THE HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES DEPARTMENT MANDATE EFFECTIVE DATE AND THE ONE YEAR RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION............

The Health and Human Services Department Mandate of the new Federal Patient Protection Affordable Care Act, National Health Care Law, also referred to as, ObamaCare; went into effect today - requiring business employers, hospitals, and universities, to provide contraception insurance coverage for their employees and students, but allowing a one year exemption for religious institutions.  It has set off an opposition effort from Catholic Bishops, Businesses, Hospitals, and Universities, charging it is a violation of Religious Liberty, and Freedom from Government Intervention, or Violation of Conscience.  President Obama granted the one year exemption as a softening of the Law to find a Compromise with religious groups.  He did so, while assuring greater access to check ups, test screenings, and preventive services, in an effort to keep down spiraling health care costs, and extend insurance coverage diagnosing and dealing with diseases and illnesses early, while seeking to curb health complications and unwanted pregnancies.  With several Catholic religious groups fighting the Mandate by pulling health insurance coverage or filing lawsuits against it, Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., the oldest Catholic higher educational third level institution in the United States, is facing the challenge by staying faithful to Church reaching but also seeking to further the dialogue to reach a permanent compromise between the Church and the Government over the Mandate in the Health Care Law.  The will not provide Birth Control coverage during this year of exemption.    Members of the American Catholic Hierarchy, the Republican Party, and Social Conservatives, are adamantly opposing the Mandate, while the Obama Administration seeks to implement it, but not trample on religious beliefs, yet see that others holding differing views have access to it.  So at least until the General Election and the politics and governance of 2013 and beyond are played out; the Mandate will proceed and simultaneously Catholic institutions and other religious groups opposed to it will continue to avoid being impacted by it in ways contrary to Catholic-Christian beliefs.  One of the ways an acceptable permanent compromise could be achieved in the year ahead is to guarantee that the health insurers, not the employers or institutions, are responsible for covering the cost of contraception. As in the pluralistic, capitalist, democracy, that is the 21st Century United States of America all Catholic institutions are composed of and serve Catholics and non Catholics alike; and the Catholic Church in the USA is comprised of believers who are strongly divided on the practice of contraception. How we can succeed in imposing our official Church teaching on non Catholics or unbelievers, will hardly be achieved.  We must continue to fight the good fight in fidelity to our Catholic-Christian Faith, and be true to furthering the common good of all American citizens by supporting accessibility to health care that puts people, not profits first.  That requires ongoing Dialogue and Compromise that can and will pave the path to discovering a Consensus that serves the greatest good of our citizens and disciples, succeeding beyond the limitations of partisan politics, religious differences, and other special interests............Fr.  Troy