JULY 6, 2012 VOLUME 48, NUMBER 13 INSIDE: Page 3: School choice expanded Page 5: Sister Eileen McGowan marks 25 years at St. Joan of Arc School Page 9: Camaraderie at Quo Vadis Days Page 16: Mass celebrates Fortnight for Freedom “Conform Your Life to the Mystery of the Lord’s Cross” ~ Rite of Ordination The Diocese of Harrisburg rejoiced in the ordination of Father Anthony Robert Dill on June 30 at St. Patrick Cathedral in Harrisburg. The new priest will serve at Good Shepherd Parish in Camp Hill this summer before retunring to Rome to complete stud- ies in Canon Law. See page 8 for covereage of the ordination. EMILY M. ALBERT, THE CATHOLIC WITNESS 2 - THE CATHOLIC WITNESS, JULY 6, 2012 World and National News Bishops Urge Congress to Fix Health Law Flaws after High Court Decision By Nancy Frazier O’Brien Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence words, ‘the hideous monster whose said the Affordable Care Act “forces Catholic News Service Thomas and Samuel Alito, who would devouring jaws ... spare neither sex an abortion agenda on the American have overturned the entire law as an nor age, nor high nor low, nor sacred people unlike anything seen since Roe The U.S. Supreme Court’s June 28 unconstitutional violation of the Com- nor profane,’” said the dissenting v. Wade,” the 1973 Supreme Court de- decision upholding the health reform merce Clause. opinion, written by Scalia. cision that lifted most state restrictions law makes it even more urgent for By forcing those who are young and The decisions do not affect other on abortion. Congress to act to fix the law’s “fun- healthy to purchase health insurance, lawsuits against the health reform Criticizing the law’s “numerous an- damental flaws” on abortion funding, the law compels those who do not law’s requirement that most religious ti-life provisions and mandates,” Yoest conscience protection and immigrants’ wish to participate in a particular mar- employers must provide contracep- said, “Congress must repeal these pro- access to health care, the U.S. bishops ketplace to do so, the dissenters said. tives, including some abortion-caus- visions and ensure that any health care said. “If Congress can reach out and com- ing drugs, and sterilization to their law respects life.” The court found that although the mand even those furthest removed employees at no cost. Those cases are individual mandate in the 2010 health The opinions issued by the court from an interstate market to partici- still in lower courts and have not yet June 28 actually involved four sepa- reform law does not pass constitution- pate in the market, then the Commerce reached the Supreme Court. al muster under the Commerce Clause rate challenges to the constitutional- Clause becomes a font of unlimited But Charmaine Yoest, president and ity of the health reform law. The court of the Constitution, it can be upheld power, or in [Alexander] Hamilton’s CEO of Americans United for Life, as an acceptable exercise of Congress’ first had to decide whether the Anti- taxing powers. Injunction Act, which says no tax can In a 65-page opinion announced by be challenged in court before it is due, Chief Justice John Roberts, five mem- Bishop McFadden’s precluded a challenge to the Afford- bers of the court upheld the Patient able Care Act until after the individual Protection and Affordable Care Act mandate takes effect in 2014. The ma- in full but limited the federal govern- Statement on jority decided that it did not. ment’s right to withhold its share of The next question was whether the Medicaid funding from states that do individual mandate – also called a not expand the health program for the Supreme Court Ruling “shared responsibility payment” – ex- low-income and disabled as mandated Shortly after the Supreme Court’s June 28 ruling upholding the Patient Pro- ceeded Congress’ authority to “regu- by the law. tection and Affordable Care Act, Bishop Joseph P. McFadden released the late commerce” or to impose taxes. “The U.S. Conference of Catholic following statement: Roberts played the key role in decid- Bishops has not joined in efforts to re- Today’s decision by the Supreme Court to uphold the Affordable Care Act ing that, siding with the dissenters on peal the law in its entirety, and we do is a disappointment for me and the Church of Harrisburg. It does not address the commerce question but with the not do so today,” said a USCCB news the three main reasons why the U.S. Catholic bishops ultimately opposed majority on the tax question. release issued shortly after the deci- final passage of Affordable Care Act. If the mandate had been overturned, sion. “The decision of the Supreme the court would have had to decide Court neither diminishes the moral im- Those being: whether the entire health law must perative to ensure decent health care • It allows use of federal funds to pay for elective abortions and for plans fall if one section does – the so-called for all, nor eliminates the need to cor- that cover such abortions. This contradicts longstanding federal policy. “severability” issue. But the affirma- rect [the law’s] fundamental flaws.” tion of the mandate made that question Joining Roberts in the major- • The ACA does not provide essential conscience protection. People of moot. ity opinion were Justices Ruth Bader faith will now be forced to either violate deeply held religious beliefs or pay Finally, the court faced the ques- Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia So- crippling fines because of the HHS mandate that forces religious and other tion of whether Congress could pe- tomayor and Elena Kagan, although employers to cover sterilization and contraception, including abortifacient nalize states that opt out of the law’s Ginsburg differed from the other four drugs. on whether the mandate was constitu- requirement to expand their Medicaid tional under the Commerce Clause. • The ACA fails to treat immigrant workers and their families fairly, leav- programs. In its early years the expan- “The federal government does not ing them worse off by not allowing them to purchase health coverage in the sion is mostly funded by the federal have the power to order people to buy new exchanges created under the law, even if they use their own money. government, but states are expected to health insurance ... [but] does have the The Catholic bishops of the United States, for nearly a century, have been take over funding the coverage in later power to impose a tax on those without and continue to be consistent advocates for comprehensive health care re- years. health insurance,” the Roberts opinion form to ensure access to life-affirming health care for all, especially the The court ruled that the federal gov- says. The mandate “is therefore con- poorest and the most vulnerable. ernment cannot threaten states with stitutional, because it can reasonably I urge all to continue to ask Congress to pass, and the Administration to the loss of their existing Medicaid be read as a tax.” sign, legislation to correct the three main flaws mentioned. funding if they do not participate in Dissenting were Justices Antonin the expanded Medicaid program. Distress Remains over ‘Show Me Your Papers’ Part of Immigration Ruling By Mark Pattison “We are encouraged that the court er bishops in Arizona, as they prepare vision might separate families, create Catholic News Service did not rule it [the provision] consti- to respond to the implementation of the possibility of racial profiling even tutional,” said Archbishop Jose H. this provision and its potential human if unintended by the law, heighten fear In what one observer called “the ju- Gomez of Los Angeles, chairman of consequences.” in the immigrant community, jeopar- dicial equivalent of white smoke,” im- the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Mi- The archbishop said the U.S. bish- dize community policing, and not fix migration advocates were largely happy gration, in a statement. “Implementa- ops would ask state legislators to the federal immigration policy which with the June 25 Supreme Court ruling tion of this provision could lead to the “pursue humane reform on the fed- many across the political spectrum that struck down three key provisions of separation of families and undermine eral level” rather than the state level. have said is broken.” Arizona’s own immigration law. the church’s ability to minister to the “Humane enforcement of our nation’s They added the Supreme Court’s However, they voiced distress over immigrant population.” laws are part of any solution, but en- reversal of the other three provisions the one part of the law the high court Archbishop Gomez said, “The forcement by itself, unjustly adminis- of the law “substantially upheld” the kept intact: the “show me your papers” court’s decision to strike down the tered, only leads to abuses and family view that the state law “is not good for provision. other provisions of the Arizona law breakdown.” our state and not good law.” Because of “certain limitations,” the reaffirms the strong role of the federal Arizona’s Catholic bishops, in a The Arizona bishops said there were court said, such checks do not “interfere government in regulating immigra- separate statement June 25, said they convinced that “immigration policy is with the federal immigration scheme.” tion.” believed the “show me your papers” the responsibility of the federal gov- However, the decision also said the pro- With regard to the court allowing provision “will not enhance security, ernment assuring that there is no great vision would face further scrutiny and checks of people’s papers, he added: benefit the economy of our state, or discrepancy throughout the nation on could later be found unconstitutional.