What next? President Obama has been re elected for another 4 years and I've been wondering what next for the Catholic Church?
Catholic Leaders Threaten Obama With 100% Chance of Civil Disobedience
Martin Luther King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” (April 16, 1963) is one of our nation’s elegant testimonies to the political implications of our Declaration of Independence:
“One may want to ask: ‘How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?’ The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.’”
Indeed, there may be more theological letters written from the confines of jail cells in the near future, as the Catholic bishops quickly approach the end of a one-year deadline given to them by the Obama administration to obey the HHS mandate or face the consequences. Not a single bishop has signaled any other intention than to embrace the consequences with the joy of serving Christ.
Was Archbishop Chaput predicting the future in the interview when he concluded, “This has been the story of the martyrs through the centuries”? We know it has crossed his mind: At Chester Springs, he said, but only half-jokingly, “I don’t want to go to jail.”
If the election affirms the Obama administration’s HHS mandate, there is a 100 percent chance that there will be civil disobedience in the Catholic Church, led by its bishops. Whether jail will follow is anyone’s guess.
1 comment:
Hi Amy, I found your blog through Monica's and came over to say hello! This post caught my eye since I'm very concerned whether the Obama Administration will change the HHS Mandate. It would be awful for our bishops to be pushed in a corner like that and have to stand for Jesus. Where they may face jail time for doing so. This 2012 and we're in America! Hard to fathom we've allowed our government to do this.
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