u.s. bishops

A report from the principally Catholic anti-contraception rally in Maryland reveals a constituency whose calls for religious freedom appear to be at the cost of freedom for all others.

In the wake of the Obama administration’s decision to require that insurance plans cover some non-abortion related reproductive health care, the bishops have launched a political campaign. Will US Catholics follow?

Why are the US Catholic Bishops exerting so much energy and money and time on the matter of contraception, with no similarly public cries of outrage against the death penalty, state-sponsored torture, or the two preemptive wars in which the US has involved itself for fully a decade?

“There are some among you,” the pope wrote, “who conceive of and desire a Church in America different from that which is in the rest of the world.” Apparently unconcerned that on this side of the ocean the word might have a more positive ring than he intended, he used the name by which this heresy had become known in Europe: Americanism.

Efforts by the hierarchical institution to spin the current controversy as a matter of religious liberty are unconvincing. After all, it is not the Catholic Church whose liberty is impinged upon. Members, even bishops, can still teach and believe what they wish. No one forces them to use contraception. Rather, it is employees of Catholic institutions, including janitors and housekeepers, whose rights to make their own decisions about health care are impinged upon. Blaming the victim is an old trick, but, in this case, few people are buying it.

If you are the Catholic parent of LGBT daughter or son, you know firsthand that it is your child’s sexual identity, and not a belief in the Immaculate Conception, that puts them at risk for beatings and taunting. We find it reprehensible when a legacy of discrimination is invoked by those who themselves advocate repression. Archbishop Dolan and his colleagues should stop pretending that they face anything like the intolerance that our children do.

Same-sex marriage opponents feel “betrayed” by lawmakers.

This week’s U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops summer meeting in Seattle will be dominated by the ongoing sexual abuse scandal. At this point apologies aren’t sufficient—it’s time for action.

When bishops really disagree with someone, they are not tepid. Their language glows hot and they follow it up with strong action.

Religion and money still exert a huge force on politics.