And, I recall, the Pope a few years back said that Sunday should be a day of worship, and that ye should not go to football games and baseball games and all the like … bye bye NFL … why does the NFL hate Catholics?
You are right on, Mr. Press, and I admire your understanding of the true issues. Whenever the church has gained control over the civil power, she has used it to punish dissent from her doctrines. Our Founding Fathers knew the dangers and enacted safeguards, but these are being dismantled. Liberty of conscience which became ours at such a great cost of suffering and blood is no longer respected. “Many non-Catholics fear us as a political organisation, and are afraid that the Catholic Church will dominate and rule; we are working quietly, seriously and I may say effectively, to that end.” (The Catholic magazine The Missionary, June, 1909, p. 69.)