This article at the National Catholic Register should give every bishop in America heartburn. They have whipped up people to think that the government is just waiting to rob us Catholics of our religious liberty, that the HHS mandate is evil incarnate, even though they refuse to say that it amounts to illicit material cooperation with evil, and the USCCB point man on the issue, Archbishop William Lori, publishes tendentious statements without correction. Why should we be surprised that the Register would publish an article calling on the bishops to "kill" the Catholic Health Association because it dared to say that it can live with the accommodation offered by the administration?
This article is an opportunity for Cardinal Dolan, who has a long-standing relationship with EWTN, which now owns the Register, to step up to the plate. I am sure that the cardinal is looking forward to November, when he steps down as USCCB president. He could do the Church a favor by speaking up now, before he heads for the exit, to remind the hot heads that CHA and its members are loyal sons and daughters of the Church, that they bring the healing ministry of Jesus to the world, and that it is un-Christian, as well as unkind, to cast such vile aspersions at them. Saying this much will not "harm" the lawsuits. It will, however, help to heal the Church.
