St. Anne’s, St. Gabriel’s, Holy Name, Saints Peter and Paul and other SF Catholic School: this means you

This is a letter I sent to Catholic San Francisco, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, for this week's edition. It was not published:

"Reading the October 26, 2012 article “Parishioners discuss freedoms, responsibilities of Catholic citizenship” I had to wonder what election Dana Perrigan was covering and Bishop McElroy was analyzing. The entire article does not mention, even once, the Obama administration’s contraception mandate, the greatest attack on the Church in the history of the United States. If the mandate is not stopped by the courts or a President-elect Romney, what are the consequences? In the Archdiocese of San Francisco, it will be the end of Catholic education

The HHS mandate forces coverage of sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs and devices as well as contraception. It does not exempt Catholic charities or schools, because the Obama administration has decided they are not religious entities.

St. Anne’s, St. Gabriel’s, Holy Name, Saints Peter and Paul and all the other schools of the archdiocese: this means you.

If any of our schools choose to remain Catholic and not abide by the HHS mandate they will be fined. If they completely drop their health plan they will be fined $2,000 per employee per year. That would be a fine of at least

$36,000 a year for St. Gabriel’s,
$40,000 a year for St. Peter’s,
$60,000 a year for St. Vincent de Paul.

Of course, our Catholic schools would prefer to offer health plans without the objectionable services. In that case they will face annual fines of $100 per day per employee: approximately

$657,000 for St. Gabriel’s,
$730,000 for St. Peter’s,
$876,000 for Saints Peter and Paul,
and $1,095,000 for St. Vincent de Paul.

Every year. One would think that is a subject worth covering in a Catholic newspaper--especially in a story about the 'reponsibilities of Catholic citizenship.'"

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney