Cardinal Timothy Dolan, head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops which is waging a crusade against the Obama HHS mandate requiring large religious institutions to cover birth control, should say a daily Te Deum in thanks for Fox News' stalwart support of the bishop's position regarding the birth control mandate.It's not every Catholic potentate that has his own TV network; but Cardinal Dolan seems to have Fox "News" squarely in the deepest pocket of his chasuble. Today marked the tenth installment of the bishop's talking points brought to you by Catholic "Knight of Malta," NY Catholic Archdiocese paid litigator, and Fox host Peter Johnson Jr. who, once again, pushed the pro-Catholic and anti-Obama agitprop with his wingman, professional Fox Catholic and, like Johnson, uterus free Steve Doocy. Johnson's performance, on behalf of his liege lord Cardinal Dolan, surpassed all others in that he claimed that the HHS mandate was just about the most heinous thing to have happened in American history. Oh, and Johnson lied, again, about how the mandate covers abortion pills. But I'm sure Cardinal Dolan would say it's not a lie if you believe it.
On Friday, the Obama administration issued a final rule regarding birth control as preventative care - a phrase notably absent in all the Johnson discussions on behalf of his "every sperm is sacred" paymasters. The rule states that students, at Catholic institutions of higher ed, will have their birth control covered by school health policies. In accordance with the "compromise" afforded to employees of these entities, the coverage will come directly from the insurers. But the Catholic bishops ain't happy and when the bishops ain't happy ain't nobody happy - especially Maltese Knight Peter Johnson, Jr.
Doocy began the "prescription for truth" (Prescription for truth according to the Catholic bishops) by reporting on the contraception policy and claiming that it was revealed on Friday so nobody would talk about it. (It's a conspiracy!) Johnson immediately claimed that this is "The Most Unprecedented And Radical Intrusion Into Religious Freedom" in one hundred years. He continued to yammer about how the Obama administration isn't respecting the rights of the Catholic Church with regard to birth control and "abortifacients" which, according to Johnson, are "those drugs which induce abortions." One more time - only the Catholic Church believes that the "morning after pill," which prevents implantation of a fertilized egg, is abortion inducing. The HHS policy doesn't include actual abortion inducing drugs. Johnson continued to whine about how those nasty girls will get free birth control. He claimed that employers and employees will be paying into this pool of insurance. He didn't mention the various ways in which the insurance companies will be able to pay for this without using funds from these people.
Johnson worked in the requisite point about how this is an offense against religious liberty and that it's not about women's rights. (Birth control isn't a woman's rights issue? Who knew!) Johnson, who has never been pregnant, added that the notion that this is a "war on women" is a "fiction" and a "political war to ensure that the president wins." He suggested that this is a war in which Catholics get hurt. He asked what group will be hurt in the future by - ready for it - lack of religious freedom "perpetrated by the federal government, by this Obamacare mandate." He intoned "today, it's the Catholic, tomorrow, who knows."
Thank God for Fox "News." Otherwise nobody would know about the Obama pogram directed against good Catholic institutions, many of whom are already providing free birth control! (Not that you'd know that if you watch Fox). Guess it's time to take up that cross and get crusading. As Pope Urban proclaimed, at the start of the Crusades, "God wills it." In this case, Fox News and Cardinal Dolan will it!
