Cardinal Dolan: Cannot Rest When Faced with so Grave a Threat to Religious Liberty
In the United States, religious liberty does not depend on the benevolence of who is regulating us. It is our
"If the government can, for example, tell Catholics that they cannot be in the insurance business today without violating their religious convictions, where does it end? This violates the constitutional limits on our government, and the basic rights upon which our country was founded.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 in history we must work diligently to preserve religious liberty and to remove all threats to the practice of our faith in the public square." (Timothy Cardinal Dolan)
NEW YORK, NY (Catholic Online) - Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, recently returned from Rome, is continuing to provide clear and courageous leadership to the Catholic Church in the United States. We are facing one of the greatest struggles in our history.
We offer below the full text of a letter which was sent on Ash Wednesday, from Cardinal Dolan, to his brother Bishops. It is co-signed by another heroic figure in this critical hour, Bishop William Lori, the Chairman of the Bishops Committee for Religious Liberty.
We ask our readers around the globe to read the letter, distribute it widely, pray for Cardinal Dolan, Bishop Lori and all of our Bishops. We then urge you to take action against this unconstitutional and unjust mandate which threatens the first freedom, religious freedom. (Deacon Keith Fournier, Editor in Chief)
*****
Dear Brother Bishops,
Since we last wrote to you concerning the critical efforts we are undertaking together to protect religious freedom in our beloved country, many of you have requested that we write once more to update you on the situation and to again request the assistance of all the faithful in this important work. We are happy to do so now.
First, we wish to express our heartfelt appreciation to you, and to all our sisters and brothers in Christ, for the remarkable witness of our unity in faith and strength of conviction during this past month. We have made our voices heard, and we will not cease from doing so until religious freedom is restored.
As we know, on January 20, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a decision to issue final regulations that would force practically all employers, including many religious institutions, to pay for abortion inducing drugs, sterilizations, and contraception. The regulations would provide no protections for our great institutions-such as Catholic charities, hospitals, and universities-or for the individual faithful in the marketplace. The regulations struck at the heart of our fundamental right to religious liberty, which affects our ability to serve those outside our faith community.
Since January 20, the reaction was immediate and sustained. We came together, joined by people of every creed and political persuasion, to make one thing resoundingly clear: we stand united against any attempt to deny or weaken the right to religious liberty upon which our country was founded.
On Friday, February 10, the Administration issued the final rules. By their very terms, the rules were reaffirmed "without change." The mandate to provide the illicit services remains. The exceedingly narrow exemption for churches remains. Despite the outcry, all the threats to religious liberty posed by the initial rules remain.
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. The free exercise of religion extends well beyond the freedom of worship. It also forbids government from forcing people or groups to violate their most deeply held religious convictions, and from interfering in the internal affairs of religious organizations.
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. The exemption is too narrowly defined, because it does not exempt most non-profit religious employers, the religiously affiliated insurer, the self-insured employer, the for-profit religious employer, or other private businesses owned and operated by people who rightly object to paying for abortion inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception. And because it is instituted only by executive whim, even this unduly narrow exemption can be taken away easily.
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. It is not about Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals. It is about people of faith. This is first and foremost a matter of religious liberty for all. If the government can, for example, tell Catholics that they cannot be in the insurance business today without violating their religious convictions, where does it end? This violates the constitutional limits on our government, and the basic rights upon which our country was founded.
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 in 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.
Above all, dear brothers, we rely on the help of the Lord in this important struggle. We all need to act now by contacting our legislators in support of the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, which can be done through our action alert
We invite you to share the contents of this letter with the faithful of your diocese in whatever form, or by whatever means, you consider most suitable. Let us continue to pray for a quick and complete resolution to this and all threats to religious liberty and the exercise of our faith in our great country.
Timothy Cardinal Dolan
Archbishop of New York
President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Most Reverend William E. Lori
Bishop of Bridgeport
Chairman, Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty
- - -
Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.
Keywords: Cardinal Dolan, Bishop Lori, HHS Mandate, Religious Liberty, First Amendement, Deacon Keith Fournier
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Wayne
I would key in "What Cardinal Dolan has said on the subject of Same Sex marriage?" on the web. He has spoken out about it. Just surf and you will find an articles on what Timothy Dolan has said. And others as well.
Less than a month ago, many of us sat at Mass and listened to our priests read a letter from the bishop of our diocese regarding the ramifications of the HHS ruling on religious freedom. In most letters, we were urged to fast and pray regarding the matter. Since then, we have heard little from our diocese regarding future action by our bishops and cardinals. Many of us have been following the recommendation of our bishops. In many cases we have become more involved in the political processes of our government. We are engaged in these processes which include: reading about,discussing, responding to, and fully prepared to vote in upcoming elections. We also note that there have been legal challenges filed against the ruling by various entities associated within our faith. When will the laity be informed of other action by our church fathers?
This is a GREAT LETTER and video. Love our NEW CARDINAL Dolan. We will have LIBERTY OF RELIGION RESTORED as its been stolen via a backdoor evil intent.
http://ramblingfollower.blogspot.com/2012/02/morning-mass-and-lenten-lessons-with.html
Wayne: They were in the same place they are now. What news sources do you watch/listen to? I'm not being sarcastic, just curious. God bless.
This Obama regime is heavily protected by a secular press that could care less about religious freedom,proclaims science as the end all in everything we are to believe and then insists that there is no intellegent design to anything at all and certainly no God. Thats total maddness to me! Both the left and right wing factions in this country are ridiculous as the left wants to drive on the left side of the road exclusively and the right wants to exclusively drive on the right side of the road. The moderates have to drive the median strip if there be one. it is all maddness. Rules of the road,there aren't any anymore. This is why the present congress can't get anything done. This is why no one can agree on anything at all. It is all a collision coarse for total chaos. God is Divine law and without God there is no common sense to define fair and equal civil laws to govern moral issues which are after all social issues. Chaos cannot be order in a society that has agenda as a basis for determining all law and changing the ones that certain factions do not want to acknowledge. Even the popular vote is denied as anything to consider valid anymore so the whole democratic process is going the way of any respect for protecting anyone conscience Protections or their religious rights. The technical problems I have had with this website occur on iPads and iPods. I advise all to look for net flix pop ups if any one experiences similar problems.
There is a major deception going on here. Satan has done his work well, but thank our Lord God that the devil's work will be destroyed. It is the season of Lent and all of our prayers fastings and almsgiving can be directed to this end. Obama is a pawn of the evil one who sounds good to the unwary masses, including many catholics. May our dear lord break this deception over His Church and may Our Blessed Mother and St Joseph intercede for us to be strong, courageous and vigilant in this spiritual battle. May archbishop Chaput, and Cardinal Dolan lead us in our return to Truth and catholic Orthodoxy. St Michael the archangel defend us in battle , be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil...In Jesus' magnificance Name we pray, Amen
Net flix pop ups come up every time that I have trouble with this web site. It is the only pop up that I get as I have my computer set to prevent all pop ups. This is only on your website. It comes up with error messages every time and my keyboard locks up some times. Just for your information.
It only took three years of the most anti-Christian reign of the most pro-abortion and anti-American messiah of the progressive liberals and Doug Kmeic’s (don’t make this a single issue election) president to awaken the bishop from their self inflicted politically correct comma of capitulation to the mainstream media’s constant cry for tolerance, diversity, and the administrations version of social justice to replace our centuries old dogma and doctrine of the Catholic Faith. Let the battle to save America and our Judeo-Christian values begin with the Spirit of martyrs to guide us.
GOD BLESS BROTHERS AND SISTERS
WRITE YOUR REPS IN A PEACEFUL MANNER AND LET THEM KNOW WE WANT RELIGIOUS CONSCIENCE RIGHTS FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN OUR COUNTRY.
THEY HAVE TO READ WHAT YOU SENT SO DONT THINK THEY ARENT GETTING THE MESSAGE. SO PLEASE GO OVER TO THEIR WEBSITE IN YOUR RESPECTIVE STATES AND WRITE THEM TODAY. PASS THE WORD TO YOUR FELLOW PARISHONERS. RELIGOUS LIBERTIES ARE PRECIOUS NOW AS THEY EVER HAVE BEEN.
THE CHURCH SHOULD NOT BE RESPONSIBLE IN ANY WAY FOR ABORTION, CONTRACEPTIVES, ABORTIFACIENTS AND NEITHER SHOULD YOU BE OR PAY FOR IT.