Cardinal Sean O'Malley, archbishop of Boston and chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Pro-Life Activities
Beginning now, with the opening of government-run health-insurance exchanges, President Barack Obama will be prohibiting American Catholics from practicing their faith in the way they live their daily lives.
This is an act of tyranny. Yet, many Americans in positions of public authority and influence have greeted it with silence and inaction.
I do not use the word tyranny lightly here. Obama is abusing his power as president to unilaterally impose on Catholics — and millions of other Americans who share the Catholic moral view on certain matters — a regulation that forces them to act against their moral convictions and the teachings of their faith.
He has declared war on their souls.
The Catholic Church teaches that sterilization, artificial contraception and abortion are intrinsically immoral and Catholics cannot be involved in them.
Last year, President Obama's Department of Health and Human Services issued a regulation, under Obamacare, requiring that almost all health care plans in the United States must provide coverage, without any fees or co-pay, for sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs.
Obama was boasting about this regulation last week.
At no time has he offered to exempt from it those individual Americans whom he has put in the position of needing to choose between obeying his bureaucratic mandate and the teachings of their faith.
Since Obama's administration first issued this regulation, America's Catholic bishops have forcefully and unambiguously declared it an "unjust law
This is an act of tyranny. Yet, many Americans in positions of public authority and influence have greeted it with silence and inaction.
I do not use the word tyranny lightly here. Obama is abusing his power as president to unilaterally impose on Catholics — and millions of other Americans who share the Catholic moral view on certain matters — a regulation that forces them to act against their moral convictions and the teachings of their faith.
He has declared war on their souls.
The Catholic Church teaches that sterilization, artificial contraception and abortion are intrinsically immoral and Catholics cannot be involved in them.
Last year, President Obama's Department of Health and Human Services issued a regulation, under Obamacare, requiring that almost all health care plans in the United States must provide coverage, without any fees or co-pay, for sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs.
Obama was boasting about this regulation last week.
At no time has he offered to exempt from it those individual Americans whom he has put in the position of needing to choose between obeying his bureaucratic mandate and the teachings of their faith.
Since Obama's administration first issued this regulation, America's Catholic bishops have forcefully and unambiguously declared it an "unjust law
