Saturday, February 11, 2012

"I do will it. Be made clean": Rescinding the HHS mandate "the only complete solution to this religious liberty problem"

"If you wish, you can make me clean." "I do will it. Be made clean."
-- Mark 1, 40-45

"First, we objected to the rule forcing private health plans — nationwide, by the stroke of a bureaucrat's pen—to cover sterilization and contraception, including drugs that may cause abortion. All the other mandated 'preventive services' prevent disease, and pregnancy is not a disease. Moreover, forcing plans to cover abortifacients violates existing federal conscience laws. Therefore, we called for the rescission of the mandate altogether." (US Bishops' statement on HHS mandate and so-called compromise of 10 Feb 2012)


"Prayer to Jesus is answered by him already during his ministry, through signs that anticipate the power of his death and Resurrection: Jesus hears the prayer of faith, expressed in words (the leper, Jairus, the Canaanite woman, the good thief) or in silence (the bearers of the paralytic, the woman with a hemorrhage who touches his clothes, the tears and ointment of the sinful woman). The urgent request of the blind men, "Have mercy on us, Son of David" or 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!' has-been renewed in the traditional prayer to Jesus known as the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!" Healing infirmities or forgiving sins, Jesus always responds to a prayer offered in faith: 'Your faith has made you well; go in peace.' "
--CCC 2616

"The political community has a duty to honor the family, to assist it, and to ensure especially:

"-the freedom to establish a family, have children, and bring them up in keeping with the family's own moral and religious convictions;

"-the protection of the stability of the marriage bond and the institution of the family;

"-the freedom to profess one's faith, to hand it on, and raise one's children in it, with the necessary means and institutions;

"-the right to private property, to free enterprise, to obtain work and housing, and the right to emigrate;

"-in keeping with the country's institutions, the right to medical care, assistance for the aged, and family benefits;

"- the protection of security and health, especially with respect to dangers like drugs, pornography, alcoholism, etc.;

"- the freedom to form associations with other families and so to have representation before civil authority.
-- CCC 2211

"Second, the common good requires the social well-being and development of the group itself. Development is the epitome of all social duties. Certainly, it is the proper function of authority to arbitrate, in the name of the common good, between various particular interests; but it should make accessible to each what is needed to lead a truly human life: food, clothing, health, work, education and culture, suitable information, the right to establish a family, and so on.

"St. Augustine wonderfully summarizes the three dimensions of Jesus' prayer: 'He prays for us as our priest, prays in us as our Head, and is prayed to by us as our God. Therefore let us acknowledge our voice in him and his in us.'"
-- CCC 1908

No comments: