Michael Sean Winters writes about how the lawyers litigating the lawsuits of the Catholic bishops against the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act appear to be leaning on the bishops to keep the bishops from stating outright whether or not they'll close down Catholic hospitals to avoid compliance with the ACA's provision of contraceptive coverage. He asks,
Who wants to work at an institution when bishops speak cavalierly about closing them down?
And I reply:
Who wants to be part of or go to bat for a church whose "pastoral" leaders are willing to hold the healthcare needs of millions of people hostage in order to score political points?
And who wants to be part of or go to bat for a church whose "pastoral" leaders are captive to the lawyers they hire to pursue the political goals they put above pastoral leadership?
Something is deeply awry in a church when the words that come out of the mouths of its pastoral leaders--or that are never spoken by its pastoral leaders--are spoken or unspoken at the behest of lawyers. And of the super-rich whose needs those lawyers ultimately serve . . . .