| Politics

Pray for Belmont Abbey College and stand with them for Life. They are showing the courage all Catholics must demonstrate.

BELMONT, NC (Catholic Online) – The Congress of the United States is in recess. This is the time when elected officials normally meet in Town Hall sessions with their constituents and take a vacation. However, it has become a long, hot summer as record numbers turn out in Town Hall meetings across the country expressing serious reservations over the proposed Health care Reform legislation being advanced by the Obama administration.

The most serious concern raised is how this reform would affect our first neighbors, children in the womb. Catholics, other Christians, other people of faith and all people of good will who insist that Abortion is not Health Care are sending a loud message. We are insisting upon explicit Pro-Life protections in any Health Care Legislation. The proponents of the legislation have been dismissive of our concerns and accuse us of scare tactics. The danger of the current plan, without explicit statutory protection of unborn human persons, becomes even more obvious in the wake of what just happened in Belmont, North Carolina. Let me explain.

Belmont Abbey College is nestled in the plush green rolling hills of Belmont, North Carolina. The campus could provide the backdrop for a film depicting the idyllic Catholic College. Founded by and still served by Benedictine Monks, it provides a visual witness to the beauty of the Benedictine mission of “work and prayer” and the Order’s significant role in helping to birth the great European Universities out of the Monasteries of the Middle Ages. The Monastery on campus is a symbol of the dynamic Catholic faith, life and culture which characterizes this Catholic College.

What is more appealing than even its beauty is Belmont Abbey’s dedication to handing on the fullness of Catholic faith, thought and culture to their student body. It has an overt commitment to teaching the fullness of the Catholic Christian faith and infusing in its graduates a Catholic worldview. The President of the College, Dr. Bill Thierfelder, is right out of Central casting. With a background in athletics and Sports medicine, he has dedicated his academic leadership to promoting a truly Catholic, fully human, virtue centered lifestyle on campus.

When I first met him I was struck by his height and his gregarious manner. He could have just stepped off the basketball court. As I listened to him speak, it became clear that this was a man who understands the fullness of the Catholic vision for the human person, the family and the social order. He also takes seriously the essential role of the Catholic academy in training the new missionaries for the New Evangelization of every segment of the contemporary culture. Finally, he has the courage required of a Catholic leader.

In 2007, a faculty member discovered that under the College’s existing Health Insurance Plan, anti-life and anti-family products and procedures were potentially covered, including abortion, contraception and sterilization. The College, a Catholic institution committed to the infallible teaching of the Catholic Church concerning the sanctity of life, removed the provisions. President Thierfelder explained this action in a letter he sent to students, faculty and friends of the College with this refreshingly clear statement:

“The teaching of the Catholic Church on this moral issue is clear. The responsibility of the College as a Catholic College sponsored by the monks of Belmont Abbey to follow Church teaching is equally clear. There was no other course of action possible if we were to operate in fidelity to our mission and to our identity as a Catholic College.” He was absolutely correct. Belmont Abbey College was just being Catholic!

Properly, the College then amended the health insurance plan to ensure that such anti-life and anti-family procedures and products were not available. Because this is a Catholic institution, the exemptions under both State and Federal law were clear, or so most would have thought, including this constitutional lawyer. However, a complaint was filed by eight faculty members with the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) alleging that the exclusion of these “services” constituted discrimination against women in violation of both North Carolina and Federal law. An investigation ensued.

In March of 2009 the College Administration received a “Dismissal and Notice of Rights” determination letter from the EEOC indicating that they were closing the file. As a constitutional lawyer of almost thirty years, I know that such letters usually indicate the Commission’s intention to dismiss the claim. The College understandably interpreted it as an indication that the Commission found that the College’s decision to amend the plan did not violate the law.

So, imagine the shock as summer was winding to an end and the Administration received a “determination letter” from the U.S. Equal ...