An Update on the Big B File “The Attacks on the Catholic Church for its Defense of Life and Its Protections of People’s Right of Conscious” is the Subject of this Big B File.
As you know by now . . . on January 20th, 2012, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius (a CINO) issued a statement which said, “After evaluating comments, we have decided to add an additional element to the final rule. Nonprofit employers who, based on religious beliefs, do not currently provide contraceptive coverage in their insurance plan, will be provided an additional year, until August 1, 2013, to comply with the new law. Employers wishing to take advantage of the additional year must certify that they qualify for the delayed implementation. This additional year will allow these organizations more time and flexibility to adapt to this new rule.”
All this despite over 1/3 of a million people, organizations and the Catholic Bishops themselves have told the HHS that the HHS Edict violates the first amendment and a number of federal laws . . . including one that has been in every HHS Appropriations bill since 2004. This was just the latest attack on the Catholic Church since Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi attacked the Catholic Church and Catholics like myself, specifically its teaching on Abortion along with its support of bills like the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012, introduced recently by Senator Marco Rubio of Florida (House Version is H.R.3897 sponsored by Representative Steve Chabot of Ohio). I wrote an email to both Missouri Senators, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) (a CINO) and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) was written as follows:
Dear Senator __________,
I am Constituent of yours and a Devout Roman Catholic. The Obama Administration has basically said with the mandate issued last august and finalized on January 20th, 2012 that we Catholics will be compelled either to violate our consciences or to drop health coverage for our employees (and bring about the consequences for all in doing so). As St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson said in his letter to the St. Louis Faithful:
“In so ruling, the Administration has cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our nation’s first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty. And, as a result, unless the rule is overturned, we Catholics will be compelled either to violate our consciences or to drop health coverage for our employees (and bring about the consequences for all in doing so). The Administration’s sole concession was to give nonprofit employers, like hospitals and universities, which do not currently provide such coverage, one year in which to comply.
We believe this new requirement signals a direct attack on our religious freedom. People of faith cannot be made second-class citizens. We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our religious freedom. Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build America’s cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, only to have their posterity stripped of their God-given rights. In generations past, the Church has always counted on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties. I hope and trust she can count on this generation of Catholics to do the same. Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less.”
There is currently a bill in the Senate called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012 (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112s2043is/pdf/BILLS-112s2043is.pdf). As a Constituents of yours and a Roman Catholic, I ask will you stand up for your Catholic constitutiants and the Catholic Church and vote yes for the bill or will you side with President Obama and vote no on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012?
Sincerely Yours,
Mr. Bryan V. Hewing
Ballwin, MO 63021-8813
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I sent the above letter about a week ago and I have not received a reply from neither Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) nor Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), but they have voiced their opinion on the HHS Mandate (according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) . . .
Speaking on the Senate floor this afternoon, Blunt said: “If the administration doesn’t take care of this administratively, I believe it will be taken care of legislatively. When you’ve got bishops, when you’ve got church leaders, when you’ve got people that have spent their lives dedicated to hospitals, schools and other institutions that reflect their faith principles, you can’t just suddenly decide that those don’t matter or they can be changed.”
Sen. Claire McCaskill this afternoon said she is against “putting barriers” in front of women.
“As someone who believes very much that we should be preventing aboritons, I think we should try very hard to give women universal access to birth control without going into their pockets,” she told reporters.
The Jan. 20 guidelines require employers to cover contraception as part of their health plans, including the so-called morning after pill and sterilization measures.
McCaskill, D-Mo., referred to the morning after pill in defending the rule. “As someone who is has spent a lot of time in the courtroom prosecuting rape cases, I think it’s a pill that should be available to women. If they want to access it, it’s legal in this country.”
In an interview later, McCaskill deflected a question about whether the uproar had caused political problems for the Obama administration.
“I think it’s a tough one either way,” she said. “I think any religion should be able to profess their beliefs as to whether or not people should be able to use birth control. But ultimately this decision doesn’t impact their ability to do that. It just says, as part of the health care policy, there should be access to birth control.”
– McCaskill, Blunt divided on White House contraception mandate (St. Louis Post-Dispatch [By Bill Lambrecht (Tuesday, February 7, 2012
4:00 pm)]
Senator Roy Blunt talked about the HHS mandate and the administration’s attack on the Rights of Conscience on the Senate Floor recently, which made national headlines as well. Sen. Claire McCaskill and others like her are what the Big B Files refers to as CINOs (Catholics in Name Only). CINOs claim to be devout Catholics, but outright reject church teaching especially on the moral teachings of the church. Furthermore, By taking the positions she has on the issue of abortion and other issues of life, Sen. Claire McCaskill cannot receive Holy Communion (The Body and Blood of Christ himself) in accordance to the following Code of Canon Laws of the Catholic Church . . .
Can. 915 Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.
Can. 916 A person who is conscious of grave sin is not to celebrate Mass or receive the body of the Lord without previous sacramental confession unless there is a grave reason and there is no opportunity to confess; in this case the person is to remember the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition which includes the resolution of confessing as soon as possible.
– Code of Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church (Vatican Website)
If she were really a devout Roman Catholic, Sen. Claire McCaskill would not only renounce her support and advocacy of Abortion and other positions she has taken against the Church’s teachings on the life issues along with ending the attacks she has done to the Church on the life issues, but fully embrace and promote the Church teachings when it comes to the issues of life . . . including Abortion. This is just the latest in a long line of open and hostile attacks on the Catholic Church by the Obama Administration that the Big B Files submits has shown an utter hatred of the Roman Catholic Church because of its long held teachings on abortion (referenced above).
As the Big B Files said previously . . . After the HHS Edict came out, VERY Strong reaction came from Catholics everywhere including the Catholic Bishops. As Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan points out in his Wall Street Journal Op-Ed Article, “Scarcely two weeks ago, in its Hosanna-Tabor decision upholding the right of churches to make ministerial hiring decisions, the Supreme Court unanimously and enthusiastically reaffirmed these longstanding and foundational principles of religious freedom. The court made clear that they include the right of religious institutions to control their internal affairs.”
At 9:17am on February 9, 2012, the Eternal Word Television Network, Inc. (
On the afternoon of February 10, 2012, President Obama announced a “modification” to the HHS Mandate. When you look into it, the HHS Mandate “Modification” has actually made things worse . . . NOT BETTER. According to the EWTN News Story posted today. . .
On Feb. 10, President Barack Obama announced a new policy that requires many religious employers to contract with health insurance companies that provide contraception free of charge.
Under the new policy, religious employers will not have to directly purchase contraceptives, but will be required to pay for health care plans from insurance companies that offer them without cost.
The policy was announced in response to the massive outcry against the Obama administration’s earlier mandate, which would require virtually all employers to purchase health insurance plans that include contraception – including early abortion drugs – and sterilization at no cost to their employees.
According to the EWTN News Story and from what the Big B Files could determine, the Catholic Church itself is no longer exempt under the modification because the Church provides insurance to its employees via a outside insurance provider. For Example (from what the Big B Files understands), the Archdiocese of St. Louis provides health coverage for the priests, Deacons, and all other Archdiocesan employees at the Archdiocese and at the Parishes through UnitedHealthcare . . .which would NOT be exempt from the “Modified” HHS Mandate. EWTN has aired a number of Broadcasts on the HHS Mandate and/or the EWTN Lawsuit to overturn it. The EWTN shows (on YouTube) are as follows:
– The World Over – 02-09-12
o NEWT GINGRICH, former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, on his faith and run for President of the United States; FR. ROBERT SIRICO of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, on the week’s Catholic and cultural news.; REP. CHRIS SMITH on the HHS mandates for contraception/sterilization services in the new health care law and their implications for faith groups. ; MICHAEL WARSAW, President & CEO of EWTN, on the Catholic TV Network’s lawsuit against HHS over the health care mandate.
§ http://www.youtube.com/embed/CKL7GTzUXx8
– The World Over feat Michael Warsaw on EWTN’s HHS Lawsuit – Feb 10, 2012
o Segment from the 2-9- 2012 The World Over.
§ http://www.youtube.com/embed/lfHoZv_tyVA
– EWTN Live with Fr Mitch Pacwa – 2012-02-08
o EWTN Live – Fr. Mitch Pacwa, SJ – Peter Breen – First Ammendment Rights.
§ http://www.youtube.com/embed/6xHXO6ESnZg
– Sunday Night Prime with Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR (February 12, 2012)
o Cardinal-Designate Timothy Dolan comments on the HHS contraception mandate. First hour-long interview with Cardinal-Designate Timothy Dolan (a Ballwin (STL), MO Native since the controversy broke out January 20, 2012. The show is scheduled to air this Sunday 7/6 Central on EWTN. .
Continuous updates on the battle between the Catholic Church and the Obama Administration over the HHS Mandate and other attacks on our religious freedom on the Big B Files’ Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/#!/bigbfiles. And the Obama Administration’s War on the Catholic Church still continues to this day!
What all this boils down to is that the Obama Administration is attacking the Catholic Church and Catholics like myself (not to mention other people of faith) while at the same time violating the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” And that is the Big B Files. Click on the comments link below and let me know what you think . . . . I’m Bryan Hewing.