Archive: “News and Commentary” Category
Posted by John Jansen (April 2, 2012 at 1:54 pm)
Cardinal Timothy Dolan gave a lengthy and candid interview this weekend with James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal in which he reiterated the Catholic Church’s opposition to the “radical, unprecedented, and dramatically intrusive” HHS Mandate.
Early on, Dolan recounts his conversation with President Barack Obama following their 45-minute discussion at an Oval Office meeting last November:
“I said, ‘I’ve heard you say, first of all, that you have immense regard for the work of the Catholic Church in the United States in health care, education and charity. . . . I have heard you say that you are not going to let the administration do anything to impede that work and . . . that you take the protection of the rights of conscience with the utmost seriousness. . . . Does that accurately sum up our conversation?’ [Mr. Obama] said, ‘You bet it does.'”
The archbishop asked for permission to relay the message to the other bishops. “You don’t have my permission, you’ve got my request,” the president replied.
But as we all know from the way subsequent events played out, this “request” was soon forgotten. [Continue reading …]
Posted by Eric Scheidler (March 30, 2012 at 5:41 pm)
Now that last week’s enormously successful Rally for Religious Freedom is behind us—with over 63,000 Americans taking part in 145 cities from Maine to Hawaii, and literally hundreds of news stories reporting that our fight against the HHS Mandate is about religious freedom—it’s time to look to the future.
We still have a long road ahead to stop the HHS Mandate, but the March 23 Rally creates a strong grassroots foundation to build upon.
My Stand Up Rally co-director Monica Miller and I are carefully planning our next major action in this fight, but in the meantime I want to offer four steps you can take right now to continue your efforts to reverse the HHS Mandate. [Continue reading …]
Posted by Matt Yonke (March 29, 2012 at 5:06 pm)
It was great to see Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, appear on The O’Reilly Factor last night.
Bill had some great questions and the Cardinal was able to speak out about the place of religion in public life. O’Reilly asked if the bishops wanted to be a force in political life, to which Dolan deftly answered, “No, I want my people to be a force in public life!”, rightly placing the locus of activity with the laity.
Later in the interview, Dolan said: [Continue reading …]
Posted by Matt Yonke (March 28, 2012 at 4:44 pm)
Here at National Rally Headquarters we’ve been receiving reports from last Friday’s Rally for Religious Freedom from all across the country.
The sheer amount of reporting, both from the press and the local Rally Captains and attendees has been so huge it couldn’t possibly be cataloged in a blog post. So we’re going to bring you a selection of reports to give you a glimpse of the scope of this historic event.
Today we’ll look at San Francisco, California; Owensboro, Kentucky; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Goshen, New York.
One of the larger of the over 140 Rallies took place in San Francisco, California where over 1,000 came to Rally outside the HHS building.
You can see video of all their featured speakers here, but don’t miss the moving speech below from Fr. Joseph Fessio: [Continue reading …]
Posted by John Jansen (March 27, 2012 at 4:34 pm)
The March 23 Nationwide Rally for Religious Freedom was such a stunning success due in no small part to the tremendous outpouring of support from dozens of Catholic bishops—led by no less than Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York and the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Cardinal Dolan himself issued a letter of support that was read at the Rally for Religious Freedom held on Wall Street, in the heart of his Archdiocese.
The Cardinal’s Letter begins: [Continue reading …]
Posted by Monica Migliorino Miller (March 25, 2012 at 1:07 pm)
So What can we learn from what happened March 23? Why were these rallies—in over 140 cities and drawing more than 50,000 participants from a broad cross-section of America—such a tremendous success? And where do we go from here?
As co-director the the nationwide Stand Up for Religious Freedom and a pro-life activist with four decades of grassroots experience, I’d like to share the following observations:
The Church is beginning to wake-up!
Truly, we see that the Church is stepping up to the social and political attacks on faith that seek to send Christians (and all people of faith) back to the catacombs.
Pray for Catholic Bishops, pray for Protestant pastors, pray for all religious leaders that they will have the courage to not waver no matter what the People of God must suffer!
The grassroots faithful are taking a stand!
The only real explanation for the incredible turn-out for these rallies is that rank and file Christians and people of religious faith see that they must make a real, public response to this HHS Mandate and work to rescind it! This opposition must not die out! [Continue reading …]
Posted by Matt Yonke (March 24, 2012 at 11:09 am)
The Nationwide Rally for Religious Freedom was an outstanding success. So huge the media simply could not ignore the Rallies as they sometimes do with conservative events.
Rally co-chair Eric Scheidler appeared on Fox News twice in the leadup to the Rally—watch yesterday’s interview to the right—and they covered the New York City Rally live. Eric also appeared on the Laura Ingraham Show and other major commentators like Glenn Beck covered and promoted the Rallies.
I’ve been involved in grassroots activism for years, including protests that have drawn national attention, and I’ve never seen as much secular, mainstream media coverage as the Nationwide Rally garnered.
Check out the results of a Google News search for “Rally for Religious Freedom”. News outlets nationwide covered these Rallies because of the huge numbers involved.
Thanks to everyone who came and made this a major media event and the first step on the road to defeat President Obama’s HHS Mandate!
Posted by John Jansen (March 22, 2012 at 2:10 pm)
If you attend one of 140 Nationwide Rally for Religious Freedom locations tomorrow, you’re sure to get questions from passersby like, “What are you guys doing here?” and “What is the HHS Mandate, anyway?”
That’s why we’ve prepared an HHS Mandate Fact Sheet [PDF] for organizers to distribute to the general public, which contains FAQ style questions and answers on the HHS Mandate, along with plus some practical action items for continuing the fight.
The Fact Sheet addresses the following questions:
- What is the HHS Mandate and how does it violate religious freedom?
- Isn’t this really all about providing access to contraception?
- Didn’t President Obama work out these religious objections?
- What can I do to help stop the HHS Mandate?
We recommend that organizers print enough copies of the Fact Sheet to distribute to everyone who attends a Rally, and enough additional copies to give out to passersby who are interested in learning more about the HHS Mandate and its assault on religious freedom.
You can download the HHS Mandate Fact Sheet here [PDF]. Get informed, and spread the word!
Posted by John Jansen (March 19, 2012 at 10:01 am)
The Nationwide Rally for Religious Freedom continues to attract great media coverage.
Just this morning, a lengthy article appeared in the National Catholic Register:
The Nationwide Rally for Religious Freedom is set to take place on Friday, March 23, in more than 100 cities across the country. From Hawaii to Maine, citizens are preparing to let their voices be heard on the value of religious freedom. Meeting places include historic sites, congressional offices and federal buildings. The theme for the rally is “Stand Up for Religious Freedom — Stop the HHS Mandate!”
The rallies, which are scheduled to take place on the second anniversary of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly called Obamacare), are being organized by the Pro-Life Action League and by Citizens for a Pro-Life Society in response to the recent Department of Health and Human Services mandate requiring most employers’ health-insurance plans to provide co-pay-free sterilization, contraception and abortion-causing drugs.
The mandate is unacceptable to Eric Scheidler of the Pro-Life Action League, who is spearheading the rallies. [Continue reading …]
Posted by Matt Yonke (March 16, 2012 at 5:38 pm)
With the Nationwide Rally for Religious Freedom now only a week away, 12 17 Catholic bishops are signed on to speak at various Rallies across the country, with more sending letters, messages or their Apostolic Blessing.
We’re so excited to have the support of these brave twelve fifteen and we’re eager for more of their brother bishops to join the effort, too.
The Catholic bishops are the ones who called for resistance to the President’s Mandate and it’s great to see them supporting our response.
Here’s the list of bishops attending Rallies so far: [Continue reading …]
