Obama's "Compromise" on the HHS Mandate

In what the New York Times asserts is an attempt to appease his liberal Catholic supporters, President Obama announced Friday his decision to "soften" a rule requiring religious-affiliated organizations to pay for insurance plans that offer free birth control: "rather than requiring religiously affiliated charities and universities to pay for contraceptives for their employees, the cost would be shifted to health insurance companies."

Following an initial statement expressing a reservation of judgement, the Catholic Bishops of America have released a second response, again voicing their grave concerns and reiterating their call to repeal the mandate:

... stepping away from the particulars, we note that today's proposal continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions, and to threaten government coercion of religious people and groups to violate their most deeply held convictions. In a nation dedicated to religious liberty as its first and founding principle, we should not be limited to negotiating within these parameters. The only complete solution to this religious liberty problem is for HHS to rescind the mandate of these objectionable services.

Rocco Palmo (Whispers in the Loggia) has the scoop of the evening with an internal briefing within the USCCB, a "a heavily bulked-up version of a second public response".

Related

• Dale Price (Dyspeptic Mutterings) thinks that the proposed "compromise" deserves the Cleveland Browns Reply.
• And according to Andrew McCarthy (NOR): "the Justice Department used to call this sort of thing fraud:

  In the scenario addressed by the Obama administration’s cockamamie “compromise,” religious organization employer (call it “A”) wishes to purchase health insurance from B insurance company for C, its employees, but not cover birth-control services that violate A’s religious principles and that the First Amendment protects A from having to subsidize.

  Obama is telling A that it can pay B and that the payments will not cover birth control services for C; he is then telling B to cover the birth-control services for C — but only because A is making the payments. A is thus deceived by Obama’s representations into paying B for C’s birth-control services.

  That is fraud. If you tried to pull something like it, federal agents and attorneys would investigate and prosecute you.

“In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences.”

Most healthcare plans will be required to cover birth control [including abortafacients] without charging co-pays or deductibles starting Aug. 1, the Obama administration announced Friday.

The final regulation retains the approach federal health officials proposed last summer, despite the deluge of complaints from religious groups and congressional Republicans that has poured in since then. Churches, synagogues and other houses of worship are exempt from the requirement, but religious-affiliated hospitals and universities only get a one-year delay and must comply by Aug. 1, 2013.

Carl Olson (Ignatius Press has a roundup of reactions from the Catholic hierarchy -- including that of Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York.

Related

• How to Lie with Statistics, Example Umpteen Lydia McGrew (What's Wrong With The World) on the statistical meme presently going around to the effect that "98% of Catholic women use birth control."
• White House Misrepresents Its Own Contraceptive Mandate (02/03/12) - The Obama administration, to justify its widely criticized mandate for contraception and sterilization coverage in private health plans, has posted a set of false and misleading claims on the White House blog (“Health Reform, Preventive Services, and Religious Institutions,” February 1). Each White House claim is quoted with a response from the Catholic Bishops.
• "Phoney War Redux" - Noting that the HHS initiative "is being led by a nominal Catholic, Kathleen Sebelius" Dale Price asserts:

  The next step is clear--Sebelius has to be excommunicated. Let me repeat: she must be excommunicated. Counseled beforehand, of course. But if she persists, excommunicated. There is no dancing around the fact any more.

• Suing Sebelius The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is representing Belmont Abbey College in its lawsuit against the secretary of HHS over this mandated conscience violation. (National Review)
• The Pope's alarming message on American religious freedom, by Phil Lawler. (Catholic Culture): "Is it humiliating for American political leaders to read that Pope Benedict sees an erosion of religious freedom in our country? It should be."

Samuel Gregg - on "Liberalism"

... The task of realizing the basic goods, however, need not always occur in a context of opposition to the temporal institutions in place. Catholics are certainly bound to oppose what the theologian Thomas Dubay describes as the dogmas of materialism: “the primacy of pleasure, the invalidity of metaphysics, . . , the relativity of morality . . . the denial of freedom.” Insofar as liberal modernity embraces these ideas or seeks to isolate man from all those unchosen aspects of himself that are, in fact, prerequisites to his freedom, Catholics must never hesitate to demonstrate their unreasonableness. The idea that man is nothing more than a conglomerate of passions and that human fulfillment consists of merely satisfying as many of those passions as possible in a short period of time, must be resisted and refuted over and over again. This need not, however, mean that those institutions commonly regarded as “liberal” -- the market, the rule of law, a constitutionally limited State, a flourishing set of civil associations -- should be considered inherently flawed by Catholics.

The liberalism that is wanting is a set of claims about the human person rather than its institutional associations. In part, this book has sought to show how such institutions can be grounded in a vision that avoids the common liberal reliance upon utilitarian assumptions. The task of achieving such a synthesis is nothing less than a civilizational mission that Catholics are in a unique position to foster.

By definition, this mission involves Catholics establishing themselves equidistant between those who hold that all was darkness before 1789, and those who believe that nothing but darkness has followed after 1789. The inability of some Catholics to do so has relegated them to the irrelevance of romantic nostalgia or the triviality of aping secular modernity. Until such tendencies are overcome, the ability of Catholics to contribute to the project of ordered liberty will continue to languish in the realm of possibility rather than of actuality. And this is important, for ultimately it is the free choices of many acting persons for this project that will bring about its realization rather than the decisions of governments.

Samuel Gregg, On Ordered Liberty: A Treatise on the Free Society

On a related note

• "Americanism" (Ius Honorarium)

Reading Accomplished in 2011 - A Look Back

2011 was the year I rediscovered reading. Not that I hadn't ever abandoned reading prior to this year -- rather, since the birth of my first son in 2007 and immersing myself in parenthood, not to mention my job, and the perpetual distractions of blogging and "being online", I found it more and more difficult to settle down and simply lose myself in a good book. And so in 2011 one of the things I resolved was to simply read more books.

Credit in part goes to my wife's surprise purchase of an Amazon Kindle for my birthday (or was it Christmas?). She already had one, and despite her earnest recommendations I stubbornly held out -- proclaiming my preference "for real books." In the end, she won me over.

Not that I enjoy the familiar heft of a "real" book at home, but the Kindle does provide the remarkable ability to tote around a virtual library on a device no bigger than a tablet (hence the name, I suppose). This makes it emininently practical for getting a few pages read on a crowded bus or subway, standing in line at the grocery, in the waiting room for our pediatrician, or simply taking a stroll. Particularly as I have a tendency to read big books, it was that capacity alone which provided an edge.

And so a brief rundown of what I've managed to accomplish in the past year, along with some brief thoughts about each one (and/or their author). If any of my readers wish to discuss any of these at length, feel free to do so in the combox, or email me (blostopher [at] gmail.com]. Second to reading books I enjoy conversing about them. Likewise, I'm always open to your recommendations!

Books Finished

• Ratzinger's Faith: The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI, by Tracey Rowland. (Oxford UP, 2009) -- one of the best single-volume introductions/overviews to the thought of our Holy Father. Second only to Fr. Aidan Nichols OP.
  

• After Aquinas: Versions of Thomism, by Fergus Kerr and A Short History of Thomism, by Romanus Cessario. Kerr provides an excellent survey of contemporary Thomistic scholarship, lending valuable insight as well into various controversies (neo-scholasticism of Garrigou-Lagrange vs. that of Henri de Lubac, SJ). Cessario is shorter -- broader in its historical scope but less in depth, however it compliments the other.

• On Ordered Liberty: A Treatise on the Free Society, by Dr. Samuel Gregg. "What does it mean to be free? Is freedom worth more than mens' lives? Why should man be free? What, if any, legitmate responsibilities accompany freedom?" -- A critique of the positions of Bentham, Mill, Rawls and Hayek by a self-idenified "Catholic Whig" of The Acton Institute, whose own position is informed by the likes of Burke, Tocqueville, Ropke, and the Thomist John Finnis. I skimmed this once in 2003, but failed then to fully appreciate then Gregg's revealing criticism of the inherent utilitarianism of Hayek. Gregg packs a lot into 120 pages -- on rival philosophies of liberty, liberty and law, the role of the family, the role and limits of the state -- but his analysis is lucid and engaging. It's precisely the kind of book I wish I had at my disposal back in college.

• Art and Intellect in Philosophy of Etienne Gilson, by Francesca Aran Murphy (Eric Voegelin Institute Series in Political Philosophy). I found this to be a very fascinating "intellectual biography" of the French Thomist Etienne Gilson -- you can read Murphy's introduction in full here; a critical-yet-appreciative review of her book here (Theological Studies 2006). Murphy's substantial discussion of Gilson's writings compelled me to pick up Reason and Revelation in Middle Ages (a fairly quick read) and to make my way through, howbeit more slowly, Gilson's Thomism: The Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas).

• Culture and the Thomist Tradition: After Vatican II (Routledge Radical Orthodoxy), by Tracey Rowland. I blogged my mixed impressions of the book at some length here (5/22/11).

• Vatican Secret Diplomacy: Joseph P. Hurley and Pope Pius XII, by Charles R. Gallagher. A study of U.S.-Vatican diplomacy through the life of the enigmatic figure of Joseph P. Hurley, an American priest of the Diocese of Cleveland, who through a series of events became the first American to serve in the office of Vatican Secretary of State under Cardinal Ottaviani, and by 1936 was the main conduit to the pope on affairs in the United States. (See "Vested in Red, White and Blue", Thomas J. Burns' detailed review on Amazon.com). Harboring anti-semitic views in his early years, Hurley evolved to become an outspoken critic of (what he perceived to be) the "soft" wartime policy of Pope Pius XII, asserting that "communism has now ceded its primacy to national socialism" as a threat and charging "the very basis of the Roman Catholic faith" compelled Catholics to challenge the "orgies of extermination" against the Jews.
  

• Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse, by Thomas Woods Jr. For the non-economically minded (like me), an accessible analysis of the collapse of the financial market and fingering government manipulation of the money supply via the Fed as the primary instigator. Meltdown ala straightfoward introduction to the Austrian economics business cycle theory. I'm generally not a a fan of Ron Paul, but I agree with his assessment that Woods "introduces the layman to a range of subjects that have been excluded from our national discussion for much too long ... This book is an indispensable conduit of these critical ideas."

• Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life, by Colin Duriez. There is no better example of "filial impiety" than Frankie Schaeffer's continuous besmirching of his father, Reformed Christian apologist Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984; on that note, see Os Guiness' review of Frankie's first book: Fathers and Sons Christianity Today). Schaeffer also played a significant role in the spiritual formation of my parents, who spent time at the original L'Abri in Switzerland -- so I had a personal interest in learning more about his life and thought. Duriez' biography, drawing on a wealth of oral history, personal interviews, offers a rounded portrayal which, while not shirking from presenting Francis' human weaknesses, effectively conveys why so many today appreciate his Christian witness and ministry.
  

• Ten Philosophical Mistakes. Mortimer J. Adler dropped out of high school to become a journalist; he discovered the works of Aristotle, John Locke, St. Thomas Aquinas on his own -- going on to study at Columbia University, but failed to graduate due to his flunking the swimming test. He went on to receive an honorary degree from Columbia, founded the Great Books of the Western World program in 1952. Born a nonobservant Jew, he became an Episcopalian in 1984 and crossed the Tiber in 1998. He published a number of popular works aimed at making philosophy accessible to the common man (Ex. Aristotle for Everybody). Whenever I return to Adler, I am reminded what a pleasure it is to read somebody imbued with so much common sense.

• Twentieth-Century French Philosophy: Key Themes and Thinkers, by Alan D. Schrift. An 80 page chronological overview of French philosophy supplemented by a hundred page bibliography of French philsophy in English translation. I enjoyed the chapters on existentialism and phenomonology -- subsequent chapters on 'Structuralism' and 'Post-Structuralism' a beneficial reminder of why they don't occupy my 'to read' list. Nonetheless this book would serve as a useful resource.

• Indulging in some light entertainment, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, by Max Brooks; Day by Day Armageddon, by J.L. Bourne, I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson (the original 1954 novel) and Zone One by Colson Whitehead. Sense a theme? -- Of these I would particularly recommend the latter. Zone One is less a zombie thriller than a meditation on pre-and-post-apocolyptic American culture through the eyes of a "sweeper", clearing lower Manhattan of the undead as humanity rises from the ashes. Whitehead is an accomplished New York novelist in his own right, and I expect most zombie fans may take umbrage at his attempt at the genre -- but I enjoyed it.
  

• A Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin. Dubbed "The American Tolkein" by Time (although the characters and universes of the two couldn't be more different), this was my first foray into the author's work, spurred by the HBO adaptation of the first novel. Lev Grossman described his work thus:

  What really distinguishes Martin, and what marks him as a major force for evolution in fantasy, is his refusal to embrace a vision of the world as a Manichaean struggle between Good and Evil. Tolkien's work has enormous imaginative force, but you have to go elsewhere for moral complexity. Martin's wars are multifaceted and ambiguous, as are the men and women who wage them and the gods who watch them and chortle, and somehow that makes them mean more. A Feast for Crows isn't pretty elves against gnarly orcs. It's men and women slugging it out in the muck, for money and power and lust and love.

  Grossman underestimates Tolkien and the moral depth of his characters, resisting (ex. Galadriel) or succumbing to (ex. Boromir) the temptations of power, of which the ring was a conduit. And while Martin's universe lacks the overarching moral clarity of Tolkien (he is, at least according to this report, a lapsed Catholic) certain characters may nonetheless be admired for their virtue. And the Christian reader might appreciate the author's inclination to demonstrate redeeming qualities in the most unlikeable of characters.

Books in Process

I have oft mentioned my tendency to pick up and read more than one book at time. A brief list of those I'm still making my way through:

• Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration by Pope Benedict XVI. (Revisiting the first volume in preparation for the second).
• Jesus the Christ by Walter Cardinal Kasper. A reprint from 1977. See his review by Avery Dulles (Theology Today July 1978).
• Twentieth-Century Catholic Theologians by Fergus Kerr. Theological profiles of Chenu, Congar, Schillebeeckx, de Lubac, Rahner, Lonergan, Balthasar, Kung, Wojtyla, Ratzinger -- tempting, is it not? Some good introductions, providing a indication of whose original works are worth pursuing).
• A Matter of Principle: Humanitarian Arguments for War in Iraq, ed. by Thomas Cushman. Contributions by recognizable names such as Christopher Hitchens, Paul Berman, Roger Scruton and Tony Blair. Others are lesser known, such as Mient Jan Faber (Secretary-General of the Interchurch Peace Council, Netherlands -- dismissed from his post for dissenting from the organization's opposition to military intervention).

Related

• "The Best Books I Read in 2011..." | Ignatius Press Authors, Editors, and Friends | January 3, 2012
• Books Read, 2011 Wheat & Weeds

Joe Carter takes on the Front Porch Republic

For those who are endlessly entertained by such:

• Who Gets To Be the Czar of Aesthetic Consumption? Joe Carter. First Things 11/18/11.
• Who Gets To Be The Czar of Human Evolution? Jerry Salyer. Front Porch Republic 1/5/12.
• Monarchists to the Left of Me, Socialists to the Right, Here I Am, Stuck in the Middle with You Liberals Joe Carter. First Things 1/6/12

Thank you.

In December of 2010 I found myself in a rough patch, financially speaking. I asked for help, and some -- hopefully still reading this blog -- were gracious enough either to lend a helping hand, purchase some books via Amazon.com, commission web-or-blog design work or donate to cover the hosting for the Pope Benedict XVI Fan Club.

As we enter into a new year I would like to convey again my sincere gratitude and appreciation. Frankly, this blog and various related web projects would probably not be around today if it weren't for you. (And finding myself to be better off, I look for opportunities to return the favor).

"The King in Yellow"

What a pleasant surprise. I've discovered that one of my musical experiments -- the song 'fracture' from the 'decline' EP -- was incorporated by another artist into their work, as background to a reading of "The Repairer of Reputations", from The King in Yellow, by Robert William Chambers.

• Free download of 'The King in Yellow' edited and mixed by Thomas Jude Barclay Morrison (the track starts around the 45:30 minute mark and extends to 52:30).
• More about the Librivox Project (for which the reading was a part - "making all public domain books available as free audio books").
• More about apophatic (under which I meddle with sound) here; get the 'decline' EP here or from amazon.com.
• More about Robert William Chambers (1865-1933):

  "... His most famous, and perhaps most meritorious, effort is 'The King in Yellow', an 1895 collection of weird short stories, connected by the theme of the fictitious drama The King in Yellow, which drives those who read it insane."

"The only threat the Church can and must fear is the sin of her members."

Pope Benedict XVI

Ius Honorarium

Not-so-new blog but just recently discovered -- Ius Honorarium -- by a Catholic-turned-"professed agnostic, then atheist" - turned Orthodox (for seven years) - and finally, a revert to the Catholic faith. Interests include Orthodox-Catholic relations, "traditionalists", Leo Strauss, St. Thomas Aquinas / Thomist philosophy, Catholic social thought, political philosophy, Michael Burleigh (English historian), etc. -- truly, a blog I could read for hours.

"Arab Spring" to "Christian Winter"

• Islamists kill dozens in Nigeria Christmas bombs Islamist militants set off bombs across Nigeria on Christmas Day - three targeting churches including one that killed at least 27 people - raising fears that they are trying to ignite sectarian civil war.
• Muslim Persecution of Christians: November 2011 by Raymond Ibrahim. Hudson New York. December 21, 2011

Merry Christmas!

Vaclav Havel 1936-2011

• Vaclav Havel, Former Czech President, Dies at 75 New York Times
• Vaclav Havel, dissident playwright and former Czech president, dies Washington Post)
• World reacts to death of Vaclav Havel (CBS News)
• Confronting Truth: Václav Havel’s courage National Review Symposium. National Review Online gathers experts to discuss the impact of his life on history and the lessons he taught about protest and leadership.
• Keep on Rockin' in the Free World: How the Velvet Underground and Václav Havel built a blueprint for toppling totalitarians and other censors Reason.com
• Havel, Kafka and Us, by Michael Ledeen.
• "Forgetting We Are Not God", by Vaclav Havel. First Things March 1995.
• Reading List: Havel and Beyond, by David Remnick. (New Yorker):

  "In the spirit of the season, and in honor of Vaclav Havel, what follows is a top-ten list, the first entry being Havel’s greatest hits, and the rest books and writers whom Havel admired—contemporaries or near contemporaries who lived in the same region and under similar regimes. They, like Havel, are men and women who lived, and wrote, within the truth."

Christopher Hitchens, 1949-2011

• Polemicist Who Slashed All, Freely, Dies at 62, by William Grimes. New York Times
• In Memoriam, my courageous brother Christopher, 1949-2011, by Peter Hitchens.
• Postscript: Christopher Hitchens, 1949-2011, by Christopher Buckley. The New Yorker 12/16/11.
• On the Death of Christopher Hitchens: 1949-2011. R.I.P., by Ron Radosh.
• "Goodbye, Mr. Hitchens", by Victor Davis Hanson. National Review 01/03/12.
• Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011) by Edward Feser.
• Photos: In Memoriam of Christopher Hitchens, 1949–2011 Beginning with his roiling soixante-huitard days—picketing and protesting; joining up with the Labour Club at Oxford—to his raucous and even law-breaking assignments for this magazine, Christopher Hitchens’s life in photographs is a freewheeling and spirited adventure. From Hitch, we would expect no less.
• R.I.P. Christopher Hitchens, by James Martin, SJ. America
• "Trial of the Will", by Christopher Hitchens. Vanity Fair January 2012.

Humanum (new Catholic online journal)

15th November, the feast of St Albert the Great, patron of scientists, saw the launch of the new (free) online review HUMANUM: Issues in Family, Culture, and Science, edited by Stratford Caldecott for the John Paul II Institute in Washington. It is all about “the human”: what makes us human, what keeps us human, and how to rescue our humanity when this is endangered. Our aim is to pick our way with discernment through the flood of publications (some good, some confused, some pernicious) that claim to tell us about ourselves, about family, marriage, love, children, health, and human life.

Humanum has a particular concern with issues that directly affect the poor and the vulnerable in our society. Each issue will have a main theme around which the reviews and articles cluster, and we begin with an issue on THE CHILD, because this reveals the foundation of our perspective on humanity: the child is the purest revelation of man and his relationship to Being. The lead article is a major piece by the Editor of Communio, Prof. David L. Schindler, which goes right to the heart of our present cultural malaise.

• Humanum Fall 2011: "The Child"
• About Humanum

Roll over, JFK.

Courtesy of Zucotti Utopia: Portraits of the New Revolutionaries

Assisi III

Pope Benedict and Assisi III - a (admittedly belated) roundup of coverage and commentary, at The Benedict Blog.

Veteran's Day

War is a curious part of the human condition. It is a summary of the worst that Man is capable of: violence on a massive scale, cruelty, greed, hatred, and the magnification of every human vice. Few of us are more “anti-war” than those who have had the misfortune to fight in one and witnessed all the folly, loss and endless pain produced by the inability of men to frequently resolve their differences without resort to the sword. Yet, in war we also see men rise to the heights of what we are capable of at our best: self-sacrifice, courage, love and the magnification of every human virtue. War as the direst of human institutions is to be bitterly regretted, but we must ever pay homage to those who find themselves in this terrible maelstrom and acquit themselves with honor.

And so on Veteran’s Day we honor all those who took time out from their regular lives to stand between the rest of us and danger. We especially remember those silent heroes who paid the ultimate price for us and who never came home. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13) Our gratitude, praise and thanks is small enough compensation, but it is the poor best we can give. We are creations of a loving God, and when we return love for love we demonstrate that.

-- Donald R. McClarey, American Catholic

We are the 53%

"Those of us who pay for those of you who whine about all of that... or that... or whatever".

Pope Benedict XVI - "On Death and Life"

Dear friends, the Solemnity of All Saints and the Commemoration of the faithful departed tell us that only he who is able to recognize a great hope in death is able also to live a life that springs from hope. If we reduce man exclusively to his horizontal dimension, to what can be perceived empirically, life itself loses its profound meaning. Man needs eternity -- and every other hope, for him, is all too brief, is all too limited. Man is explainable only if there is a Love that overcomes all isolation -- even that of death -- in a totality that transcends even space and time. Man is explainable -- he finds his deepest meaning -- only if God is. And we know that God has gone forth from the distance and has made Himself close; He has entered into our lives and He tells us: "I am the Resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die" (John 11:25-26).

Image lifted from Wheat and Weeds

Let us think for a moment of the scene at Calvary and let us listen once again to the words that Jesus addressed on the Cross to the robber crucified at his right: "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43). Let us think of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, when -- after having travelled a stretch of road with the Risen Jesus -- they recognize Him and quickly set out toward Jerusalem to announce the Lord's resurrection (cf. Luke 24:13-35). The Master's words come to mind with renewed clarity: "Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?" (John 14:1-2).

God has truly appeared; He has become accessible; He has so loved the world "that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16), and in the supreme act of love -- in the Cross -- plunging into the abyss of death, He conquered it, He rose and He opened the doors of eternity also to us. Christ sustains us through the night of death, which He himself traversed: He is the Good Shepherd, in whose guidance we can trust without any fear, since He knows well the road, even in obscurity.

Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, November 2, 2011.

Happy Halloween!

(Tonight's exercise in pumpkin-carving -- followed by some pumpkin-seed roasting. And, yes, Catholics can do Halloween).