{"id":690,"date":"2012-04-12T16:36:10","date_gmt":"2012-04-12T23:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=690"},"modified":"2018-03-05T21:49:33","modified_gmt":"2018-03-06T05:49:33","slug":"bishops-issue-call-to-action-to-defend-religious-liberty-urge-strong-lay-involvement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=690","title":{"rendered":"Bishops Issue Call To Action To Defend Religious Liberty: Urge strong lay involvement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Outline threats to First Freedom at all levels of government and abroad<\/h2>\n

Call upon dioceses to pursue religious liberty fortnight, June 21-July 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

NEWS RELEASE<\/strong><\/p>\n

US Conference of Catholic Bishops<\/a><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON\u2014The U.S. bishops have issued a call to action to defend religious liberty and urged laity to work to protect the First Freedom of the Bill of Rights. They outlined their position in \u201cOur First, Most Cherished Liberty.\u201d<\/a> The document was developed by the Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), approved for publication by the USCCB Administrative Committee March 13, and published in English and Spanish April 12.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been staunch defenders of religious liberty in the past. We have a solemn duty to discharge that duty today,\u201d the bishops said in the document, \u201c\u2026 for religious liberty is under attack, both at home and abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n

The document lists concerns that prompt the bishops to act now.\u00a0 Among concerns are:<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate forcing all employers, including religious organizations, to provide and pay for coverage of employees\u2019 contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs even when they have moral objections to them. Another concern is HHS\u2019s defining which religious institutions are\u201creligious enough\u201d to merit protection of their religious liberty.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Driving Catholic foster care and adoption services out of business. Boston, San Francisco, the District of Columbia and Illinois have driven local Catholic Charities adoption or foster care services out of business by revoking their licenses, by ending their government contracts, or both\u2014because those Charities refused to place children with same-sex couples or unmarried opposite-sex couples who cohabit.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Discrimination against Catholic humanitarian services. Despite years of excellent performance by the USCCB\u2019s Migration and Refugee Services in administering contract services for victims of human trafficking, the federal government changed its contract specifications to require USCCB to provide or refer for contraceptive and abortion services in violation of Catholic teaching. Religious institutions should not be disqualified from a government contract based on religious belief, and they do not lose their religious identity or liberty upon entering such contracts. Recently, a federal court judge in Massachusetts turned religious liberty on its head when he declared that such a disqualification is required by the First Amendment\u2014that the government violates religious liberty by allowing Catholic organizations to participate in contracts in a manner consistent with their beliefs on contraception and abortion.<\/p>\n

The statement lists other examples such as laws punishing charity to undocumented immigrants; a proposal to restructure Catholic parish corporations to limit the bishop\u2019s role; and a state university\u2019s excluding a religious student group because it limits leadership positions to those who share the group\u2019s religion.<\/p>\n

Other topics include the history and deep resonance of Catholic and American visions of religious freedom, the recent tactic of reducing freedom of religion to freedom of worship, the distinction between conscientious objection to a just law, and civil disobedience of an unjust law, the primacy of religious freedom among civil liberties, the need for active vigilance in protecting that freedom, and concern for religious liberty among interfaith and ecumenical groups and across partisan lines.<\/p>\n

The bishops decry limiting religious freedom to the sanctuary.<\/p>\n

\u201cReligious liberty is not only about our ability to go to Mass on Sunday or pray the Rosary at home. It is about whether we can make our contribution to the common good of all Americans,\u201d they said. \u201cCan we do the good works our faith calls us to do, without having to compromise that very same faith?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a Catholic issue. This is not a Jewish issue. This is not an Orthodox, Mormon, or Muslim issue. It is an American issue,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

The bishops highlighted religious freedom abroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur obligation at home is to defend religious liberty robustly, but we cannot overlook the much graver plight that religious believers, most of them Christian, face around the world,\u201d they said.\u201cThe age of martyrdom has not passed. Assassinations, bombings of churches, torching of orphanages\u2014these are only the most violent attacks Christians have suffered because of their faith in Jesus Christ. More systematic denials of basic human rights are found in the laws of several countries, and also in acts of persecution by adherents of other faiths.\u201d<\/p>\n

The document ends with a call to action.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we ask is nothing more than that our God-given right to religious liberty be respected. We ask nothing less than that the Constitution and laws of the United States, which recognize that right, be respected.\u201d They specifically addressed several groups: the laity, those in public office, heads of Catholic charitable agencies, priests, experts in communication, and urged each to employ the gifts and talents of its members for religious liberty.<\/p>\n

The bishops called for \u201cA Fortnight for Freedom,\u201d the two-week period from June 21 to July 4\u2014beginning with the feasts of St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher and ending with Independence Day\u2014to focus \u201call the energies the Catholic community can muster\u201d for religious liberty. They also asked that, later in the year, the feast of Christ the King be \u201ca day specifically employed by bishops and priests to preach about religious liberty, both here and abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty include<\/p>\n