USCCB Contraception Inconsistency

Contraception is a big, big problem, and has been for 50 years. It’s a major force behind the acceptance of abortion; the Supreme Court famously ruled that abortion has become a necessary solution to the problem of failed contraception because couples have come to depend on contraception to limit their family size.

Why has the pro-life movement been unsuccessful in overturning Roe v Wade? Because contraception continues to be approved, accepted, and available in our society. That’s not exactly a popular opinion, but a comment by Michael Voris in a talk given at the end of June to a group in New York rings true. Voris challenged, “Just walk into any pro-life meeting and say we’re not going to get rid of abortion until we get rid of contraception and see what happens.” Many who decry abortion still defend contraception.

Currently, of course, contraception has been in the limelight as our bishops fight the HHS contraception mandate. They have been very vocal in stating that contraception runs counter to Church teaching, and Catholic employers and institutions should not be required to violate their consciences by providing it for their employees. Unfortunately, as Michael Voris notes in a “special report” Vortex, it seems that the USCCB’s right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing.

Voris hit the nail on the head again: his “Special Report” Vortex episode (Saturday, July 21) is below, along with the script, but here’s the gist of the most recent gaff as Michael Voris explains it (my emphases throughout):

It was recently reported by the wonderful folks at Life Site News that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops “official overseas relief and development agency”, Catholic Relief Services, recently doled out over 5 million dollars to CARE – an international “relief and development organization” which actively promotes contraception around the world.

Let’s boil it down: The US bishops are suing over the Obamacare mandate in the United States because it forces health insurance payments for contraception. Yet…OUTSIDE the United States they are handing money to international organizations that promote and advance contraception – the very thing they are fighting AGAINST on the other side of the Atlantic.

The evidence: Click on the image to see the page at the CARE website.

According to the LifeSiteNews article, CARE’s support of contraception is explicit, and CARE clearly expresses its hostility to anti-abortion legislation.  A 2009 article on the CARE website is a request to then newly-elected President Obama to rescind the Mexico City Policy; it concludes:

According to the UNFPA, about 90 percent of global abortion-related deaths and disabilities could be avoided if women who wanted effective contraception were given access. Is this not a win-win situation?

“Win-win?” Yes – for organizations like Planned Parenthood, who provide contraception knowing that the failure rate will ensure an abortion rate that will fill their coffers. But the CRS doesn’t seem to see it that way. TheThe LifeSiteNews article notes the comments of a CRS official:

When asked if, given the evidence on CARE, CRS would end its partnership with the organization, CRS Communications Director John Rivera said “no.” He indicated that concerns had already been raised and dismissed.

Rivera told LifeSiteNews that CRS doesn’t so much give the money to the organization as act as a “pass-through” for federal funding to such groups, and that the money is given only to projects in line with Catholic teaching.

However, when asked if CRS would similarly issue ‘pass-through’ funding to Planned Parenthood for a morally neutral project, Rivera replied in the negative. “We would never partner with Planned Parenthood,” he said.

He explained the difference saying, it’s about “the preponderance of work they do.” Rivera noted that CRS acts on criteria developed by the U.S. bishops. “We’ve given this a lot of consideration, and there’s a threshold in terms of what the focus of an agency is, and the preponderance of their work.”

LSN quotes noted theologian Dr. William Marshner, the founding professor of theology at Christendom College, who takes exception to this line of reasoning:

“Well this is like saying that we will fund an organization that does 50 or fewer assassinations a year, but not one that will commit 50 or more assassinations a year. The idea of such a threshold is preposterous. The only defense would be if a group to whom they had given money incidentally, or rarely, or accidentally, or inadvertently did something immoral with it. But, if the group to whom the money is given has a regular practice of using some of their funds in this way, then it is immoral for a Church organization to give money to that outfit.”

Or, as Michael Voris notes a bit more succinctly in the Vortex episode below:  “And Mussolini got the trains to run on time, and Hitler built good roads. C’mon!”

Through this kind of inconsistency – and incompetency – the bishops stand to lose ground in the legal battle against the HHS mandate. They can’t make the case that contraception is a moral evil against Church teaching in the US, all the while cheerfully handing out millions of dollars for the spread of contraceptives in other parts of the world.

But then, isn’t that the kind of inconsistency that’s met the issue ever since Humanae Vitae reaffirmed the evil of contraception? Bishops themselves opposed the teaching, priest counseled (and continue to counsel) couples to “follow their conscience” regarding it, and it became a topic never to be discussed from the pulpit. We’re paying the price now.

Actually, we’ve been paying the price for years. It’s just that only recently have we begun to realize that the problem exists. And while the bishops are surely following the right path in fighting the HHS mandate, they are still missing the boat in terms of teaching what the Church has maintained for 2000 years: contraception is a grave moral evil.

Here’s the Vortex (for other Vortex posts, click on the tab at the top of the page):

Some kind of institutional schizophrenia has apparently seized hold at the American Bishops headquarters in Washington DC – and its being recognized over here in Rome.

It was recently reported by the wonderful folks at Life Site News that the United States

Conference of Catholic Bishops “official overseas relief and development agency”, Catholic Relief Services, recently doled out over 5 million dollars to CARE – an international “relief and development organization” which actively promotes contraception around the world.

Let’s boil it down: The US bishops are suing over the Obamacare mandate in the United States because it forces health insurance payments for contraception. Yet…OUTSIDE the United States they are handing money to international organizations that promote and advance contraception – the very thing they are fighting AGAINST on the other side of the Atlantic.

What in the heck is going on at USCCB headquarters? When Our Blessed Lord said, “Do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing”, it’s pretty certain THIS is not what He was talking about.

For years – decades actually – many people have been questioning the whole purpose of the USCCB: its reason for being. For many on the outside, it’s this massive 140-million-dollar-a year-bureaucracy that is completely mysterious in its inner workings.

Apparently, it’s mysterious for the people who work on the inside as well. Listen to the excuse…or reason…that the Communications Director of the CRS gave for handing 5.3 million dollars to a pro-contraception international organization.

John Rivera said CRS doesn’t so much give the money to the organization as act as a “pass-through” for federal funding to such groups, and that the money is given only to projects in line with Catholic teaching.

Oh. So, unlike the Catholic Campaign for Human Development Office at USCCB headquarters – which gives Catholic collection plate money DIRECTLY to pro-gay, pro-abortion, pro-homosexual groups and has been for years – this is different because CRS is just funneling your government tax dollars to the group.

GOT IT!!!

Just for the record…how is that ONE BIT DIFFERENT than what Obama is doing already – sending Hilary Clinton around the globe with sacks of cash for governments that will promote contraception? Seriously.

When asked further why it was okay to give money to CARE, Rivera basically responded that CARE does all kinds of work – not JUST promote contraception. Uh…what!?! Yeah. And Mussolini got the trains to run on time, and Hitler built good roads. C’mon!

This whole embarrassing and scandalous episode – which folks in Rome have become aware of – is just one more example of how the Church in America has totally sub-contracted the business of the corporal works of mercy to the US government.

It’s also demonstrative of the institutional madness that keeps occurring at the Bishop

Headquarters when the lay mostly-liberal staffers are running the show. Exactly who is Communications Director John Rivera speaking for when he says this practice is perfectly acceptable and moral?

The national conference seems to be unhinged. Take, for example, Obamacare. During the debate in Congress, the Bishops conference was voicing full-throated support for national health insurance. Then all of a sudden, when the truth about abortion funding came out, they slammed on the brakes.

Didn’t anyone at the conference READ the legislation before telling the bishops to back it? Obviously they were too busy looking for the next liberal cause to fund.

Then, when Obama came out with his HHS mandate, again: total shock and awe at USCCB Headquarters. Again: is no one reading this stuff and strategizing BEFORE the disaster hits?

But we see this in microcosm in many different diocese round the States. Who could forget the debacle that was gay marriage in New York? Cardinal Dolan said in a TV interview AFTER the fact that the bishops of New York were caught totally off guard by the passage of gay marriage – led by Catholic governor Andrew Cuomo and finally championed by the votes of two Knights of Columbus state assemblymen.

He said they had been misled, or relied on bad advice from their counselors who said gay marriage didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of passing. Really? When every public poll showed support for it, and the governor had campaigned ferociously on this very point? Not the slimmest chance of passing? Not even enough to fake mustering some kind of assault?

At every turn, practically every week, USCCB liberals are publishing statements about the economy, immigration, social justice…blah blah blah. At the same time, some other office down the hall is handing money out the door to pro-contraception groups.

Just who runs the USCCB? Who makes the decisions? Who sets policy? More importantly – who enforces policy? Who follows up? Does anyone on staff have to take an oath of loyalty or fidelity to the Faith? Does anyone care?

In the bishops’ lawsuits against Obamacare and the HHS mandate promoting contraception, it would be interesting to see how much money is being paid to Church lawyers for their services, and then compare that number to the 5 million the CRS is paying out to pro-contraception agencies.

Perhaps this is a good time to scrub the whole thing…re-think exactly what the mission of the organization should be, and start over…if that.

As long as this staff-led nuttiness continues to reign supreme and the forthcoming explanations from lay staff are just as spacey, the moral authority of the bishops will continue to be sneered at and made fun of – and that is a situation that Catholics today can simply not brook.