KEEP UP THE FIGHT FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

Catholics fear for their religious freedom supposedly guaranteed under the world’s oldest written constitution. They have not crawled under the rock from which progressives believe they emerged. Rather, many Catholics, including in the hierarchy, are praying and readying the weapon of the ballot against an administration wishing to silence their protests.

President Obama and his self-professed Catholic secretary of health and welfare struck in February with proposed rules to force Catholic institutions – and similarly disposed religious organizations of other denominations – to act contrary to part of their doctrine and consciences.

Sure, say the rules now put into effect without change, dioceses and parishes can have insurance that does not cover abortion, abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives and sterilization services for their employees. But religious hospitals, universities, schools, charitable institutions and the like better cover their employees for such abominations against human life or face crushing fines.

Parishioners of St. Louis church in northern Virginia (and probably most attending Masses in the Arlington Diocese) now recite a prayer from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. They pray “God our Creator” who provided “our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness . . . to bless us in our vigilance for the gift of religious liberty.” The prayer asks for strength of mind and heart readily to “defend our freedom when threatened.” It further asks for “courage in making our voices heard on behalf of the rights of your Church and the freedom of conscience of all people of faith.”

Further, the prayer asks God, in this historic “decisive hour” to withstand every trial and overcome every danger so that “this great land will always be ‘one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’”

Another prayer card, from the Arlington bishop, prays the Sacred Heart of Jesus to convert “hearts to protect religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the sanctity of marriage.”

In addition, parishioners the last two Sundays have supplied those attending Mass at St.Louis with small handouts that encourage readers to “imagine” a government “founded on the right of religious freedom . . . that coerces its citizens to violate their consciences.” Hardly imaginable, until HHS rules come along.

Another asks to image, favorably, signers of the Declaration of Independence “affirming the necessity of forming a new country stating that: ‘all men . . . are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.’” It reminds that unalienable means those rights “cannot be taken away: they are not granted by the government, but rather precede it.”

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, in his similar closing prayers at the Republican and Democratic national conventions citied liberty and life as sacred to our nation that derived its rights from God.

Catholic pastors and their parochial vicars are careful, of course, not to mention a candidate’s name from the pulpit. (The IRS obviously overlooks appearances of candidates at African-American services.)  But Catholics are still free of think of those candidates that would nullify their rights and the rights of the faithful of other religions. A few Protestant institutions have joined Catholic lawsuits against the HHS regulations.

Fighting those administration rules could either come as outright disobedience or just ending services to clients that often include non-Catholics or even outnumber Catholics being served. In Boston, Catholic Charities some time ago quit arranging adoptions rather than place children in the homes of homosexual couples, which government mandates.

It is difficult imaging the University of Notre Dame closing down rather than supplying insurance coverage for birth control pills for female students. But let’s hope the good Holy Cross fathers have the guts to shut the doors if necessary.  

Catholics, locally and nationally, must not give up fighting for their rights. When leaders of other religions come to realize they too are vulnerable, the fight may take on some steam. Currently, the main stream media look at Catholics as second­- or even lower-class citizens, if citizens at all. The longer those rules remain in force, the hotter the issue will grow.

Catholics dare not let it cool off.

 And let no one forget: religious freedom is the first God-given right recognized by the United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights.