Sex, Obama and the Catholic Church

The fierce pushback by the Catholic bishops of the United States to the health care regulations introduced by Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services was highly predictable, and it reflected a major miscalculation by the Obama Administration.

HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, and President Obama
at the beginning of yesterday's press briefing on
health care regulations.  (TV Screenshot/Dick Bergeron)

Announced several weeks ago, those regulations would have compelled Catholic organizations such as hospitals, universities, and charities to pay for health care insurance coverage that includes contraception, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs.

This edict was facilitated by the czar-like authority which Kathleen Sebelius possesses under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).  In her pronouncement, she provided for a one-year cooling-off period, during which opponents would be expected to work out a conscience-clause solution that would presumably meet the needs of the Obama Administration and of Catholic service agencies.

But this meant that negotiations would extend well beyond the November, 2012 presidential election.  Apparently, the bishops and others smelled mendacity in the room.

My purpose today is not to get into the pros and cons of contraception, abortion and sterilization – there isn’t enough room here to discuss that. 

Even CNN's Wolf Blitzer emphasized that the Obama
Administration did not sufficiently vet the new health
care regulation before introducing it.
(TV Screenshot/Dick Bergeron)

My goal is to zero in on what I believe to be the not-so-obvious reasons that this controversy blew up so quickly in the faces of President Obama, Kathleen Sebelius, and their advisors who prevailed in the stillborn rollout of those regulations.

It’s probable that Obama and his team may have relied upon a widely-quoted statistic that most Catholic women – up to 98% -- have, at one time or another, used contraception as a means of birth control, a practice generally understood to be in defiance of official Catholic Church teaching.  That number is pretty much in line with the contraception practices of other Americans.  

No one is paying attention, the Obama Administration may have thought, so what’s to worry about? 

Likely relying on those data, President Obama and Kathleen Sebelius, (a Catholic who badly misread the tea leaves) anticipated strong headwinds from Catholic bishops, but both seemed to have assumed that the storm would blow over in a couple of weeks. 

HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, explains hers and
President Obama's reversal of previously announced
health care regulations.  (TV Screenshot/Dick Bergeron)

Reason:  The bishops would not be able to garner the support of the Catholic base; nor of individual prominent Catholics; nor of Catholic institutions over which they have no direct control, such as the Catholic Hospital Association of the United States.

Those exceedingly uninformed assumptions by the Obama Administration were predestined to result in a monumental political gaff.

The underlying base of the American Catholic pyramid is so widely diversified that it is almost impossible to categorize its nature. Catholic leaders have sometimes lamented that it’s like trying to herd a bunch of cats.

Yet, no one should doubt the force behind the combined strength of the individual components of the American Catholic pyramid when, sufficiently aroused by a common threat – particularly one that stifles individual liberty – tries to cancel out individual conscience, and menaces the viability of the Catholic body politic.

However, if the 98% statistic referred to above is correct, then why such a strong reaction among Catholics against this now-dead-in-the-water Obamacare regulation?

President Obama, as he explains the reversal of a
previously announced health care regulation by
his Administration.  (TV Screenshot/Dick Bergeron)

It’s this:  Catholics understand the fundamental difference between a personal, conscientious decision that they may have made with regard to family planning within the framework of their own faith, versus that of an unwanted intrusion by the President’s Office and its bureaucracy into the very heart of Catholic teaching and practice – especially if it threatens the viability of their institutions.

That may sound very strange to many people not conversant with Catholic theology and belief. 

But, at the core of Catholic teaching is the principle that if a decision on a matter of morality is made by an individual faithful Catholic after sufficient consultation, reflection, and prayer; and, if it is done within the context of a fully informed conscience, the result is valid and definitive.  The ultimate judge becomes the Almighty.

That principle puts bones on the 98% statistic, and is essential to understanding the contraception paradox which exists among Catholics. 

That it did not evaluate and understand the political implications of that concept is a major reason why the Obama Administration has so naïvely misread the furious response that its own failed regulations engendered.

The White House simply does not comprehend the kaleidoscopic nuances inherent in the collective psyche of American Catholics.  The result was the embarrassing reversal of an ill-conceived position.

Thanks for your reading time.  Stay well.

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