Posted on 02/24/2012 5:58:44 AM PST by NYer
USCCB President Timothy Cardinal Dolan has issued a new letter to his fellow Catholic bishops that is one of the strongest condemnations yet of the revised Obama mandate that pro-life advocates have blasted for trampling on religious freedoms.
In the new letter issued Wednesday and co-signed by Bishop William Lori, Dolan condemns the mandate and urges support for the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, which would overturn the revision of the original mandate that forced religious employers to pay for birth control and drugs that cause abortions. The new mandate puts the onus for paying for them on insurance companies but religious employers may still have to pay and will be required to make referrals for their employees.
Dolan obliterates the mandate, saying religious rights and freedoms are a God-given right that and it “does not depend on any government’s decision to grant it.”
“If the government can, for example, tell Catholics that they cannot be in the insurance business today without violating their religious convictions, where does it end?” Dolan asks.
“The regulations would provide no protections for our great institutions—such as Catholic charities, hospitals, and universities—or for the individual faithful in the marketplace. The regulations struck at the heart of our fundamental right to religious liberty, which affects our ability to serve those outside our faith community,” Dolan says. “On Friday, February 10, the Administration issued the final rules. By their very terms, the rules were reaffirmed “without change.” The mandate to provide the illicit services remains. The exceedingly narrow exemption for churches remains. Despite the outcry, all the threats to religious liberty posed by the initial rules remain.”
Dolan calls on pro-life advocates and Catholics to support the Blunt Amendment, which will come up soon in the Senate.
“We all need to act now by contacting our legislators in support of the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act,” he says.
Tell Obama: Stop This Pro-Abortion Mandate
The full text of the letter appears below:
Dear Brother Bishops,
Since we last wrote to you concerning the critical efforts we are undertaking together to protect religious freedom in our beloved country, many of you have requested that we write once more to update you on the situation and to again request the assistance of all the faithful in this important work. We are happy to do so now.
First, we wish to express our heartfelt appreciation to you, and to all our sisters and brothers in Christ, for the remarkable witness of our unity in faith and strength of conviction during this past month. We have made our voices heard, and we will not cease from doing so until religious freedom is restored.
As we know, on January 20, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a decision to issue final regulations that would force practically all employers, including many religious institutions, to pay for abortion inducing drugs, sterilizations, and contraception. The regulations would provide no protections for our great institutions—such as Catholic charities, hospitals, and universities—or for the individual faithful in the marketplace. The regulations struck at the heart of our fundamental right to religious liberty, which affects our ability to serve those outside our faith community.
Since January 20, the reaction was immediate and sustained. We came together, joined by people of every creed and political persuasion, to make one thing resoundingly clear: we stand united against any attempt to deny or weaken the right to religious liberty upon which our country was founded.
On Friday, February 10, the Administration issued the final rules. By their very terms, the rules were reaffirmed “without change.” The mandate to provide the illicit services remains. The exceedingly narrow exemption for churches remains. Despite the outcry, all the threats to religious liberty posed by the initial rules remain.
Religious freedom is a fundamental right of all. This right does not depend on any government’s decision to grant it: it is God-given, and just societies recognize and respect its free exercise. The free exercise of religion extends well beyond the freedom of worship. It also forbids government from forcing people or groups to violate their most deeply held religious convictions, and from interfering in the internal affairs of religious organizations.
Recent actions by the Administration have attempted to reduce this free exercise to a “privilege” arbitrarily granted by the government as a mere exemption from an all-encompassing, extreme form of secularism. The exemption is too narrowly defined, because it does not exempt most non-profit religious employers, the religiously affiliated insurer, the self-insured employer, the for-profit religious employer, or other private businesses owned and operated by people who rightly object to paying for abortion inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception. And because it is instituted only by executive whim, even this unduly narrow exemption can be taken away easily.
In the United States, religious liberty does not depend on the benevolence of who is regulating us. It is our “first freedom” and respect for it must be broad and inclusive—not narrow and exclusive. Catholics and other people of faith and good will are not second class citizens. And it is not for the government to decide which of our ministries is “religious enough” to warrant religious freedom protection.
This is not just about contraception, abortion-causing drugs, and sterilization—although all should recognize the injustices involved in making them part of a universal mandated health care program. It is not about Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals. It is about people of faith. This is first and foremost a matter of religious liberty for all. If the government can, for example, tell Catholics that they cannot be in the insurance business today without violating their religious convictions, where does it end? This violates the constitutional limits on our government, and the basic rights upon which our country was founded.
Much remains to be done. We cannot rest when faced with so grave a threat to the religious liberty for which our parents and grandparents fought. In this moment in history we must work diligently to preserve religious liberty and to remove all threats to the practice of our faith in the public square. This is our heritage as Americans. President Obama should rescind the mandate, or at the very least, provide full and effective measures to protect religious liberty and conscience.
Above all, dear brothers, we rely on the help of the Lord in this important struggle. We all need to act now by contacting our legislators in support of the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, which can be done through our action alert on www.usccb.org/conscience.
We invite you to share the contents of this letter with the faithful of your diocese in whatever form, or by whatever means, you consider most suitable. Let us continue to pray for a quick and complete resolution to this and all threats to religious liberty and the exercise of our faith in our great country.
Timothy Cardinal Dolan
Archbishop of New York
President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Most Reverend William E. Lori
Bishop of Bridgeport
Chairman, Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty
This letter of Dolan's is wonderful--a STRONG letter from OUR Cardinal Dolan.
Great letter.
Notice that in his letter, the Cardinal is bound by convention to call maiming (sterilization), infanticide (abortion), and induced infertility (contraception), “healthcare.”
This is 1984’s “doublespeak.” It determines the outcome of the debate before it begins.
We need an anti-euphemism for unhealthy “healthcare,” but I’m at a loss. Suggestions?
Gooooooooooooooooooo Cardinal Dolan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cardinal Dolan, let me introduce you to another "God given right": To keep and bear arms"
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
I better hold my tongue. These guys are starting to make me sick.
obummer should have never lied to Dolan back in December, telling him that an exemption would be given to Catholics and then bending to the wymen {Valarie, Nancy and Moochelle} that run this fag boi.
The Catholics bishops would have been quiet and obummer wouldn't have this fire storm to deal with.
Don't let the msm spin this kerfuffle into how well this religious fervor is playing into obummer's plan, it is not, and more over, obummer knows that he stepped on his condom covered crank.
If obummer prayed, he'd be praying for a do over.
obummer's chickens are coming home... to roost.
yeah go. He was for obamacare before he was against it.
he's bought and paid for.
“he’s bought and paid for.”
_________________________________
Care to substantiate that?
He's absolutely correct. "We are endowed by Our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". Someone needs to inform "Professor" Hussein 0bama that government derives it's power from the "consent of the governed", and I for one sure in HELL ain't consenting!
bkmk
They are ducking a political confrontation with Obama and plunking it all down on the courts. A very foolhardy and dangerous strategy.
If he wins re-election and they lose the case it is all gonna be over.
Wonderful. And what about the rest of our freedoms? If a religious exemption were granted, would the rest of Obama's Health Control be just fine and dandy?
What the good bishops fail to recognize is that the problem is not the chemical abortion mandate, it's the government assuming the power to make ANY such mandate. It's Obama Care itself.
I find their support of Obama Care "as long as there's no skin off my nose" attitude appalling.
Obama’s chickens are coming home to roast.
Thanks again sent to my priest and deacon and I will be seeing the Bishop this weekend!
Amen!
When the struggle is between Obama and the Catholic Church over the right to life, which is a God-given right that the Founding Fathers said was “inalienable,” why do you persistently come down harshly against the Catholic Church, and thereby effectively in favor of Obama.
I know you hate the Catholic Church, and that seems to be your primary motivation. But think it over. Baptist churches are also strongly objecting to this imposition against religious freedom and the right to life, and have filed a lawsuit against it. This is the kind of issue where Catholics and Protestants should be working together against an agreed evil, not kicking each other at every opportunity.
I like Catholics. Great people. I have worried that the Bishops in the past were only to happy to jump in bed with the Democratic party. This is a great change for the better. But, Issa talks the talk on Holder but nothing happens so I will wait to see if Dolan has a stick or not.
You know nothing, imbecile.
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