Will the Catholic Bishops Decide How You Die or Whether You Live? – Truth

(Image: Modern hospital and emergency sign via Shutterstock)What happens when religious institutions get to manage public funds, absorb secular hospitals, and put theology above medical science and individual patient conscience? Religious freedom suffers.

In 2010, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, an elderly woman was rushed to a local hospital called St. John. She had suffered a massive stroke and could no longer eat, drink or speak. Mercifully, she was one of the growing percent of Americans who have prepared for such an eventuality by writing an end-of-life directive. Hers said that said she did not want artificial hydration or nutrition if she wasn’t going to recover. Unfortunately, St. John is a facility where the directives of the Catholic bishops take precedence over the directives of individual patients, and one such directive orders hospitals to feed and hydrate end-of-life patients whether they want it or not.

Americans would do well to consider what happens when theology dictates health care.

In the official language of the bishops, St. John is a “Catholic health care ministry,” their term for all Church-affiliated hospitals and clinics. Catholic health care ministries are publicly licensed institutions intended to serve the general public. They are highly subsidized by public dollars. To fund them, the Church uses a variety of public revenue streams including Medicare, Medicaid, county appropriations, federal dollars allocated through the 1946 Hospital Survey and Construction Act, and tax-exempt government bonds. As with any hospital, additional revenues come from insurance payments and investments, with the end result that the Catholic Church contributes less than 5 percent of the funds flowing through their hospitals and clinics. And yet the bishops place theological restrictions on care for all patients and sometimes forbid providers from telling patients that treatment options exist elsewhere.

According to MergerWatch, Catholic control of health dollars and hospital facilities is on the rise across the United States. In Washington State, for example, if all currently proposed mergers go through, almost half of hospital beds will lie in the hands of religious institutions by the end of 2013. Across the US, as Catholic systems such as Peace Health and Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) quietly absorb secular hospitals, the bishops are fighting in court for the religious equivalent of corporate personhood, claiming that the constitution gives them institutional conscience rights that trump patient choice. Meanwhile, Catholic-owned pharmacies are suing for the right to deny services; and other Catholic-owned business are demanding (and winning) religious exemptions from health insurance obligations.

In an effort to standardize the rules of Catholic institutions and the advice that priests give laypeople, the bishops have created what they call “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care,” called ERDs for short. When secular and religious institutions merge, the bishops’ directives often restrict services in both. Patients may not realize that a once secular institution named Swedish or Highline is now subject to theology and could impose religious beliefs at odds with those of the patient. Following mergers, changes often are gradual, occurring slowly as staff leave and are replaced with believers, which makes the shift even harder for patients to detect. (Religious hospitals are exempt from non-discriminatory employment practices, somewhat remarkable given that so much of their funding is public.) Hospital administrators may state that they do not interfere in the doctor-patient relationship while at the same time advertising for staff who are “deeply familiar” with the bishops directives.

From a consumer standpoint, one problem with putting religion rather than science in charge of health care is that patients may not know they are being denied the full range of medically appropriate options. They may have no idea when institutional rules prevent doctors and nurses from honoring end-of-life wishes or discussing services that are available in secular settings – services like contraception, abortion, tubal ligation, vasectomy, fertility treatment, or death with dignity. For example, one woman tells of being diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy at a religious hospital. She was advised that she needed to have her fallopian tube removed. Fortunately, she consulted her smart phone and realized that elsewhere she could simply obtain a medication to end her nonviable pregnancy. The medication is safer and leaves fertility intact, but the Catholic directives treat this as a direct abortion, while the surgery (which damages long term fertility) kills the fetus indirectly and so is acceptable.

Other countries where Catholic theology limits health options offer a dire warning of what might happen here if the Church had an equal hold on the levers of power. In El Salvador, Catholic theology was written into law in 1998, banning all abortions, even those intended to save the mother. As a consequence, a 22-year-old mother named Beatriz, who carries a nonviable fetus, lies in a hospital bed with her kidneys failing, hoping to be granted an exception by El Salvador’s Supreme Court. She has been waiting for over a month. In Catholic Ireland last October, a young dentist, Savita Halappanavar, died after being refused an abortion.

In an ironic twist, the extremity of Catholic directives leads many people to believe that they couldn’t possibly be implemented here. Consider the case of Beatriz. She is the mother of a young child. Her fetus is anencephalic, meaning it has no brain and never will be a person under any circumstance. (Note: Somewhere between 60 and 80 percent of human fertilized eggs self-destruct naturally before a full-term gestation, most before a woman knows she is pregnant, and many because they are defective.) In other words, the Salvadorian anti-abortion law risks the life of a young mother for an incomplete fetus that is a normal failed reproductive product rather than a potential child. For someone who thinks that morality is about well-being, this just sounds crazy. Of course, this could never happen in the United States, right? You may be astounded to learn that a Phoenix nun was excommunicated and her hospital was forcibly disaffiliated from the Catholic Church for allowing an abortion under similarly hopeless circumstances.

In Ireland, after Halappanavar’s unnecessary death, thousands of men and women demanded medical services based on scientific evidence and individual conscience. Halappanavar became the tragic face of an international movement. Even so, given the power of religious institutions and traditions, legal change in Ireland is likely to be minimal. The largely Catholic Irish Medical Association has declined to request abortion rights even in cases of incest, rape and nonviable fetal anomalies. Currently Irish law allows abortion only when a mother’s life is threatened, which is not good enough for a case like Halappanavar’s. A leading obstetrician testified that Halappanavar probably would have survived if she had gotten an abortion during the first three days of her hospital stay. But at that time, there was not a “real and substantial threat to her life.” By the time she met the legal criteria, it was too late.

Patients count on their doctors to know and suggest their best options to protect health and well-being. But as medical options increase, especially at the beginning and end of life, the range of services excluded for theological reasons also increases. Catholic “ethicists” devote millions of dollars to analyzing biomedical technologies in the pipeline and then advocating policy based on theological priorities. They block certain lines of research and prevent affiliated hospitals from participating in clinical studies that require participants to be on contraception, for example a study of a cancer treatment that might cause fetal defects. Procedures opposed by the theologians are likely to be absent altogether from patient-doctor conversations.

Some patient advocates say that mandatory disclosure is part of the solution: Pharmacies that refuse to fill some prescriptions should post the fact that they are not full-service. Church-run abortion diversion centers known as crisis pregnancy centers should post that they are not medical providers. Treatment consent forms should list the scientifically and medically accepted practices that a doctor or hospital refuses to provide so that patients know that these services are available elsewhere. Conversely, providers who sign onto a Patients’ Bill of Rights promising to base care only on medical science and patient conscience could get the equivalent of a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.

But disclosure alone won’t ensure state-of-the-art health care for many Americans, especially those living in small towns or rural settings. Sometimes one clinic or pharmacy serves a wide area, or all nearby services are managed by the same religious institution. In these cases, a woman with a painful and life-threatening ectopic pregnancy might not be able just to get in her car and drive to another clinic. Denial of service hits low-income communities hardest because members often have less flexible time off work and more restricted access to transportation and child care. The right of religious doctors and institutions to deny services obstructs the right of patients to receive timely care that meets normal medical practice standards, which are designed to maximize well-being.

That is because Catholic theology isn’t necessarily about well-being; it is about submitting to the perceived will of God. Sometimes these two align, and sometimes they don’t. To serve God’s will, Catholic theologians attempt to derive moral principles that are about the inherent goodness or evil of certain beliefs and behaviors, regardless of their consequences. In this way of thinking, contraceptives or abortions should not be provided because they are “intrinsically evil,” even when contraception or abortion may save a woman’s life.

To make matters worse, Catholic theology values passive submission to harm when it is believed to serve Catholic practice or faith. Saints are heralded for their commitment to theological principle even in the face of outrageous and foreseeable outcomes, including martyrdom. In fact, Catholic theology sees pain as having positive soul-purifying benefits. This is called redemptive suffering. In the ERDs, it is offered up as an alternative for patients whose unbearable pain leads them to seek death with dignity:

Dying patients who request euthanasia should receive loving care, psychological and spiritual support, and appropriate remedies for pain and other symptoms so that they can live with dignity until the time of natural death…. Patients experiencing suffering that cannot be alleviated should be helped to appreciate the Christian understanding of redemptive suffering.

Former nun Mary Johnson (author of An Unquenchable Thirst) spent 20 years working with Mother Teresa’s organization, the Missionaries of Charity, which has been accused of providing substandard treatment and pain management. She explains the sometimes abysmal conditions in their facilities thus:

Most people today would say that we help the poor by helping them out of poverty. That was never Mother Teresa’s intention. Mother Teresa often told us that as Missionaries of Charity we did not serve the poor to improve their lot, but because we were serving Jesus, who said that whenever service was rendered to one of the least, it was rendered to him. Jesus promised eternal life to those who fed the hungry and clothed the naked.

The point, in other words, is not necessarily to solve the problem but simply to perform service. Ultimately, it isn’t about real world outcomes for the person on the receiving end, but about eternal outcomes for the person on the giving end. The difference is important. And although Johnson doesn’t mention it, the passage she quotes mentions the ill as well as the hungry and naked. The Jesus of the gospel promises eternal life to those who feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit prisoners and care for the ill. When religion and healing are at odds, the way to get to heaven is to offer theologically principled care, even when more compassionate options are available.

This difference in objectives seems like reason enough to separate religion from medicine. Thanks to science, fertility treatment has come a long way from the mandrakes and dove blood prescribed in the Bible. Victims of sexual assault now have options other than being forced to bear rape babies (also the Biblical solution). As we face death, we have alternatives to convincing ourselves that suffering is redemptive. Do we really want theology at the helm of our biggest hospital and clinic systems?

If not, it may be time for ordinary men and women to speak our minds. In Washington State, where the battle over Catholic hospital mergers is heating up, the state constitution specifically prohibits the use of public funds to support religious institutions. Despite that prohibition, one district actually has a line-item in the property tax code to subsidize a Peace Health facility, leaving the local community with no secular alternative. With the Peace Health clinic newly open, the local bishop has already tried to block the now-Catholic system from providing lab work for Planned Parenthood, as was done in the past. Legal challenges may play out in court thanks to a patients’ rights campaign by the ACLU and grassroots groups, but the broader question is this:

When it comes to medical options, whose beliefs count: the bishops’, or the patient’s? Who gets to say whether one woman is forced to incubate a pregnancy gone wrong or another is force-fed at the end of life? Whose version of god gets to dictate how you live and how you die? 

Will the Catholic Bishops Decide How You Die or Whether You Live? – Truthout – Truth

(Image: Modern hospital and emergency sign via Shutterstock)What happens when religious institutions get to manage public funds, absorb secular hospitals, and put theology above medical science and individual patient conscience? Religious freedom suffers.

In 2010, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, an elderly woman was rushed to a local hospital called St. John. She had suffered a massive stroke and could no longer eat, drink or speak. Mercifully, she was one of the growing percent of Americans who have prepared for such an eventuality by writing an end-of-life directive. Hers said that said she did not want artificial hydration or nutrition if she wasn’t going to recover. Unfortunately, St. John is a facility where the directives of the Catholic bishops take precedence over the directives of individual patients, and one such directive orders hospitals to feed and hydrate end-of-life patients whether they want it or not.

Americans would do well to consider what happens when theology dictates health care.

In the official language of the bishops, St. John is a “Catholic health care ministry,” their term for all Church-affiliated hospitals and clinics. Catholic health care ministries are publicly licensed institutions intended to serve the general public. They are highly subsidized by public dollars. To fund them, the Church uses a variety of public revenue streams including Medicare, Medicaid, county appropriations, federal dollars allocated through the 1946 Hospital Survey and Construction Act, and tax-exempt government bonds. As with any hospital, additional revenues come from insurance payments and investments, with the end result that the Catholic Church contributes less than 5 percent of the funds flowing through their hospitals and clinics. And yet the bishops place theological restrictions on care for all patients and sometimes forbid providers from telling patients that treatment options exist elsewhere.

According to MergerWatch, Catholic control of health dollars and hospital facilities is on the rise across the United States. In Washington State, for example, if all currently proposed mergers go through, almost half of hospital beds will lie in the hands of religious institutions by the end of 2013. Across the US, as Catholic systems such as Peace Health and Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) quietly absorb secular hospitals, the bishops are fighting in court for the religious equivalent of corporate personhood, claiming that the constitution gives them institutional conscience rights that trump patient choice. Meanwhile, Catholic-owned pharmacies are suing for the right to deny services; and other Catholic-owned business are demanding (and winning) religious exemptions from health insurance obligations.

In an effort to standardize the rules of Catholic institutions and the advice that priests give laypeople, the bishops have created what they call “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care,” called ERDs for short. When secular and religious institutions merge, the bishops’ directives often restrict services in both. Patients may not realize that a once secular institution named Swedish or Highline is now subject to theology and could impose religious beliefs at odds with those of the patient. Following mergers, changes often are gradual, occurring slowly as staff leave and are replaced with believers, which makes the shift even harder for patients to detect. (Religious hospitals are exempt from non-discriminatory employment practices, somewhat remarkable given that so much of their funding is public.) Hospital administrators may state that they do not interfere in the doctor-patient relationship while at the same time advertising for staff who are “deeply familiar” with the bishops directives.

From a consumer standpoint, one problem with putting religion rather than science in charge of health care is that patients may not know they are being denied the full range of medically appropriate options. They may have no idea when institutional rules prevent doctors and nurses from honoring end-of-life wishes or discussing services that are available in secular settings – services like contraception, abortion, tubal ligation, vasectomy, fertility treatment, or death with dignity. For example, one woman tells of being diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy at a religious hospital. She was advised that she needed to have her fallopian tube removed. Fortunately, she consulted her smart phone and realized that elsewhere she could simply obtain a medication to end her nonviable pregnancy. The medication is safer and leaves fertility intact, but the Catholic directives treat this as a direct abortion, while the surgery (which damages long term fertility) kills the fetus indirectly and so is acceptable.

Other countries where Catholic theology limits health options offer a dire warning of what might happen here if the Church had an equal hold on the levers of power. In El Salvador, Catholic theology was written into law in 1998, banning all abortions, even those intended to save the mother. As a consequence, a 22-year-old mother named Beatriz, who carries a nonviable fetus, lies in a hospital bed with her kidneys failing, hoping to be granted an exception by El Salvador’s Supreme Court. She has been waiting for over a month. In Catholic Ireland last October, a young dentist, Savita Halappanavar, died after being refused an abortion.

In an ironic twist, the extremity of Catholic directives leads many people to believe that they couldn’t possibly be implemented here. Consider the case of Beatriz. She is the mother of a young child. Her fetus is anencephalic, meaning it has no brain and never will be a person under any circumstance. (Note: Somewhere between 60 and 80 percent of human fertilized eggs self-destruct naturally before a full-term gestation, most before a woman knows she is pregnant, and many because they are defective.) In other words, the Salvadorian anti-abortion law risks the life of a young mother for an incomplete fetus that is a normal failed reproductive product rather than a potential child. For someone who thinks that morality is about well-being, this just sounds crazy. Of course, this could never happen in the United States, right? You may be astounded to learn that a Phoenix nun was excommunicated and her hospital was forcibly disaffiliated from the Catholic Church for allowing an abortion under similarly hopeless circumstances.

In Ireland, after Halappanavar’s unnecessary death, thousands of men and women demanded medical services based on scientific evidence and individual conscience. Halappanavar became the tragic face of an international movement. Even so, given the power of religious institutions and traditions, legal change in Ireland is likely to be minimal. The largely Catholic Irish Medical Association has declined to request abortion rights even in cases of incest, rape and nonviable fetal anomalies. Currently Irish law allows abortion only when a mother’s life is threatened, which is not good enough for a case like Halappanavar’s. A leading obstetrician testified that Halappanavar probably would have survived if she had gotten an abortion during the first three days of her hospital stay. But at that time, there was not a “real and substantial threat to her life.” By the time she met the legal criteria, it was too late.

Patients count on their doctors to know and suggest their best options to protect health and well-being. But as medical options increase, especially at the beginning and end of life, the range of services excluded for theological reasons also increases. Catholic “ethicists” devote millions of dollars to analyzing biomedical technologies in the pipeline and then advocating policy based on theological priorities. They block certain lines of research and prevent affiliated hospitals from participating in clinical studies that require participants to be on contraception, for example a study of a cancer treatment that might cause fetal defects. Procedures opposed by the theologians are likely to be absent altogether from patient-doctor conversations.

Some patient advocates say that mandatory disclosure is part of the solution: Pharmacies that refuse to fill some prescriptions should post the fact that they are not full-service. Church-run abortion diversion centers known as crisis pregnancy centers should post that they are not medical providers. Treatment consent forms should list the scientifically and medically accepted practices that a doctor or hospital refuses to provide so that patients know that these services are available elsewhere. Conversely, providers who sign onto a Patients’ Bill of Rights promising to base care only on medical science and patient conscience could get the equivalent of a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.

But disclosure alone won’t ensure state-of-the-art health care for many Americans, especially those living in small towns or rural settings. Sometimes one clinic or pharmacy serves a wide area, or all nearby services are managed by the same religious institution. In these cases, a woman with a painful and life-threatening ectopic pregnancy might not be able just to get in her car and drive to another clinic. Denial of service hits low-income communities hardest because members often have less flexible time off work and more restricted access to transportation and child care. The right of religious doctors and institutions to deny services obstructs the right of patients to receive timely care that meets normal medical practice standards, which are designed to maximize well-being.

That is because Catholic theology isn’t necessarily about well-being; it is about submitting to the perceived will of God. Sometimes these two align, and sometimes they don’t. To serve God’s will, Catholic theologians attempt to derive moral principles that are about the inherent goodness or evil of certain beliefs and behaviors, regardless of their consequences. In this way of thinking, contraceptives or abortions should not be provided because they are “intrinsically evil,” even when contraception or abortion may save a woman’s life.

To make matters worse, Catholic theology values passive submission to harm when it is believed to serve Catholic practice or faith. Saints are heralded for their commitment to theological principle even in the face of outrageous and foreseeable outcomes, including martyrdom. In fact, Catholic theology sees pain as having positive soul-purifying benefits. This is called redemptive suffering. In the ERDs, it is offered up as an alternative for patients whose unbearable pain leads them to seek death with dignity:

Dying patients who request euthanasia should receive loving care, psychological and spiritual support, and appropriate remedies for pain and other symptoms so that they can live with dignity until the time of natural death…. Patients experiencing suffering that cannot be alleviated should be helped to appreciate the Christian understanding of redemptive suffering.

Former nun Mary Johnson (author of An Unquenchable Thirst) spent 20 years working with Mother Teresa’s organization, the Missionaries of Charity, which has been accused of providing substandard treatment and pain management. She explains the sometimes abysmal conditions in their facilities thus:

Most people today would say that we help the poor by helping them out of poverty. That was never Mother Teresa’s intention. Mother Teresa often told us that as Missionaries of Charity we did not serve the poor to improve their lot, but because we were serving Jesus, who said that whenever service was rendered to one of the least, it was rendered to him. Jesus promised eternal life to those who fed the hungry and clothed the naked.

The point, in other words, is not necessarily to solve the problem but simply to perform service. Ultimately, it isn’t about real world outcomes for the person on the receiving end, but about eternal outcomes for the person on the giving end. The difference is important. And although Johnson doesn’t mention it, the passage she quotes mentions the ill as well as the hungry and naked. The Jesus of the gospel promises eternal life to those who feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit prisoners and care for the ill. When religion and healing are at odds, the way to get to heaven is to offer theologically principled care, even when more compassionate options are available.

This difference in objectives seems like reason enough to separate religion from medicine. Thanks to science, fertility treatment has come a long way from the mandrakes and dove blood prescribed in the Bible. Victims of sexual assault now have options other than being forced to bear rape babies (also the Biblical solution). As we face death, we have alternatives to convincing ourselves that suffering is redemptive. Do we really want theology at the helm of our biggest hospital and clinic systems?

If not, it may be time for ordinary men and women to speak our minds. In Washington State, where the battle over Catholic hospital mergers is heating up, the state constitution specifically prohibits the use of public funds to support religious institutions. Despite that prohibition, one district actually has a line-item in the property tax code to subsidize a Peace Health facility, leaving the local community with no secular alternative. With the Peace Health clinic newly open, the local bishop has already tried to block the now-Catholic system from providing lab work for Planned Parenthood, as was done in the past. Legal challenges may play out in court thanks to a patients’ rights campaign by the ACLU and grassroots groups, but the broader question is this:

When it comes to medical options, whose beliefs count: the bishops’, or the patient’s? Who gets to say whether one woman is forced to incubate a pregnancy gone wrong or another is force-fed at the end of life? Whose version of god gets to dictate how you live and how you die? 

Keeping the Faith on College Campuses

LINCOLN, Neb. — Prepare for a new chapter in keeping the faith with college-bound Catholic youth: A new wave of Newman student housing is hitting public universities in 2013, and campus ministers say it could mark a real breakthrough in evangelizing the college scene.

Catholic bishops and campus ministers are taking up the ideas of 19th-century Blessed John Henry Newman in addressing the serious problem of the loss of Catholics to the faith during college.

“Many make the wrong assumption that young Catholics lose their faith because of intellectual reasons,” said Adam Koll, director of the Diocese of Corpus Christi’s Office of Youth Ministry in Texas. “They are leaving because they are losing the support to live out their faith.”

Nearly 30% of Catholics in the Millennial generation (young adults currently aged 18-24) have left the faith, according to a 2012 study from Georgetown University’s Berkley Center. The study shows that Catholic youth are leaving the faith at a higher rate than other religions and are helping fill the ranks of the 25% of Millennials who don’t identify with any religion.

But Catholics have broken ground on three large-scale student-housing projects at public universities that will bring hundreds of students living together in a Catholic environment served by nearby Newman Centers — all based on Blessed [John Henry] Newman’s idea that Catholics should live and learn together in community at secular universities.

“Having and developing a community at the university helps give young people an experience of the faith,” Bishop Michael Mulvey of Corpus Christi said. “It gives them a chance to experience the word in practice. Being together, in communion with each other, strengthens the soul.”

Most Catholics attend public universities. Five million Catholics attend secular colleges, according to the Catholic Campus Ministry Association, while just 500,000 Catholics seek their degrees at Catholic institutions.

Both Bishop Mulvey’s Corpus Christi Diocese and Bishop John Noonan’s Diocese of Orlando, Fla., broke ground in 2012 on faith-based housing sites that include brand-new Newman Centers and chapels. The Newman Center dorm at Texas AM in Kingsville will house nearly 300 students and could expand in the future to house some 900 students. The Newman dorm at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne will serve 140 students. The Newman Student Housing Fund, LLC is building both dorms, which will open in August 2013.

Illinois Example

“If we could build large-scale housing for our Catholic students at public universities, we would see a transformed Church,” said Msgr. Gregory Ketcham, chaplain at St. John’s Catholic Newman Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

St. John’s first pioneered the idea of building student housing for Catholics at public universities in 1927. St. John’s Newman Hall houses close to 600 students — most of them are Catholics who come to college with a strong faith — and campus ministers freely walk the halls. Msgr. Ketcham said the St. John’s model allows his team to engage the students on site and provide them easy access to confession, Mass and retreat programs.

“When you have that housing element — where students can live with one another and form relationships — you can really help them give their hearts to Jesus,” Msgr. Ketcham said. St. John’s turns out an average of 10 vocations to the priesthood or religious life per year.

Ryan Mattingly, a first-year seminarian for the Diocese of Peoria, Ill., said he entered Newman Hall a lukewarm Catholic and graduated from the university in 2012 with a renewed faith, having found his vocation.

“I started living out my Catholic faith for the first time in my life, really,” Mattingly said. Friendships and the welcoming environment of Newman Hall inspired him to rediscover the faith, sacraments and prayer and give up a party lifestyle. “It gave substance to my faith — just living out the faith in an everyday manner at a large, secular university, where the faith isn’t that encouraged.”

‘Greek’ Catholic Students

The Newman Center at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln is trailblazing a housing model that could help campus ministries break into the Greek community at secular universities.

Under the direction of Father Robert Matya, chaplain for the UNL Newman Center, the Phi Kappa Theta fraternity (founded in 2005) and Pi Alpha Chi sorority (founded in 2012) are challenging the Animal House mentality with a Newman-based idea of Greek living — where Catholics can live, learn and grow in their faith and evangelize others.

Father Matya said the vast majority of UNL students live in fraternities or sororities, so it made sense to build a Catholic community at UNL on the Greek model.

“If you are 18 and come to college and you want to stay on the straight and narrow, you do that by finding other (like-minded) friends,” Father Matya said.

The fraternity and sorority houses will serve 120 residents (60 residents per house) when complete. The Phi Kappa Theta house will open its doors in August 2013. A Newman Center and chapel built in the English-Gothic style will go up in 2014. The sorority house for Pi Alpha Chi is projected to open in August 2015. The chapel construction just got under way. The last Masses at the former church were the Easter vigil and Easter morning Masses on March 30 and 31.

Already, the fraternity that made its unofficial motto “Be a beacon, not a bunker” of the Catholic faith is helping other Phi Kappa Theta chapters renew their Catholic identity.

“We know other chapters around the country are now modeling their recruitment and operations after us,” said Matt Litt, a UNL 2009 graduate and founder of the UNL chapter.

“From the beginning of our discussion to expand our facilities at the Newman Center, the focus has always been to serve the students in such a way that they may encounter Christ and live their lives in union with him,” said Father Robert Matya, pastor and chaplain, in a March 28 statement. “To meet that goal, it became obvious early on that we needed a larger chapel to accommodate the many students who attend various liturgies at the Newman Center. And so it is with great excitement and joy that the time has come for us to begin construction of this chapel. I am grateful to almighty God and to all of our benefactors, who, through their encouragement and support, have brought us to this moment. I ask for your continued prayers, that, as we finalize the plans, we will not only build a chapel that will accommodate more students, but, more importantly, will foster their encounter with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” 

Raising Funds

For campus ministers and dioceses, raising funds provides an enormous obstacle. For some, the Newman Student Housing Fund offers an option, as the private equity company builds, owns and operates the faith-based student housing when it is finished, leaving the formation of student life up to campus ministries.

Others might follow the route taken by UNL’s Newman Center, which launched a $25-million capital campaign and has already raised $10.6 million from 1,700 donors, according to Jude Werner, the Newman Center’s director of development. Werner said the Diocese of Lincoln provided seed money to begin housing construction, which will be repaid in installments. Once the housing is complete, he said, the rent collection will allow the Newman Center to turn a profit that will go to maintain the site and fund future expansion.

University officials say that the faith-based housing is a win-win that helps relieve crowding on campus and helps prospective students chose them over academic competitors.

“We compete with a lot of schools, including some private Catholic schools, so it really helps us in recruitment and retention of students,” said Juan Franco, UNL’s vice chancellor for student affairs. “We’re seeing students themselves becoming a little more religious, and having that kind of religious-based community is attractive to them.”

Ultimately, the Church’s long-range hope for building a living-learning Catholic community at secular campuses is to put Christ back in the center of public life, said Bishop Mulvey.

“It’s a start to building a better world of justice and peace,” he said. “I’m very hopeful and confident about what we are doing. I’m looking forward to seeing it evolve, and, hopefully, I’ll get to see it continue to grow from heaven.”

Peter Jesserer Smith writes from Rochester, New York.

Catholic Church Holds Annual Red Mass For Government Leaders

Updated By Garin Flowers:
March 20, 2013

Lifelong Catholic Peggy Clark wouldn’t miss this day for anything.

She’s a part of hundreds that attended a special church service honoring state politicians.

“We do a whole lot of praying for them,” Clark said.

In fact, she attends church almost every day, making this day even more special.

“It is to show the unity of our church with those of all the legislature, no matter what faith they are,” she said.

This is all a part of the historical red mass. Catholic bishops from all over Florida travel to Tallahassee and have a service at the Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More.

“It’s the opportunity for the legislative, executive and judicial branches to come together and the bishops of Florida pray over them,” said Sheila Hopkins with the Florida Catholic Conference.

The red mass celebration has been passed down 800 years. Priests and judges wore red robes to signify their willingness to defend the truth, even at the cost of shedding blood.

Wednesday’s ceremony makes it the 38th annual in Tallahassee.

“The world we live in is ever changing and issues change, but we still need God to help us and that’s why we come together to pray,” Hopkins said.

As for Clark, she has a message for the state’s leaders.

“Vote your heart, vote your belief and forget about the party,” she said.

Press Release: Florida Catholic Conference

38th Annual Red Mass to be celebrated March 20 in Tallahassee Catholic Mass participants pray for divine inspiration and guidance for those serving in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, and for members of the legal profession in Florida.

Who: Catholic bishops of Florida, members of the cabinet and executive branch, legislators, judges, attorneys, state agency officials and members of the community. Congregants are Catholic and non-Catholic. Lectors / Readers State Senator David Simmons, District 10, Altamonte Springs State Representative Jeanette M. Nuñez, District 119, Miami Homilist Bishop Gregory L. Parkes, Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee Bishops of Florida / Mass Celebrants Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami; Bishop Robert N. Lynch of St. Petersburg; Bishop Gerald M. Barbarito of Palm Beach; Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice (will not be present at Mass due to health reasons); Bishop John G. Noonan of Orlando; Bishop Felipe J. Estévez of St. Augustine; and Bishop Gregory L. Parkes, Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee.

When: Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 6:00 p.m. A reception immediately follows.

Where: Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More, 900 W. Tennessee Street, Tallahassee

Background: The Red Mass of the Holy Spirit, a nearly 800 year old tradition, originated in France in the 13th century as a service in which God was called upon to guide lawyers and judges in their pursuit of justice. The tradition soon spread to England where, during the reign of King Edward I, the entire Bench and Bar would mark the opening of each term of court by attending a Mass together.

In those services, the priests, as well as the judges of the High Court, wore red robes to signify their willingness to defend the truth inspired by the Holy Spirit, even at the cost of shedding one’s blood. Thus, the celebration became popularly known as the “Red Mass.”

Red Masses are celebrated throughout Florida and the United States at various times during the year. In Tallahassee, the Red Mass is scheduled annually during Catholic Days at the Capitol.

The Florida Catholic Conference is an agency of the Catholic Bishops of Florida. It speaks for the Church in matters of public policy and serves as liaison to the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. The archbishop and bishops of the seven (arch)dioceses in Florida constitute its board of directors.

38th Annual Red Mass For Government Leaders

Press Release: Florida Catholic Conference

38th Annual Red Mass to be celebrated March 20 in Tallahassee Catholic Mass participants pray for divine inspiration and guidance for those serving in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, and for members of the legal profession in Florida.

Who: Catholic bishops of Florida, members of the cabinet and executive branch, legislators, judges, attorneys, state agency officials and members of the community. Congregants are Catholic and non-Catholic. Lectors / Readers State Senator David Simmons, District 10, Altamonte Springs State Representative Jeanette M. Nuñez, District 119, Miami Homilist Bishop Gregory L. Parkes, Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee Bishops of Florida / Mass Celebrants Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami; Bishop Robert N. Lynch of St. Petersburg; Bishop Gerald M. Barbarito of Palm Beach; Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice (will not be present at Mass due to health reasons); Bishop John G. Noonan of Orlando; Bishop Felipe J. Estévez of St. Augustine; and Bishop Gregory L. Parkes, Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee.

When: Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 6:00 p.m. A reception immediately follows.

Where: Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More, 900 W. Tennessee Street, Tallahassee

Background: The Red Mass of the Holy Spirit, a nearly 800 year old tradition, originated in France in the 13th century as a service in which God was called upon to guide lawyers and judges in their pursuit of justice. The tradition soon spread to England where, during the reign of King Edward I, the entire Bench and Bar would mark the opening of each term of court by attending a Mass together.

In those services, the priests, as well as the judges of the High Court, wore red robes to signify their willingness to defend the truth inspired by the Holy Spirit, even at the cost of shedding one’s blood. Thus, the celebration became popularly known as the “Red Mass.”

Red Masses are celebrated throughout Florida and the United States at various times during the year. In Tallahassee, the Red Mass is scheduled annually during Catholic Days at the Capitol.

The Florida Catholic Conference is an agency of the Catholic Bishops of Florida. It speaks for the Church in matters of public policy and serves as liaison to the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. The archbishop and bishops of the seven (arch)dioceses in Florida constitute its board of directors.

Battling disinformation in Negros Or.

At Large

By Rina Jimenez-David
Philippine Daily Inquirer

While visiting a remote mountain barangay in Negros Oriental, Congresswoman (and LP candidate for governor) Jocelyn “Josy” Sy-Limkaichong talked with the mother of a young child who told her that the child had missed her last two immunizations because her husband had forbidden it. “The mother told me that her husband was scared to bring the child to the health center because, he claimed, under the RH Law, once the health personnel found out that this was their sixth child, they would take the child from them and put her up for adoption.”

Guests at the media forum Bulong Pulungan sa Sofitel gasped at the enormity of such disinformation, and its potentially tragic consequences both for the child and the parents. “When I told her that there was no such provision in the RH Law, the mother said she was bringing her child to the health center the very next day,” said the gubernatorial candidate.

Another time, talking with a senior citizen, Limkaichong found out that the older folks in the town were running scared “because they were told that under the RH Law, government health workers could put to death anyone who was too old or too ill.”

Countering misconceptions and disinformation about the Reproductive Health Law is just part of the challenges Limkaichong faces in her uphill battle for governor of Negros Oriental. Aside from being potentially the first woman governor of the province (before now, she was the first congresswoman of Negros Oriental, and the first woman mayor of the town of La Libertad), Josy is also the only congressional representative from the region (which includes Cebu, Siquijor and Negros Occidental) who voted in favor of the RH bill. Thus, she has become a target of opponents of reproductive health, particularly of Catholic bishops and clergy, who have been singling her out in their Sunday homilies.

* * *

It’s fortunate, then, that Limkaichong’s running mate is a medical doctor, orthopedic surgeon Mark Macias, who has a political lineage (his father was the late Gov. Emilio Macias) but who is trying out the political waters for the first time.

Aside from having the medical and health credentials to counter disinformation about the RH measure, Macias says he plans to concentrate on improving the health situation in Negros Oriental. Calling himself an “accidental politician,” Macias says that while medical practice allowed him “to help one person at a time,” as a government official, “I can help a lot more people.”

The doctor left a lucrative practice in Manila and set up a practice in the province soon after his father’s passing, although he had made it a point to go home and conduct weekly clinics even before this. “There is a lot of fixing to do,” he observed on the overall health and economic situation in Negros Oriental.

In neighboring Siquijor, another doctor, obstetrician-gynecologist Joey Pernes, is also trying his hand at politics for the first time, running for congressman under the LP banner. “This is my first press conference,” he confessed to the media forum.

Battling an entrenched dynasty in Siquijor, Pernes says he would like to concentrate on lifting the economy in the island-province, which he says has rich potential for tourism. “There is a 90-percent unemployment and underemployment rate in Siquijor, with 55 percent of the population classified as poor, 40 percent of whom lives below the hunger line,” he observed. If and when he wins, Pernes would truly face a daunting challenge.

* * *

The many controversies that hounded her in her early days in office may have ebbed by now, but LTO (Land Transportation Office) chief Virginia Torres still has her plate full of difficult decisions.

She has to deal with powerful and moneyed interests, who in the past two years or so mounted a noisy public relations campaign against her. But this “kabarilan” of P-Noy has stuck to her guns (hopefully not literally), and the news she shared with the media is that the reforms the administration instituted are now bearing fruit.

One of these reforms is a change in supplier of car plates, which in the past were easily faked, replaceable, and of poor quality. The new car plate design, she said, would provide for “better identification through security features and a standardized design.” It also comes with a “plate lock” which, if tampered with, would damage the entire plate. The lock is meant to prevent tampering and/or replacement of the plates, a common enough tactic among car theft syndicates, as well as of criminals who rely on getaway vehicles. “These new plates should be available by June,” Torres assured.

* * *

The LTO, said Torres, is also launching a renewed campaign to get vehicle owners to carry and use reflectorized early warning devices (EWDs).

“This is a mandatory accessory,” she reiterated, even if until recently most motorists were rather blasé about carrying such devices. Now the LTO, said Torres, will be implementing strictly the P150-penalty for “failure to carry” an EWD, which, she observes, “the public seems to have forgotten already.”

Also part of the LTO’s public information campaign, Torres added, is the drive to accredit and license “proper” motorcycle helmets, which need a sticker issued by the Department of Trade and Industry before they can be sold or used by motorcycle riders.

Checking the safety of helmets is no small matter; Torres says the two-wheeled vehicles currently make up 53 percent of all registered vehicles in the country and, probably, in my view, the majority of road collisions and accidents, with often tragic consequences. The LTO, said Torres, is helping the DTI verify the ICC stickers on helmets, since some, she says, were simply torn off boxes of imported Christmas lights.

Follow Us

More from this Column:

• Battling disinformation in Negros Or.
• A favorite place
• Interesting time to be Filipina
• Assessing the 4Ps
• Rare—and special—children

Recent Stories:

• Battling disinformation in Negros Or.
• Editorial cartoon, March 13, 2013
• Law’s existence no assurance that rule of law will prevail
• Another ‘Estrada foundation’ in PDAF misuse?
• Editorial cartoon, March 12, 2013
• Giving
• Ballot smoke
• Tagle’s pope; Benedict vs the media
• Inequity, initiative and inclusive growth
• Fallout

Short URL: http://opinion.inquirer.net/?p=48669

Tags:

politics

Bill O’Reilly Says Anti-Catholic Media ‘Worships’ Abortion

Bill O’Reilly doesn’t like the mainstream media because of perceived liberal bias. (Oh, the irony!) And like so many in the right wing, he never wastes an opportunity to bash it. Such was the case, last night, when devout Catholic Bill, after claiming that he’s not an apologist for the Catholic Church, proceeded to attack the mainstream media for how they covered the Pope’s resignation. Il Papa Bill was joined by fellow Catholic, Sister Mary Laura Ingraham who helped him turn reality into a holy whinefest complete with Bill’s not so papal bull. And ya know what’s behind this media bias? Abortion worship! Bet ya didn’t know that!!!

Bill cited his past criticism of Catholic bishops who enabled clergy pedophilia in order to prove that he’s not an “apologist” for the Catholic Church. After stating that there is, however, a difference between Catholic theology and those who run the church, he pontificated, as Bill O’Reilly fact, there “is no question that the anti-religious media which is substantial is using the pope story to marginalize the Church.” (IMHO, the Church is doing a good job on its own!)

Bill played an ABC video in which the narrator said that the Benedict’s papacy would be remembered for his scandals which cost billions to settle and how the pope “tried to hold back the forces of modernity by refusing to expand the role of women.” (True that – as stated by some prominent Catholic nuns) Video of Dave Letterman, joking about the pope’s neck problem for “looking the other way,” was shown. (True that)  Video of Colbert (a comedian), joking about the pope’s celibacy, was played.

Bill introduced his Catholic “convert” guest Laura Ingraham. She said, yes, before Bill finished asking “if the media is using the pope’s departure to batter the whole thing.” Ingraham whined that the Church is still paying for “grievous sins” committed 20 to 30 years ago. (The sexual abuse case which Kansas City Bishop Finn ignored and which got him a criminal conviction occurred in 2010). After whining that schools have been shut down “long after” statutes of limitation ran out, she noted that the abuse was “reprehensible and heartbreaking.” She then whined about the “tee-hees” and “unitary coverage” of sexual abuse when the “Pope’s legacy” has been his stalwartness in demanding abuses be examined. (The criticism is that he merely apologized rather than discipline any of the bishops.) She cited, as an example, his dealings with the Legion of Christ, Fox’s Fr. Morris’ former order.

Ingraham claimed that the media doesn’t like Catholic doctrine and that’s fine even though “we want you to be Catholic.” (WTF?) She criticized the media for not pointing out the good done by the Catholic Church when, of course, the issue at hand is Benedict’s papacy. Bill, who never wastes an opportunity to engage in anti-abortion activism, made the bizarre claim that the coverage is “abortion driven” because “the American media in general worships at the altar of reproductive rights.” He continued to bray that the Pope is criticized because the Catholic Church is “the primary driver against abortion.”  

He whined that if there hadn’t been a pedophilia scandal, the press wouldn’t have the “high moral ground.” Bill pronounced that while there was real damage to children, “the Catholic Church has lost moral authority” (Ya Think!) “and there isn’t anything to take its place…and that is what the secular press has seized upon.“  Ingraham affirmed Bill’s crazy talk with her comment that the press “disagrees with the doctrine of the Catholic Church;” but that “enormous good is done” and that if it went away, poor sick people would need care. (You mean those who want free stuff?) She warned “be careful what you wish for.”

In focusing on Catholic victimization, this piece was classic Fox News which specializes in promoting phony victimhood for groups that are very powerful; but in the alternate reality of Fox are portrayed as persecuted. The Catholic Church is one of the top funded American lobby groups. In the last election, they certainly had a “bully pulpit” against the president. It is an all male organization that has been, from its inception, a hierarchal and exclusive political entity – as well as religious. In addition to the pedophilia, there continue to be other Vatican scandals which, according to O’Reilly, shouldn’t be mentioned. But who knew that the evil, librul media worships abortion? Holy shit?

Malawi Catholic bishops, politicians pay tribute to outgoing Pope

By Nyasa Times Reporter

February 12, 2013   ·  
8 Comments

 Email This Post

The Malawi Catholic Bishops and political leaders have paid tribute to the outgoing Pope Benedict XVI, after the pontiff’s unexpected decision to resign on health grounds.

The body of bishops Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) hailed Pope Benedict XVI for his effortS in spearheading the move towards the return of what they call original Catholic faith as was being practiced during days of apostles.

The 85-year-old pontiff said he is losing physical and mental strength to carry on with his duties. He will be the first pope to resign from his post in almost 600 years.

“We will miss him,” said Secretary General of ECM, Father George Buleya.

Pontiff says his age means he lacks strength to do job

“He has been a great pastor and personally he has spearheaded a move towards return to our faith and that’s why this year will be celebrating the year of faith,” Father Buleya added.

Buleya said during his ministry Pope Benedict has been revamping the catholic faith and took it to its original faith of the days of the apostles and renew the Catholic Church in the whole world.

Leader of Government in Parliament, Henry Phoya a Church going Catholic said the Holy Father’s decision to quit is “a brave one” considering that so many political leaders cling to their positions while aged and frail.

Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) organizing secretary Lilian Patel, a devout Catholic said the Pope would be missed by millions.

“We are saddened with the decision by Pope Benedict XVI to resign,” she said.

Patel said the choice of a successor is clearly an important one for the Catholic Church.

Former governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Nicholous Dausi who is also a Catholic said Pope Benedict XVI will be “missed” by many for his great spiritual depth.

“It was with a heavy heart but complete understanding that we learned the Pope has resigned.

According to the Vatican a new Pope is expected to be elected before Easter, which this year falls on March 31.

There are several contenders, but no obvious front-runner — the same situation when Pope Benedict was elected in 2005 after the death of Pope John Paul II.

Meanwhile Papal watchers are suggesting that two African Cardinals could be top contenders to succeed Pope Benedict.

Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria who is nearly 80 years old is cited as the favorite. He was considered a top contender in 2005, when Benedict was elected, and now he has Pope Benedict’s old job within the Vatican.

Another one is the 64 year old Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana.

Vatican experts argued that vision, rather than geography, would likely determine who would replace Benedict, and that the ability to communicate with a distracted world would be high on the list of desirable qualities.

The news of the Popes resignation had taken the world by surprise. A Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said that even Pope Benedict’s closest aides did not know what he was planning to do and were left “incredulous”

But international media reports show that Pope’s elder brother George and his private secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, were probably the only people to know in advance about Joseph Ratzinger’s long-pondered decision to step down from the papacy.

However they say the signs were there for anyone to read as for the first time in decades no papal travel plans had been announced for 2013.

Visitors to the Vatican had noticed his weakened voice. He sometimes uses a cane to walk, and has cut back of all his public engagements.

The 2013 Easter vigil mass, perhaps the most important liturgy of the year, usually celebrated at midnight had been scheduled for early evening this year, to allow the Pope to retire well before midnight.

Related Posts

• Malawi court bars abusive clinician from work: Accused of raping mental patient
• Malawi octogenarian commits suicide over elongated illness
• Malawi Catholic bishops hold first plenary meeting 2013
• Pope Benedict XVI resigns as head of Catholic Church: Full text
• Bullets in serious title push beat Moyale: Malawi TNM Super League

8 Responses to “Malawi Catholic bishops, politicians pay tribute to outgoing Pope”

1. 

   Eish giving it to the 80 year old African??? He will not lead by example…At 90 years he will still cling on.CheBoss

   Tweet PS

   Like or Dislike: 0 0

   Reply

2. 

   anzanu anzelu awona kuti game yawakulila, angozisiya mwa ulemu, koma inu mukukakamilabe mpakana tithe tonse ndi njala

   Tweet PS

   Like or Dislike: 0 0

   Reply

3. 

   All the members of Keeplife Ministries will miss Him since He has been a great father for the world’s christianity.

   Still we love Him.

   Tweet PS

   Like or Dislike: 0 0

   Reply

4. 

   Who said the apostles were catholic? Let’s be true in our dealings by using the Bible in a proper way, there’s no record of the apostles being catholic in the scriptures. Please religious people don’t destroy christianity with some cooked up fables…………

   Tweet PS

   Like or Dislike: 1 0

   Reply

5. 

   kupuma kwa bwino achikulire,, we understand u ,, more love from ur sheeps in MALAWI

   Tweet PS

   Like or Dislike: 0 0

   Reply

6. 

   We’ll pray hard!

   Tweet PS

   Like or Dislike: 0 0

   Reply

7. 

   I salute the pope for the decision. I wish him a good, health and long life outside his papacy. I will remain a strong catholic in thick and thin, no shaking no matter how strong the wind blows. Pumani bwino munthu wamulungu. God bless mpingo wa pa thandwe

   Tweet PS

   Like or Dislike: 0 0

   Reply

8. 

   God be with u Pope Benedict XVI and may He keep u in good health.

   Tweet PS

   Like or Dislike: 0 0

   Reply

Leave a Reply

Contraception Opt-Out Offer

By LOUISE RADNOFSKY

The Obama administration on Friday offered an updated compromise to its requirement that employers cover contraception in workers’ insurance plans, a step aimed at settling a yearlong contretemps over a mandate in the health-care overhaul.

The proposal is aimed at addressing the argument of Catholic bishops, along with religiously affiliated universities, hospitals and charities, that requiring employers to provide contraception violates their religious freedom. These objections sparked an election-year furor, along with a number of lawsuits seeking to void the requirement.

Obama administration will announce next steps in its attempt to resolve a controversy over health insurance coverage of contraception. Any change would be aimed at alleviating concerns of the Catholic church. WSJ’s Louise Radnofsky reports (Photo: AP)

The updated policy, proposed Friday by the Department of Health and Human Services, still guarantees that workers at religious nonprofits would get such coverage. But it specifies a way for employers to avoid funding it. The employers would be allowed to omit contraception, including the morning-after pill, from their insurance plans if they morally object to it.

Instead, insurance companies handling the policies would be responsible for informing employees that they were eligible for separate insurance plans covering contraception with no additional premium or out-of-pocket expense. The new rules would require insurers to pay the upfront cost.

The White House first outlined a compromise last year, but it was rejected by the bishops and Catholic institutions who had been its main opponents, and they went on to file several dozen new lawsuits challenging the requirement.

What is new about Friday’s proposal is how insurers would pay for contraception coverage, and how the workaround applies to employers that directly pay workers’ medical claims. The federal government would credit insurers for providing the stand-alone coverage for those employers by reducing a user fee insurers must pay starting in 2014 to sell policies to millions of Americans through a federally run health-insurance exchange.

Enlarge Image

AP

Shirley Bierman, of Meridian, Idaho, stands with fellow protesters during a demonstration in Boise to oppose the Obama administration’s health-care mandate for religious institutions in June 2012.

“Nonprofit religious organizations like universities, hospitals or charities with religious objections won’t have to arrange, contract, pay or refer for coverage of these services for their employees or students,” said Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, an official at the Department of Health and Human Services. “At the same time, women who work or go to school at these institutions will have free contraceptive coverage and will no longer have to pay hundreds of dollars a year that could be going to rent or groceries.”

As of late Friday afternoon, it wasn’t clear whether the latest offer would win over the policy’s main opponents. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, associations representing Catholic hospitals and schools including the University of Notre Dame didn’t immediately offer a substantive response, saying they were still studying the proposals.

But it was evident the deal didn’t appease some opponents of the policy, including several businesses suing the administration. The revised policy would provide no relief for companies that don’t have formal religious affiliation but whose owners oppose contraception coverage. Many foes of the mandate have said they wouldn’t be satisfied unless the requirement were eliminated altogether.

“The federal government continues to rely upon accounting gimmicks to address the concerns of religious nonprofits that do not qualify for the exemption,” said Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, a Republican who brought an early suit against the requirement. “This rule utterly fails to address the concerns of for-profit corporations with religious objections to providing coverage for services contrary to their beliefs.”

Supporters of contraception coverage cautiously praised Friday’s proposal. Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a written statement that it “delivers on the promise of women having access to birth control without copays no matter where they work.”

The contraception requirement stems from a piece of the 2010 Affordable Care Act that requires insurance policies to cover preventive health services without charging out-of-pocket fees to enrollees. The Obama administration decided in 2011 that contraception counted as such a service, citing the health benefits of planned pregnancies for women.

Catholic hospitals, universities and charities are among the leading plaintiffs in the lawsuits challenging the requirement. For-profit companies suing include Hercules Industries Inc., a Catholic-owned Colorado heating-and-cooling company, and Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., an Oklahoma City craft chain whose Christian owners consider the morning-after pill to be a form of abortion.

A handful of judges have allowed cases against the requirement to proceed on the grounds that the employers could be protected by a 1993 statute that requires the federal government to consider the rights of religious groups when crafting policy. Some have been tossed out by judges that contended they could not be considered until the administration’s proposals had been fully detailed.

“Today’s proposed rule does nothing to protect the religious liberty of millions of Americans,” said Kyle Duncan, general counsel, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a law firm representing several of the companies. “We are confident that we have the support of the Catholic Church and other religious organizations in the for-profit cases.”

The fight over the requirement has been bruising for both sides. The White House has struggled for months to reconcile the objections of the religious groups, as key allies including women’s groups insisted President Barack Obama stand by a commitment to expanding access to contraception. The issue has divided Catholic groups, and priests across the country have used Sunday homilies to take sides on it.

Earlier efforts to come to an accommodation with religious groups had run into problems because many large employers, including big Catholic institutions, self-insure, meaning they act as insurance companies by assuming the full responsibility for the health costs of their workers and use traditional insurance companies only for administrative services.

The proposal to shift the costs and responsibilities for contraception coverage directly to traditional insurance companies is likely to be met with skepticism by the industry. The main trade group, America’s Health Insurance Plans, said Friday it was still reviewing details of the plan.

—Colleen McCain Nelson contributed to this article.

Write to Louise Radnofsky at louise.radnofsky@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared February 2, 2013, on page A3 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Contraception Opt-Out Offer.

Vatican OKs next Catholic leader for Ireland

DUBLIN (AP) — The Roman Catholic Church‘s much-criticized leader in Ireland announced Friday that the Vatican has approved his successor, a reform-minded priest who has been outspoken on the need for more church accountability on child sex abuse.

Cardinal Sean Brady, who resisted calls to resign in 2010 despite being implicated in covering up abuse of children, unveiled Monsignor Eamon Martin as his eventual successor on the front steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh, the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland.

The Vatican confirmed that Martin, 51, has been appointed as Brady’s “coadjutor archbishop” in Armagh, designating him as the likely next Catholic leader of all Ireland when Brady retires. Typically Catholic bishops are supposed to retire at age 75, but Irish church officials said Brady, who is due to reach retirement age next year, might stay in his job leading the island’s 4 million Catholics through 2015.

Martin received congratulatory handshakes from well-wishers, among them Catholic schoolgirls and nuns — and emphasized his commitment to greater honesty about the church’s sins.

“One of the greatest challenges facing our church is to acknowledge, live with, and learn from the past, including the terrible trauma caused by abuse,” Martin said.

Martin today sits on the National Board for Safeguarding Children, a church-funded body that has power to investigate how dioceses and independent orders of priests and nuns concealed child sex abuse in the past, and to recommend reforms to ensure it can’t happen again. That board over the past four years has uncovered myriad cover-ups and shoddy practices, including in Martin’s own diocese centered on the Northern Ireland city of Londonderry.

That work builds on the efforts of state-authorized investigators who, over the past decade, have published several mammoth reports documenting how church authorities protected pedophiles in their ranks from prosecution from the 1930s to the mid-1990s.

“I think today of all those who have been abused by clergy, and the hurt and betrayal they have experienced. I am saddened that many good Catholics were let down so badly over the issue of abuse and that some have even stopped practicing their faith,” Martin said, adding that the church must “ensure that young people are always protected, respected and nurtured.”

Brady, by contrast, made no mention of the church’s struggle to emerge from nearly two decades of scandal. A taxpayer-funded compensation program already has paid out more than €1 billion ($1.3 billion) to more than 13,000 claimants and their lawyers, and several hundred child-rape victims have successfully sued church authorities.

One such lawsuit in 2010 uncovered records showing that Brady, when serving as a canon lawyer to a border diocese in 1975, was involved in suppressing information on child rapes committed by the Rev. Brendan Smyth.

Brady admitted he had interviewed two boys who had been sexually assaulted by Smyth, sworn both to secrecy, and did not tell police or any civil authorities about the alleged crimes. Nor did he warn parents of other children identified by the boys as suffering abuse. Brady apologized publicly but simultaneously insisted he had acted appropriately because he was following superiors’ orders.

Smyth eventually was exposed as Ireland‘s most dangerous child abuser in history, molesting or raping more than 100 boys and girls in several parts of Ireland, Britain and two U.S. states, Rhode Island and North Dakota, before Northern Ireland police finally brought charges against him in 1993. Smyth died in an Irish prison in 1997.

The scandals have steadily eroded state-church relations in Ireland, culminating in an unprecedented verbal assault on the Vatican by Ireland’s newly elected Prime Minister Enda Kenny in 2011. Ireland followed up by shutting its Vatican embassy in what it billed as a cost-savings move.

Reflecting those sour relations, Brady had his very first meeting with Kenny as prime minister Friday with the newly promoted Martin at his side. For three hours they discussed the government’s plans to legalize abortions in cases where the woman’s life would be endangered from continued pregnancy, including in cases of threatened suicide. The church plans to organize conservative Catholics against the measure and is appealing to lawmakers in Kenny’s party to rebel against their leader.

Veteran observers of Irish Catholicism said Martin was an inspired choice to show that the church wanted a new generation to repair its battered moral authority.

“He is not burdened. He does not carry any baggage from the past with him. He goes into it with clean hands, and I think that’s very important at the present time,” said Edward Daly, the retired bishop of Londonderry.

Martin McGuinness, deputy leader of the Northern Ireland government and a former Irish Republican Army commander in Londonderry, hailed Martin as “a progressive thinker and a man who has demonstrated an ability to connect with ordinary Catholics.” He described Martin’s promotion as “an opportunity for renewal.”