The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has released a 12 page Pastoral Letter on Freedom of Conscience and Religion. While addressed to all people of good will, the bishops particularly addressed themselves to “those members of the faithful who find themselves in difficult situations where they may be pressured to act against their religious faith or their conscience.” The document emphasizes that freedom of conscience may be acknowledged by state authority, but state authority does not create it. Among the examples of violations of freedom of conscience, the document cites rules requiring referral for abortion by objecting physicians and the demand that objecting pharmacists dispense contraceptives or the ‘morning after pill.’ It recommends four strategies: affirmation of the role of religion in the public square, upholding a healthy relationship between Church and stated, forming conscience according to truth, and protecting the right to conscientious objection
Category: Religion
New Guinea bishops object to compulsory condom distribution
Catholic Bishops in Papua New Guinea state that their schools will not comply with a government policy requiring the distribution of condoms to students. The Episcopal Conference is prepared to defend its decision in court should the government try to enforce the policy. [Zenit]
American Cardinal on morality of employer cooperation in contraception
In an interview on the Eternal Word Television Network, Raymond Cardinal Burke, Prefect of the highest ecclesiastical court in the Catholic Church, has stated that an employer who pays for insurance coverage for contraception is “formally cooperating” in the sin of contraception, and that such cooperation cannot be justified. [LifeSite News]
American Catholics asked to ‘raise voice in support of the Church”
Bishop William E. Lori has published a four page “Primer on the HHS Health Mandate and Religious Liberty” that succinctly sets out, in question and answer form, the objections of the Catholic bishops in the United States to the federal government’s demand that employers provide health insurance for contraceptives, surgical sterilization and embryocidal drugs and devices.
Different denominations protest Obama administration’s mandate
A statement from a Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Prostestant religious leaders in Pennsylvania supports universal access to health care, but protests the federal government’s plan to force objecting religious employers to provide health care insurance for contraceptives, surgical sterilization and embryocidal drugs and devices. A number of the signatories have no moral objection to contraception. [Post-Gazette]