Catholic Hierarchy Needs to Take a Hike Regarding Issues of Morality

My blood is still boiling over the fact that the Catholic Bishops were invited into Speaker Pelosi's office to craft language that would take away women's access to abortion in what should now be called the health care NON-REFORM bill.

The call came in from Rome, just as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her top lieutenants were scrambling to round up scarce votes to pass their sweeping health overhaul.

Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, was on the line for Pelosi, calling to discuss adding strict abortion restrictions to the House bill. [...]

It was Stupak who told Pelosi last Friday that if she wanted a deal on the health bill, she'd be well advised to invite the bishops' staff, who were already in his office, to her table. "I said, 'Well, they're here, and they're one of the key groups you want to have on your side, so why don't we just bring them in and work this out," Stupak said.

Pelosi did, and the result was a final measure that — much to the outrage of abortion rights supporters — bars a new government-run insurance plan from covering abortions, except in cases of rape, incest or the life of the mother being in danger, and prohibits any health plan that receives federal subsidies in a new insurance marketplace from offering abortion coverage. If women wanted to purchase abortion coverage through such plans, they'd have to buy it separately, as a so-called rider on their insurance policies.

This is completely outrageous. No ONE religious group should have this much power in shaping public policy.

Who could have predicted that progressives would have more to fear under Democrat leadership, than we did when Republicans were in power. This is just unconscionable.

Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., a prominent abortion rights supporter who spearheaded the call for talks with Obama and has gathered the signatures of more than 40 representatives who refuse to back a health bill that contains the restrictions, said the bishops had been allowed to overstep their bounds.

"No one group should get to dictate the outcome of legislation in Congress," DeGette said. "Every group should be listened to, but I don't think one group should be given veto authority over what we do."

As if that weren't enough, the Catholic Church has given Washington, DC an ultimatum:

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn't change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care.

File this under WTF?

I say let them quit! AND, the government should take away all the funding IT provides to Catholic Charities.

Catholic Charities, the church's social services arm, is one of dozens of nonprofit organizations that partner with the District. It serves 68,000 people in the city, including the one-third of Washington's homeless people who go to city-owned shelters managed by the church. City leaders said the church is not the dominant provider of any particular social service, but the church pointed out that it supplements funding for city programs with $10 million from its own coffers.

Let them pay for the buildings and provide the service on their own. Isn't that part of their mission anyway?

It's time our elected officials get a spine and tell the Catholic Hierarchy to take a hike! They lost their moral authority years ago with the disclosure of pedophile priests who were protected by the Church.