Cardinal Dolan: Catholics Won't 'Give In' on HHS Mandate

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), said that the Catholic Church will continue to move ahead with challenges to the Obama administration’s HHS mandate. 

Dolan asserted that the Church will not comply with the mandate that requires most employers, even those affiliated with religious organizations, to provide free contraception, sterilization, and abortifacients through health insurance plans.

“The only thing we’re certainly not prepared to do is give in,” Dolan said at a news conference. “Not violate our consciences, and not obey what we consider to be something immoral. That we’re committed on.”

Dozens of Catholic dioceses and other Catholic organizations have filed lawsuits in federal courts over the mandate, which is included in ObamaCare.

Though Cardinal Dolan admitted the bishops waited until after Election Day to see if the results of the election could change the health care requirements, he said, “now I think the bishops have taken a deep breath and said, we better get back to work and decide just what we are going to do.”

Dolan stated that though the Church is still willing to work with the administration, “I would say no door is closed except for the door to capitulation.”

Dolan also responded to a question related to the politics of the bishops’ positions. He commented that most of the mail he receives charges that he is too liberal and too friendly with Democrats.

“…Most of my mail is accusing me and the bishops of being too left-wing and too cozy with the Democrats, and too comfortable with the president. And too concerned about the social justice agenda, rather than the other things,” he said.

Dolan continued, “But the young people that I meet, who are particularly fervent in their beliefs, are very proud of the Church that speaks in a prophetic way about the defense of marriage and the defense of innocent human life.”