S P R I N G 2012
and scope, that they had so passionately embraced would someday turn on the Church and seek to dictate whom it chose to teach its doctrines and how, more generally, it would conduct its affairs. I would submit that the bishops, priests, and nuns now screaming bloody murder have gotten what they asked for. The weapon that Obama has directed at the Church was fashioned to a considerable degree by Catholic churchmen, who have pushed universal health care now for decades. I do not mean to say that I would prefer that the bishops, nuns, and priests sit down and shut up. Obama has once again done the friends of liberty a favor by forcing the friends of the administrative entitle‐ ments state to contemplate what they have wrought. Whether those brought up on the heresy that public provision is akin to charity will prove capable of thinking through what they have done remains un‐ clear. But there is now a chance that this ephiphany will take place. There was a time—long ago, to be sure, but for an institution with the longevity possessed by the Catholic Church long ago was just yester‐ day—when the Church played an honorable role in hemming in the authority of magistrates and in promoting not only its own liberty as an institution but that of others similarly intent on managing their own affairs as individuals and as members of sub‐political communi‐ ties.
I
n the wake of the bishops’ initial protest, Obama offered them “a compromise.” Under its terms, insurance companies offering healthcare coverage would be required to provide contraception and abortifacients, but this would not be mentioned in the contracts signed by those who run Catholic institutions. This “compromise” was, of course, a farce. It embodied a distinction where there was, in fact, no difference. It was a snare and a delusion, and the Catholic Left embraced it immediately, thinking that it would allow the bish‐ ops, priests, and nuns to save face while, in fact, paying for the con‐ traception and abortifacients that the insurance companies would be required to provide. As if on cue, Sister Carol Keehan, a prominent Obamacare supporter who heads the Catholic Health Association, immediately issued a statement in which she announced that she is “pleased and grateful that the religious liberty and conscience protec‐ tion needs of so many ministries that serve our country were appre‐ 65