"Audacity of despair"

The Obama administration has earned its totalitarian cred anew with its outrageous contraceptives mandate. Fr. George Rutler:

Undeterred, and menacingly on the cusp of the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Department of Health and Human Services has issued an “interim final rule” which requires all private health plans, including those of Catholic hospitals and schools, to include coverage of prescription contraceptives, female sterilization procedures, and abortion counseling.

For a while, various Catholic leaders had hoped that they might reach an understanding with the Administration, and some even felt more at peace with the president’s assurances. But “peace for our time” only lasts until Poland is invaded. Cardinal Mahony, whom no one would fault for intransigence, now says, “I cannot imagine a more direct and frontal attack on the freedom of conscience than this ruling today. This decision must be fought against with all the energies the Catholic Community can muster.” Our own archbishop [Dolan] said, “In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences.”

At the time of the last presidential election, some may have thought that I overstated things in finding parallels with the dystopian world described in Robert Hugh Benson’s Lord of the World, in which Julian Felsenburgh makes eugenics “a sacred duty.”

Since our Lord did not humiliate the frightened apostles by saying “I told you so” when he rose from the dead, I shall not say “I told you so” to any who underestimated the plottings of social engineers whose audacity is only an audacity of despair.

Read the rest. Archbishop Dolan:

“Never before has the federal government forced individuals and organizations to go out into the marketplace and buy a product that violates their conscience,” said Dolan. “This shouldn’t happen in a land where free exercise of religion ranks first in the Bill of Rights.”

Birth control mandate meant to squeeze churches out of healthcare, says Congressman Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ):

“We will have a situation where our faith-based hospitals will be on fire sale because they cannot participate,” said Smith. “They know that the Catholic Church and other churches are not going to capitulate. So they expect them to say, ‘Well, we’re out. We’re going to have to sell the hospitals.’ The threat is very, very real.”

“There’s a coerciveness about this administration unlike any I’ve seen before,” he added.

Lipinski said that immediate action must be taken against the mandate, and that the media’s deafening silence over the order was very troubling.

“I hope this doesn’t just become a rallying cry for the next election,” said Lipinski. “We need to immediately move on this. It did not receive enough attention whatsoever.”

“This is the first time I see a situation where we really are in danger of forcing people, essentially, to participate in a significant way in what they see as taking a life.”

Remember that many contraceptives are actually abortifacients.

Kathleen Sebelius waxes Orwellian on the decree:

I believe this proposal strikes the appropriate balance between respecting religious freedom and increasing access to important preventive services.

It's tyranny, pure and simple.

H/t: PewSitter.com

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Thanks to the Anchoress for linking in her post, Obama’s War on Vegan Shops: Sell Beef or Else!

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