ATLANTA — As the U.S. bishops continue their battle against the federal government’s contraception mandate, they have been under increasing pressure to focus on a defense of the free exercise of Catholic institutions and set aside the issue of conscience protections for individual employers who oppose the new law on religious or moral grounds.
But Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, the chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, yesterday embraced the conscience rights for small businessmen and other employers who oppose the inclusion of contraception, abortion drugs and sterilization in private employee health plans.
In an opening statement June 13 that marked the start of a spirited interlude of speeches and discussion on domestic religious-liberty concerns, followed by two presentations on threats to international religious freedom abroad, Archbishop Lori noted the drum beat of critics who want the conference to limit the scope of its agenda.
“The idea that individual persons have a right to conscientious objection, as against coercive government action like the HHS mandate — though firmly established in both the teaching of the Church and the policy of the conference for generations — has not merely been called into question, but mocked as some kind of novel or marginal theory,” he said.
Archbishop Lori’s firm stance was backed up by a strong statement from the papal nuncio, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who attended the meeting.
“It goes without saying that the Catholic Church in the United States is living in a particularly challenging period of its history,” Archbishop Viganò told the Atlanta meeting, making it clear that Pope Benedict XVI endorsed their initiative.
“Of course, I am thinking of the whole question of freedom of religion and of conscience,” the nuncio added, in a departure from more diplomatic language. "The Church must speak with one voice. The fundamental tactic of the enemy is to see the Church divided." The nuncio suggested that the Pope's addresses during the U.S. bishops' recent ad limina visits provided a road map for the future.
A host of constitutional scholars and commentators have waited to see how the bishops would likely respond to the mounting pressure to backtrack on individual conscience rights. Alarm bells went off after some bishops seemed to reserve their ammunition for challenging the mandate’s narrow religious exemption for Church-affiliated institutions and ignored the concerns of small businessmen.
On Monday, two days before the bishops met in Atlanta, Public Discourse, a website that addresses such issues and is closely affiliated with Robert George, the professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University and a leading Catholic public intellectual, posted a defense of conscience rights.
“The key to understanding conscience rights correctly is to recognize that there is a world of difference between a law that makes me do something I don’t want to do and a law that makes me do something I have an obligation not to do. The former is an annoyance, the latter an assault on my moral integrity,” wrote Melissa Moschella, who recently earned her Ph.D. in politics at Princeton.
“[As a] pluralistic liberal democracy, we should indeed bend over backwards to craft our laws so that individuals will never be unnecessarily coerced into violating their consciences.”
‘The Catholic Both/And’
Archbishop Lori, for his part, laid out the principles that have shaped the conference’s statements and efforts to pursue legal and legislative remedies to the contraception mandate approved on Jan. 20. He stressed that they did not only address the federal government’s unacceptably narrow religious exemption, which excludes Catholic hospitals, universities and social-service agencies, but also endorsed individual conscience rights.
The USCCB administrative committee unanimously approved “United for Religious Freedom” at its March meeting. It “discusses the concerns of both institutions and individuals; and among institutions, both the religious and the non-religious,” he said.
“t shows concern for the consciences not only of employers, but also of the various other stakeholders in the health-insurance process, such as insurers and employees.” An expansive defense of religious liberty, he said, “exemplifies the Catholic both/and,” which is more inclusive and, therefore, unifying.
“The document reflects the full breadth of the applicable Church teaching on religious liberty, not just parts. In this way, the document foresees and forecloses some of the potential divisions that our opponents would create among us.”
A subsequent — and more extensive — statement of the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, “Our First, Most Cherished Liberty,” he noted, also moved beyond a defense of Catholic institutions to embrace “[o]ther Christians; Jews, Muslims and all people of faith; even those who reject religion altogether — the right to religious freedom belongs to all of them,” he stated.
“That is because religious freedom is not only their legal right and proud heritage as Americans, but also a universal human right, one that flows directly from their inherent dignity as human persons."
In further comments on the upcoming “Fortnight for Freedom,” which the Ad Hoc Committee proposed in “Our First, Most Cherished Liberty,” he noted its spiritual focus.
“It involves public action, yes — but it is primarily a matter of prayer and education,” he added, outlining plans for educational and public initiatives that highlight Church teaching on religious freedom, inform the public about ongoing threats to the first freedom, and affirm the need for prayer to change hearts and minds to embrace freedom.
The fortnight will begin on June 21, with a Mass at the Basilica of the Assumption in Baltimore, and end July 4 with another liturgy at the Basilica of the National Shrine in Washington, D.C.
Internal Conflicts
Critics have argued that the bishops’ heavy focus on religious freedom marked a dangerous shift into partisan politics during an election year.
Last month, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne wrote that the bishops’ “Fortnight for Freedom campaign [a 14-day period of prayer, education and action in support of religious freedom] is looking more and more like a direct intervention in this fall’s elections.”
But Archbishop Lori rejected that suggestion.
The fortnight “is strictly about the issue of religious freedom, at all levels of government here in the U.S., as well as abroad — it is not about parties, candidates or elections, as some others have suggested.
He made it clear, however, that the barrage of criticism and attacks from within the Church and without had not diminished his passion for the cause of religious freedom.
The criticism, he said, “should prompt us to do exactly the opposite, for they show us how very great is the need for our teaching, both in our culture and even in our own Church.”
During their discussion about the mandate, several bishops acknowledged that internal Church conflicts, including the very public dispute between the Vatican and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, had weakened their effort to present a united front. Yet the bishops also said they continued to receive support from across the nation.
Mother Joan Paul, who heads the School Sisters of Christ the King, based in Lincoln, Neb., told the Register that she and her fellow sisters stood with the bishops and that one sister had stepped forward to be a plaintiff in a legal challenge to the mandate filed by the attorney general of Nebraska.
"As Catholic educators, we are vitally concerned for the future of our youth and their basic rights. Right now, this issue is critical, and we will do all we can to fight against this mandate," said Mother Joan.
"But our ongoing mission is to empower our youth to become an 'engaged, articulate and well-formed Catholic laity,' as Pope Benedict put it. In the words of Archbishop William Lori at today's USCCB meeting, the 'tools' we can give them are: the love of Christ and the truth about the human person."
Radical Secularism
Throughout the day, other speakers addressed a spectrum of threats posed to the free exercise of Catholic institutions and individual believers in the U.S. and abroad.
Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni of Baghdad, who serves as president of Caritas Iraq, described the catastrophic consequences of wartime violence on the vulnerable Christian minority that has witnessed the flight of co-religionists out of their homeland.
"We have freedom of worship, but we do not have freedom of conscience or of religion," Bishop Warduni told the assembly. "If someone becomes a Christian, they could be killed very easily."
Tom Farr, the director of the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University, reminded the bishops that religious freedom is being pushed to the sidelines in parts of the United Kingdom and Western Europe, the cradle of religious liberty, where secular currents have sought to suppress the public expression of Christian faith.
Farr, in an interview, defended the bishops’ focus on individual conscience rights.
“Archbishop Lori's argument was not new. He was reflecting a long-standing position of the Catholic Church, i.e., that every religious actor — whether individual or institution — must have full equality under the law. This means the right of Catholics and non-Catholics, Christians and non-Christians, to participate in civil society and politics on the basis of their religious beliefs,” said Farr.
Speakers made it clear that the emergence of threats to religious freedom in Europe and the U.S. reflected the rising power of secular forces. “Perhaps the reason we see a loss of religious freedom today is that we are turning a corner in our collective view of religion. We are not exactly like France, where only 4.5% of Catholics go to Mass weekly (down from 27% in 1965). But we are measurably less religious than we were a few decades ago,” suggested John Garvey, the president of The Catholic University of America and a constitutional scholar who has advised the USCCB's Committee for Religious Liberty.
In an eBook to be released June 19, Our First Freedom: On the Gospel of Life and the Protection of Human Dignity and Religious Liberty, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, the USCCB's president, recalls Blessed John Paul II’s encyclical The Gospel of Life and explains how a culture of death that brooks no constraints on its view of freedom will ultimately attack religious beliefs that counter its utilitarian ethos.
Archbishop Lori offered a similar observation. Attacks arising from secular forces and dissident Catholics, he suggested, “show us how far we have fallen and how far we have to climb before we can rest assured that religious freedom stands on firm footing.”
Looking out to the assembly of bishops, he vowed, “We will not fail.”
Joan Frawley Desmond is the Register's senior editor.
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Hello!!!!! Bishop Lori, this is about parties, and your reluctance to name this administration as causing this whole thing about religious freedom should be abandoned. I know the Bishops don’t want to get mixed up in politics, but maybe they should now. Too many Bishops and parish priests didn’t warn their flock of what the Health Mandate consisted of last year! And I think condemnation of the “so-called” Catholics in this administration who is pushing this, particularly Kathleen S. should also be dealt with. I can’t help wondering if President Bush was still in office, and something like this was occurring, there would have been much more discussion among the Bishops in the various dioceses. Right now we need leaders who aren’t afraid of being ostracized, because you can’t expect the lay people who don’t have leaders they can emulate, or priests that aren’t afraid to call a spade a spade to be much help.
Unfortunately the 2012 election and the hoopla that goes with it is a distraction from the undeniable fact that we are truly and quite possibly in a final battle for the soul of America.
The rhetoric and repercussions of past elections have been child’s- play compared to the consequences of our current terms of political engagement inherently involved and the ultimate outcome of this battle.
We simply must begin to grasp the magnitude of this pivotal struggle. A concerted war against individual freedom of conscience and personal development within the moral society of our nation is and has been underway for several years.
The Judea-Christian society born in the 18th century here on American soil which established a Republic that forged a gentle giant of a nation offering its inhabitants hope and freedom and a beacon to the poor or oppressed around the globe drawing millions of them to us is being challenged by the political descendants of despots from past tyrannical governments.
Our heritage would not allow these masters of deceit to ever capture men’s hearts here in the land of the free with the God they openly acknowledged and sought guidance from UNTIL the minds of the young were out of the hands of their parents and into the arms of a far reaching government bureaucracy skillfully crafted and always disguised as a benevolent “care giver”.
Yes, that was the first step; public schools, originally designed for the poor, were recognized as the primary target to begin the eventual transformation of our nation. By the middle of the last century the progressive liberals virtually “owned” and for the most part operated both elementary and secondary (government run and funded) education in America.
The educational “dumbing down” of Americans involved more than the rewriting of history. It had to include a reformation of conscience and destruction of Judeo-Christian morality to accomplish the evil intent of those wanting to break the back of Bible totting flag waving patriots who cling to their right to own guns and provide “prosperity for themselves and their posterity”.
Unlike the sudden and brutal Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which awakened a sleeping giant, this sneak attack was a long silent but deadly poisoning of the minds and morals of a nation until it began to compromise it’s values in the name of “tolerance” or “fairness” or “social justice” weakening it’s will to staunchly defend the principles on which it was founded.
These enemies of liberty with their newly established politically correct language defining our values and legislative agendas are now not only simply within our society they are in political control of our lives at present. Politics is being used as the tool or weapon of the real enemy. We must understand the real enemy is EVIL in all the forms of suggestive information, entertainment, or political theory it can deceitfully use to conceal its character and the only remaining obstacle to its complete success is the waning moral fiber left in the values held by Judeo-Christians patriots of this country.
Thus, it is all together fitting that we not hesitate to use the words and tone of our founders which gave birth to our nation to demand our leaders and the candidates for government office, especially the presidency in particular, to profess those precious values and vow to govern justly by them and to boldly face the critics who dare suggest they are not relevant in today’s political arena.
We can pray our hearts out but we need also to willingly express publicly as well as assure the Father that we do cherish our faith and freedom and deserve His help.
Time is running out. It’s now or never. As students of history and/or an ardent believer in the word of God as given to us in the Gospels, who among us can deny or naively ignore the ramped Evil that is staring us in the face today?
I agree with Bosemarie Kury.
I’m sorry but with the years of go along to get along and tepid responses followed by Christian capitulation to political correctness holding back the faithful’s mounting frustrations with clerical explanations of deep regret, great sorrow, dire concerns over those who have abused our faith and reduced it to the point society sees it as outdated sentiments or old world rituals are no longer sufficient to ease the pain or quiet our fears of having our religious beliefs disqualified as guides to a civilized society and the very foundations upon which our nation and its freedoms were formed.
It is time for the Bishops in the name of the faithful to speak out against all enemies of the faith with tongues sharpened by the Spirit on the fundamental Truth of the gospels and the absolutes of our doctrines without fear of losing their status as friends of Feds in keeping control of the populous. The struggle has reached the point of no return with the current utterly anti-Catholic regime in Washington that day by day with the help of willing so called Catholics in every department of the government succumbing to the lure of evil disguised as entitlement and rights which lead to ruin. This is not loving our neighbor it is leaving them defenseless as the velvet steamroller of socialism is about to crush them and our religious freedoms.
Rosemarie, terrific! You have made the connection between the bishops’ teaching and the need for action on the part of the laity. The bishops articulate the Church’s position, doctrine, teaching—granted, sometimes not perfectly. We, then, in turn, put it into action, and if it needs to be aprtisan, then not only is it within our vocation (as lay people) to do so, it is incumbent for us to. Thanks for articulating what we need to do to follow the teaching of our shepherds.
Yesterday we spent hours watching the Bishop’s Conference on EWTN. It was so distrubing when one Bishop asked the question,‘If Muslims have to pay for HealthCare? Not one person there could answer the question.
We were very distraught about the new ‘Health Care Legislation’ that I personally downloaded it and spent 2 1/2 months reading it.To answer the Bishops question, No, Muslims do not pay as the Koran says insurance is a Tax and they do not pay any form of tax. Neither will illegals pay. So to all my native America family of American citizens, we pay. That means you and me.This legislation is so tyrannical and distructive that it has to be destroyed now.
Inside the Stimulus Legislation was a 600 page, i.e Ethics Panel-Death Panels already established and funded prior to the passing of the corrupt Health Care legislation-H R 3200.For God’s sake would some of the Catholic lawyers please read the Bill prior to the law suit which is coming up shortly.
It is not ” playing politics” to say plainly that the Catholic Church will not give up it’s freedom to practice faith as it has since Christ. I do wish that the parish priests were not so paranoid about seeming to talk politics and/or offending parishioners by speaking about the attack on religious freedom. Unfortunately, they are like most of the citizens in America, asleep, unaware of what is really happening. What we will see is a fading away of freedom and when it is gone, the folks will say, “Why didn’t I stand up when I had the chance?” if you’ve seen the movie, For Greater Glory, you understand that it will take passion and total commitment to resist this tyranny. Right now few have it but I thank God that the U.S. bishops do, lead by the divinely inspired Cardinal Dolan. Viva Cristo Rey!
I wonder why the international plight of Catholics and other Christians did not merit much coverage in this article?
While we can engage in debate and peacefully demonstrate to assert our right to religious liberty in this country, MANY of our brethren worship at a cost of knowing this might be their last day, simply because they are Christian. If we just act like it’s not a big concern for us, it’s not going to go away—it will only get worse, until some of these countries have no Catholic Christian population at all.
Whoever can produce the greatest sense of victimhood (ex. the “War on Women” or conversations with homosexuals emotionally distraught at not being able to be legally married) tend to win the culture wars in the media today. The greatest challenge for the church to win these legal and P.R. wars is to reframe the conversation and demonstrate how people are indeed hurt by immoral legislation - an offended conscience is not enough for the general population to be swayed by, and is difficult to visibly portray and sway opinion, especially in this highly relativistic cultural climate. So if they are claiming there is a “War On Women,” then what about the “War On Babies?” Apparently the death of an infant fetus is of no importance in comparison and is avoided being mentioned, compared to a woman being “inconvenienced,” particularly in cases of casual abortion. Now, on the issue of gay marriage, that’s a bigger challenge, as it’s difficult to produce victims of it other than those with offended consciences. So it is many side with the homosexual marriage agenda as they seem more the victim. But again, that’s what it all boils down to in our shallow times…who is being potrayed in the media as the greater victim?
AMEN rosemarie kury…......... it’s so nice to see you articulate exactly how I and many others feel about this….
Are we talking of an AUTUMN SPRING ?
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