U.S. bishops' spokesperson Sr. Mary Ann Walsh blasted the Department
of Health and Human Services for interfering in the work of religious
hospitals that want to opt out of providing free contraceptives.
Government “must not stick its proverbial camel's nose under the
church tent,” Sr. Walsh said in an Aug. 8 Huffington Post editorial.
“Now, however, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has gone
beyond nuzzling its nose where it does not belong.”
“It has plunked itself right in the middle of the sanctuary. It is trying to define what a religion does and does not do.”
Walsh's remarks come in the wake of the department's Aug. 1
announcement that new health care plans must cover contraceptives and
sterilizations under regulations for preventive care created in response
to the 2010 health care legislation.
Sr. Walsh said that although the mandate provides an exemption for
religious employers – which is at least “a tacit acknowledgment that
this violates the Constitution's cherished respect for religious
liberty” – there is still “a catch.”
“The church agency can only claim exemption if it primarily serves
people of its own faith,” she explained. “It also must meet other
requirements, such as employing mostly people of its own faith.”
What this means, Sr. Walsh said, is that the department “is setting
itself up to determine what constitutes church ministry and who Jesus
meant when he referred to serving 'the least of my brethren.'”
The spokeswoman noted that Catholic hospitals, charities and
educational institutions provide about $30 billion worth of service
annually in the country, and that no one “presents a baptismal
certificate at the emergency room.”
“The hungry do not recite the Creed to get groceries at the food
pantry,” she added. “Students can pursue learning at The Catholic
University of America, Villanova or any other Catholic college without
passing a catechism admissions test.”
“The commitment to serve those in need, the sick, the hungry, the uneducated, is intrinsic to Catholicism,” she underscored.
Sr. Walsh added that Catholic hospitals admit about 5.6 million
people annually, “one out of every six persons seeking hospital care in
the United States,” with Catholic Charities serving more than 9 million
people a year.
“No federal rule says the church must limit its service to Catholics
if it is to be true to its teaching,” she said, adding that the
department “doesn't get the parable of the Good Samaritan, who helped
the stranger simply because he was in need.”
Sr. Walsh also noted that Catholic colleges and universities teach
850,000 students annually which include Catholics, Protestants, Jews,
Muslims, atheists, agnostics “and members of any other religious or
irreligious group you can name.”
She added that for the time being, the department has “given itself
wiggle room” by saying that the public in the next two months can
suggest an “alternative” definition of a “religious employer.”
“That's good because health care reform ought to increase access to
basic care, not push religious groups to either violate their principles
or abandon service to those in need whatever their religious beliefs.”
“Meanwhile, the sanctuary is getting crowded. It is time,” she added, for the department “to remove itself.”