By now most Catholics are aware of the mandate of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requiring employers to provide health services such as contraception and sterilization, even if such services violate the employer’s deepest moral principles.
The health care reform measure of the Obama administration also so narrowly defines a religious organization that the employer’s right to opt out of the mandate based on conscience is nullified.
President Obama therefore has incited a battle with one very large employer who is resisting this federally mandated coercion: the Catholic Church.
Contraception and sterilization are counter to the plan of love and life that God revealed, a plan that the Church has consistently taught. But more fundamentally, she is being forced to support such practices through insurance coverage for the health benefits of her employees.
Since the Church will not violate its own teachings, she would be forced to cease offering current services to all people and provide them only to Catholics.
Catholics must not allow the administration to define what services the Church may provide, and for whom, thus forcing the Church to withdraw into the margins of American society.
Important initiatives for all Americans, Catholics included, are coming this month. A rally for religious freedom will be held at Independence Hall June 8 at noon. The nationwide “Fortnight for Freedom” borrows the British term for a two-week period — June 21 to July 4 — in which heavy pressure will be brought to bear on the administration and Congress by Catholics through prayer, education and action.
Look for a parish bulletin insert this month on the importance of protecting conscience, or read it along with many other resources at pacatholic.org.
Everyone can get involved in some way: pray for our country and its cherished tradition of religious freedom; learn about the HHS mandate and the vigorous responses to it (visit usccb.org); and write letters and emails, or call or visit elected officials about this issue. Rescinding the mandate or granting organizations a conscience objection, at the least, is the goal of the Fortnight for Freedom.
As Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik has said, “we did not pick this fight or this timing. This is the federal government’s choice to impose this on us now.”
And now is the time to oppose this power grab of the government into religious freedom.
The HHS Mandate is right out of Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World . Big Brother is determining which religious truth is to be permitted to be publicly excercised outside of Church or home. And, guess what, next the Federal and Secular Media Thought Police will go after Church and home itself, for “first they go after you and, then, they go after me”. Read RJ Lifton’s The Nazi Doctors to see how it’s done.
I am going to political rallies this summer and fall with my plastic crucifix to hold up at applause lines. Even if it costs me, I believe in the ongoing power of the crucifix and what that symbol of my Savior, Jesus Christ, can do to bring good and conquer evil and the Culture of Death. I urge, as all the Danes wore yellow Stars of David, that all Catholics do the same, with both parties, and are joined with the raised up crossses of all other Christians, in their Solidarity against this re-erupting Tyranny.This is our hour for sacrifice and danger for Our Lord.If we don’t take action now, it is only going to get harder.
Prayers for the success of this effort to defend religious freedom for all. Prayers for our bishops to stand strong in the face of intimidation and oppression. And prayers for our elected and unelected officials that they may restore the American tradition of religious freedom and tolerance.
If we really are going to stand up for religious liberty, contraceptive coverage is pretty low on the list of priorities. Nigerians Catholics are murdered at worship, Palestinian Catholics are driven from their homeland because of economic sanctions, Chinese bishops are thrown in jail. With so much very real religious oppression going on all over the world, having contraceptives as our banner issue makes us American Catholics look pretty shallow and self-absorbed.
These are straw men arguments. We don’t live in Nigeria or China and have no influence on their problems except to pray for them or vote for people who are willing to use American influence to help them. Don’t expect any help for Christians from Obama. . Our banner is not contraception. That is another straw man argument. The issue is religious liberty. We don’t want the government telling the Church what to do in matters of religious doctrine. The first amendment says that congress shall pass no laws preventing the free exercise of relligion. People who work for the Church are free to use contraceptives but the Church should not have to pay for them.
I really think this is Dolan’s issue. He lost the vote in Albany and now wants to gain some publicity. The reality is that contraceptives should be available for all Americans. I would assume that Castholics would simply not avail themselves of them. (On the other hand, 98% of Catholic women use contraceptives and I haven’t heard a sermon on the subject in the last 45 years; it seems to me that it is a case of “use it or lose it” in regard to the Church’s attempt to declare how its teaching on contraceptives is a vital part of its mission).