Cardinal O'Malley reveals there is a group of episcopal luminaries trying to come up with moral analysis to allow Catholics to disobey their conscience and 'go forward'

Several years back Boston Catholics were astounded to learn that Cardinal O'Malley had entered into a contract with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to provide abortions to women at Caritas Christi by subcontracting an abortionist and giving the women who wanted one a free cab ride to receive it.

The Cardinal's Cabinet Secretary for Health and Human Services, Fr. Bryan Hehir, brokered the deal.

A big huge donnybrook broke out in the public square.

You can find it on google but here are a few links, HERE - and an excellent round up HERE.

At first, the Cardinal denied it was happening but the Commonwealth contradicted his denials and provided details of the arrangement.

Once the cat was out of the bag, the punch-on became really ugly when Cardinal O'Malley said the arrangement was consistent with Church teaching on the sanctity of life.

Faithful Catholics informed Cardinal O'Malley it...you know...actually wasn't in accord with Church teaching on the sanctity of life.

The Cardinal responded to the criticism of the arrangement with a blog post announcing that Catholics objecting to the subcontracting of abortions were doing "a great disservice to the Church" but "recognizing the complexity of the proposed arrangement", he asked the National Catholic Bioethics Center to provide him with an opinion.

At the time, it seemed rather weird that the Cardinal saw 'complexity' in ethical judgments about hiring a subcontractor to perform abortions and giving people transportation to the abortion facility.

The arrangement required Catholic doctors and nurses to offer pregnant women abortion, a collaboration that actually carries a sentence of excommunication. Then, you have the spiritual misfeasance of entrapping the people at the abortion clinic to commit the murder and pay them for it out of proceeds from the contract with the Commonwealth. There is nothing 'complex' about making judgments about the spiritual and physical homicides in the arrangement.

As any half-wit could figure out it was the parties involved in subcontracting murder doing 'the great disservice to the Church' - not to mention all the souls he was entrapping into the loss of salvation, we found it impossible to believe it required a second opinion from ethical experts, but that is precisely what happened:

To be perfectly clear, Caritas Christi will never do anything to promote abortions, to direct any patients to providers of abortion or in any way to participate in actions that are contrary to Catholic moral teaching and anyone who suggests otherwise is doing a great disservice to the Catholic Church. We are committed to the Gospel of Life and no arrangement will be entered into unless it is completely in accord with Church teaching.
Recognizing the complexity of the proposed arrangement, I will ask the National Catholic Bioethics Center to review the arrangement and to provide me their opinion.

A word to the wise: Don't ever get into a taxicab from a Chancery. If the government ever legalizes ethnic cleansing, we can count on Catholic Bishops to help them get the ball rolling.

I am recounting this surreal story because it has come to the attention of Boston Catholics that Cardinal O'Malley is once again having trouble making moral and ethical judgments on Obamacare.

However, when Cardinal O'Malley was asked whether American Catholics should obey laws that violate God's law, he responded, "The question is complicated."


He went on to further confuse the issue: "This is a very complicated issue, and it's something the church is struggling with right now, and trying to come up with a moral analysis in order to be able to allow people to form their consciences and to go forward."

He's got to be kidding.

Somewhere, there is group of episcopal luminaries sitting in a room 'struggling to come up with moral analysis' that contradicts Christ's witness to be faithful to God, even to the point where a government will put you to death before you violate your conscience.

I am actually freaking out.

It's complicated?

Very complicated?

Who is in the room?

What kind of a moron would even accept an invitation to get into room to try to figure it out?

It's a no-brainer.

We can't do it. That is what the Life of Christ was entirely about.

The answer is all in one symbol: The Corpus of Christ hangs from a Crucifix to memorialize how to respond to civil laws that violate God's laws.


I don't have the bandwidth to deal with idiocy today. I have to calm down. But we will have to get to the bottom of who is in the room and disrupt their initiative to 'complicate' 2000 years of following the moral analysis of Jesus Christ.

Please see below.

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

as Dysfunctional as U.S. Congress

by Robert L. Hale

fitzgerald griffin foundation

http://www.fgfbooks.com/Hale/2014/Hale140611.html

MINOT, ND -- The bureaucracy of the Catholic Church in the United States is trying to be as useless, conflicted, counterproductive, and harmful to lay Catholics as the U.S. Congress is to the American people.


America's Bishops are confusing Catholics by using double speak, being indecisive, and being politically correct. Their posturing has, and is, causing great harm to the Church in America.


A case in point: In June 2012, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) unanimously stated that the contraception-sterilization-abortifacients regulation of the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act was an "unjust and illegal mandate and a violation of personal civil rights."


Following the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. earlier this month, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, the archbishop of Boston and chair of the USCCB's Committee on Pro-Life Activities, was asked if this regulation violates God's law. He responded, "The regulation that imposes abortion and sterilization, this is a violation of God's law."


So far, so good; here is the rest of the story.


In a letter to Congress, the American Bishops wrote, "Those who help provide health care, and those who need such care for themselves and their families, should not be forced to choose between preserving their religious and moral integrity and participating in our health care system."


However, when Cardinal O'Malley was asked whether American Catholics should obey laws that violate God's law, he responded, "The question is complicated."


He went on to further confuse the issue: "This is a very complicated issue, and it's something the church is struggling with right now, and trying to come up with a moral analysis in order to be able to allow people to form their consciences and to go forward."


As I Catholic, I do not wish to engage in calumny, particularly involving a Cardinal or Bishop of the Church I love. I do not believe my comments are such.

I believe that the Catholic hierarchy is obligated to be clear and concise when it comes to defining God's law. I believe that the hierarchy has a duty, as difficult as it may be, to "uncomplicate" the issues that Catholics face when it comes to their faith and how we should live as Catholics in our secular society.

Cardinal O'Malley has failed to meet this obligation.

I agree with the Cardinal that a moral analysis is in order.

The Affordable Care Act regulation mandating that Americans (including Catholics) must fund contraception-sterilization-abortifacients did not appear yesterday. The mandate is now several years old; the implementation is upon us.

It is difficult to believe the "moral analysis" to which Cardinal O'Malley refers has not been done. The fact that it has not been done indicates something is terribly wrong with the hierarchy.

I submit that what is wrong is a failure of the hierarchy to be decisive on a matter that demands decisiveness. Delay is not a valid option; it is simply an excuse to sustain the status quo and leave the Catholic laity without much-needed direction.

Was this same lack of decisiveness on the part of the hierarchy responsible, at least in part, for the fact that Catholics practice artificial birth control and obtain abortions at the same rate as American society as a whole?

When asked if Catholic members of Congress could vote for a bill that funds contraception-sterilization-abortifacients, the Cardinal ducked the question. The answer is that, of course, they can vote for such a mandate. However, he failed to tell the complete truth; that by doing so, those Congressmen would be putting their everlasting souls in jeopardy.

Instead, Cardinal O'Malley said, "It's complicity, but it's not immediate, obviously. I mean, just as anyone who votes for an individual who votes for, in a very remote way - but, you know, people's motivation in all of these things can be very complicated, and they can have different reasons for doing things, and sometimes they see what they're doing is the lesser of two evils. But we're trying to form consciences so that people will realize how important and how central the Gospel of Life is to the social teaching of the Church."

What did the Cardinal say in the preceding 89 words? Not a thing. No moral analysis. No answer. According to the Cardinal, it is complicated -- but he is trying to form consciences.
The Cardinal's rhetoric reminds me of two things. The first is Christ's description of what He would do with the tepid; the second is what St. John Chrysostom said paved the road to Hell.