Some Positive Aspects of the Egregious HHS Mandate
Despite the horrendous implications of President Obama's wholesale attack on the Catholic Church, I have been thinking of some possible good things that can come of it.
1) The issue of Catholics who use birth control has come to the fore. All the news media are breathlessly quoting: "98 % of Catholics use artificial contraception." Whether this is true or not, it certainly brings up the issue. The positive thing is that it may remind Catholics that "Yes Virginia, it is still a mortal sin to contracept." There have been some Catholics under the mistaken notion that the ban on artificial contraception was revoked with Vatican 2. I actually heard someone say this at RCIA once! It is unclear to me why the beautiful teachings on life, procreation and the marital relationship aren't taught more often but perhaps this will start a new phase in the life of the Church. There is nothing like persecution to purify the faithful and I believe God will use this HHS mandate to help Catholics decide if they are going to stand with the Church or side with secular mores.
Perhaps we are at a turning point for the Catholic Church in America. As Pope Benedict predicted, the Catholic Church may indeed get smaller, but it wouldn't be the first time and the end result will be a positive one. My hope is that many Catholics will start to question their use of artificial contraception. The issue can't be hidden and Catholics cannot claim ignorance since most parishes have read the USCCB's statement to their congregations this past Sunday. If the Church is stating that it cannot and will not capitulate to this mandate, Lord willing, the congregants will look into their hearts and reconsider why the Church is so adamant against contraception.
2) The second positive aspect is that everyone is talking about the Catholic Church and its teachings. not a bad thing! All the talk radio guys are talking about the Church, mostly as an axe to grind against Obama, but many of their listeners will want to know why the Church is so adamant about contraception, sterilization and abortifacient morning after pills. Lord willing they will look into it. There are many conversion stories based on people who became Catholic because of the Church's moral teachings.
3) This may cause a restoration of unity of sorts between Catholics and Protestants as they realize they have more that unites than divides them, and in the face of this egregious attack on religion, there is certainly strength in numbers.
To learn more about the Catholic Church teach that the marital embrace must remain open to life as God's design, check this link .
Additional information here as well.
1) The issue of Catholics who use birth control has come to the fore. All the news media are breathlessly quoting: "98 % of Catholics use artificial contraception." Whether this is true or not, it certainly brings up the issue. The positive thing is that it may remind Catholics that "Yes Virginia, it is still a mortal sin to contracept." There have been some Catholics under the mistaken notion that the ban on artificial contraception was revoked with Vatican 2. I actually heard someone say this at RCIA once! It is unclear to me why the beautiful teachings on life, procreation and the marital relationship aren't taught more often but perhaps this will start a new phase in the life of the Church. There is nothing like persecution to purify the faithful and I believe God will use this HHS mandate to help Catholics decide if they are going to stand with the Church or side with secular mores.
Perhaps we are at a turning point for the Catholic Church in America. As Pope Benedict predicted, the Catholic Church may indeed get smaller, but it wouldn't be the first time and the end result will be a positive one. My hope is that many Catholics will start to question their use of artificial contraception. The issue can't be hidden and Catholics cannot claim ignorance since most parishes have read the USCCB's statement to their congregations this past Sunday. If the Church is stating that it cannot and will not capitulate to this mandate, Lord willing, the congregants will look into their hearts and reconsider why the Church is so adamant against contraception.
2) The second positive aspect is that everyone is talking about the Catholic Church and its teachings. not a bad thing! All the talk radio guys are talking about the Church, mostly as an axe to grind against Obama, but many of their listeners will want to know why the Church is so adamant about contraception, sterilization and abortifacient morning after pills. Lord willing they will look into it. There are many conversion stories based on people who became Catholic because of the Church's moral teachings.
3) This may cause a restoration of unity of sorts between Catholics and Protestants as they realize they have more that unites than divides them, and in the face of this egregious attack on religion, there is certainly strength in numbers.
To learn more about the Catholic Church teach that the marital embrace must remain open to life as God's design, check this link .
Additional information here as well.
posted by Russ Rentler, M.D. | 10:25 PM
3 Comments:
That last point about more unity between Catholics and Protestants will be especially fruitful because of this mandate.
"Phoenix Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted was spot-on when he preached, “we cannot, we will not, comply with this unjust law. Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build (America) … Or to have the posterity stripped of their God-given rights…”
Put this Presbyterian down as saying, “Amen,” to that Catholic bishop."
Michael Milton, President and CEO of Reformed Theological Seminary
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, called the HHS decision “outrageous.” The Southern Baptist Convention has more than 16 million members in the United States.
“We share the concern of our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters,” he said in an interview. The Southern Baptist Convention is opposed to abortion; its statement on the “Sanctity of Life” reads: “Procreation is a gift from God, a precious trust reserved for marriage. At the moment of conception, a new being enters the universe, a human being, a being created in God’s image. This human being deserves our protection, whatever the circumstances of conception.
“When it comes to abortifacients, and many birth-control methods are abortifacients,” Land said, this mandate is “reprehensible in its demands for people to violate their conscience.”
In regards to Southern Baptist universities and organizations that provide health insurance, Land said, “We are not going to do this. We have a First Amendment right to freedom of conscience, and we’re going to defend it. If we have to defend it by going to jail, so be it.”
That's great to hear about this from a denomination that was once pro abortion!
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