"Women will have access to preventive care that includes
contraceptive services, no matter where they work." That is the federal mandate which the U.S.
Catholic bishops claim is an infringement on the Church's religious
liberty. They are meeting this week to
decide how best to further their argument.
How the bishops wage their fight in a pluralistic,
democratic society is as important as the outcome itself. The bishops can
reduce their moral credibility and authority even further than their treatment
of women and the pedophilia scandal already has, or begin to rebuild their moral voice.
It depends on the bishops themselves. So
far they have not done well.
Hyperbole, demonizing the opposition, discrediting
the beliefs of others, aligning with radical elements on the political right,
disinformation, these are the tools of ideology, not theology, and the bishops
have hurt their own cause by using them.
After the announcement of the pre-amended policy in January, the bishops, as planned, required the reading of a letter at Catholic parishes. The contents echoed comments of then Archbishop Timothy Dolan. "The law, it said, "strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all citizens of faiths ... The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that almost all employers, including Catholic employers, will be forced to offer their employees health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception ... And almost all individuals will be forced to buy that coverage as part of their policies."
This is disingenuous at
best. Nothing in the law requires Catholics or anyone else to use contraception
or contraceptive devices. Drugs such as
RU486 that cause a woman to abort a pregnancy are not included in the law or
regulations. Plan B is included but there
is no scientific agreement that Plan B causes abortions. The letter not only
misconstrued the law, it conflated contraception and abortion, a tendency
reflected in much of Catholic teaching on contraception.
Within the framework of legal rights, which is how the
bishops framed their argument, they will have to contend with the equal
and opposing rights of others, which they have not as yet done. The wider
society finds that access to contraception is a health right that flows from a
woman's right to substantial control over her own body. For many, Catholics
included, use of contraception to avoid pregnancy is a responsible action given
conditions of poverty, mental health, abuse, or wider concerns for the common
good. The bishops hold contraception to
be inherently evil.
There is a valid conflict of claims here; opposing rights
will have to be worked out publicly and with respect to the rights of all. Rights
claimed by Church authority do not trump the rights of others. Ultimatums and threats are inappropriate.
Refusing to meet as equals in public debate with those affected by the bishops
demands will not work. Demonizing others for their beliefs will not work. In short, how the institutional Church
functions internally will not get them very far in the wider society. While
arguing that their religious freedom not be infringed upon, they will have to
address the fact that their claim infringes on religious and other freedoms of
those with whom they disagree.
As a conflict of rights, it is not a conflict of good people
against bad, moral people against evil, salvation against damnation. Insofar as the bishops refuse to take
seriously the rights of others, they will further forfeit their voice in our
society.
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