Campus Notes

A statement released Friday by the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU) says that it is “encouraged” by the Obama administration’s “willingness to work with religiously affiliated employers to find an acceptable balance between health coverage and religious freedom.” That’s despite the fact — which the ACCU states plainly – that under current regulations, HHS continues to prevent faith-based employers from offering insurance benefits that are consistent with their religious beliefs.

That portion is nothing new. The ACCU’s gratitude for President Obama’s verbal promises, despite the lack of any concrete movement toward protecting Catholic institutions, is similar to what we have seen from Catholic Charities, the Catholic Health Association and the University of Notre Dame. We aren’t supposed to mind that such unqualified optimism is hardly consistent in tone with the bishops’ strong criticism of the President’s so-called “accommodation” and their calls for urgent legislative action to halt the mandate.

This part of the ACCU statement is strange:

We welcome the opportunity to join with the administration and other religiously affiliated organizations in an authentic effort to find an agreeable way for religious organizations to comply with the mandate in good conscience.

“Comply with the mandate”?  The mandate requires Catholic colleges and universities to cover sterilization, contraception and abortion-causing drugs in employee and student health plans. In what sense could the ACCU hope to “comply” with that, whether in fact or in principle?

Perhaps one might consider it to be compliance, if a Catholic college is exempted from the mandate as a religious institution. At least one wouldn’t say the college is guilty of non-compliance.

Or perhaps the ACCU is hoping for the “accommodation” not yet delivered by President Obama, which would shift the costs for coverage of sterilization, contraception and abortifacients to the insurance company, even though such coverage would be initiatied by virtue of a religious employer’s purchase of a health plan.

Regardless, talk of complying with the HHS mandate “in good conscience” seems like a very poor word choice, whatever the ACCU’s intent. Especially since many of the ACCU’s member colleges already “comply” with the mandate as it is written. For them, there might be a religious liberty concern about the government mandating certain practices, but there’s no moral issue. They’re voluntarily providing insurance for contraception and sterilization, apparently “in good conscience.” But it’s no conscience that conforms to Catholic teaching.