Renewed effort to change the HHS imposed mandate

St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church

The Pastor

My dear brothers and sisters, with the help and ideas of Regina Aune, who works with me as president of the Pastoral Council of the parish, I wanted to write these lines to reflect again on an issue that directly affects the Catholic Church in the USA.

Several weeks ago, a letter from Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller concerning the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate requiring religious institutions to provide contraceptives, abortifacient drugs, and sterilization in their insurance plans was read at all the Sunday Masses.  Because this is a serious and significant issue of the violation of all Americans’ religious liberties, I want to provide you with an update on further developments regarding the mandate. Although there was a supposed “accommodation” by President Obama and HHS regarding this mandate, there was in fact no change to the original mandate.  The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) lists six (6) things that everyone should know about the mandate.  These six things are:

1. The mandate does not exempt Catholic charities, schools, universities, or    

hospitals.

2. The mandate forces these institutions and others against their conscience, to pay 

for things they consider immoral.

3. The mandate forces coverage of sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs and

devices as well as contraception.

4. Catholics of all political persuasions are unified in their opposition to the mandate.

5. Many other religious and secular people and groups have spoken out strongly

against the mandate.

6. The federal mandate is much stricter than existing state mandates.

In a letter to all U.S. Bishops sent on 21 February, Cardinal Dolan, President of the USCCB, and Bishop Lori, Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, said:

“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. 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. 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. . . This is first and foremost a matter of religious liberty for all. 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 of 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.”

As Cardinal Dolan states, this is a religious liberty issue for all Americans.  On 22 February, the New Hampshire House of Representatives passed House Resolution 29, which condemned the HHS mandate by a vote of 227-121.  Seven states—Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas--have filed suit to overturn the mandate.  Additionally, EWTN, Priests for Life, Ave Maria University, Belmont Abbey College, and Colorado Christian College have filed suit to overturn the mandate.  The group Evangelicals and Catholics Together has issued a statement, In Defense of Religious Freedom, signed by evangelical Protestants and Catholics.  In addition to Catholics who have been outspoken in defense of religious liberty, all the Orthodox bishops in the United States, Jewish groups, Mormons, Protestants of all denominations, and people of no particular religious beliefs have been outspoken in the call for repeal and rescission of the mandate. 

Charles Kadlec, in Forbes magazine, wrote the following:  “In one of the boldest, most audacious moves ever made by a President of the United States, President Barack Obama is on the brink of successfully rendering moot the very first clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution: ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.’”

Additional and current information is provided on the USCCB website (www.usccb.org), at this site, information regarding the fight against the mandate is updated frequently with suggestions about how to work to rescind the mandate.  The only way in which this mandate will be rescinded is if the American people demand it.  One way to ensure the rescission of the mandate is to let our representatives in Congress know that we want action on this mandate.  The congressmen can be contacted through their web and/or email sites on the Internet.  Additionally, letters can be sent to the two state senators at their Washington offices. To contact the senators, use the following addresses:

Senator John Cornyn Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison

517 Hart Senate Office Bldg. 284 Russell Senate Office Bldg

Washington DC 20510 Washington DC 20510

202-224-2934 202-224-5922

Go to the Internet to find the addresses of the House representative for the district in which you live.  Legislators can be contacted in support of the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act through the action alert on the USCCB  web site, www.usccb.org/conscience

And, to quote again from Archbishop Garcia-Siller’s letter of several weeks ago, “as a community of faith we must commit ourselves to prayer and fasting that wisdom and justice may prevail. Without God we can do nothing; with God nothing is impossible. . .”

Our actions must be prayer, fasting, and contacting our legislators to rescind this unconstitutional mandate. May the Lord give us all the strength we need to raise our voices together in defense of our rights, defending the teachings of our Mother, the Catholic Church, in defense of life!

Fraternally yours in Christ,

Fr. Agustin Estrada.