One of the first responses to the news of President Obama’s pernicious HHS Mandate was the Stop the HHS Mandate petition put together by Al Kresta and Ave Maria Radio. Sign the petition right now to make your voice heard!
The petition, which is nearing 77,000 signatures right now, calls on President Obama to remain true to his words when he spoke at Notre Dame in 2009. There the president spoke of tolerance of those with differing views and respect for conscience.
But this Mandate is the exact opposite. It is coercive and intolerant. As Michael Sean Winters of the National Catholic Reporter noted, it is a betrayal of liberalism.
In a courageous statement released today, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have vowed to continue their vigorous efforts to stop President Obama’s HHS Mandate.
The statement, released by the USCCB’s highest body, the Administrative Committee, said the bishops are “strongly unified and intensely focused in [their] opposition to the various threats to religious freedom in our day.”
Concisely stating the crux of the issue which the media routinely and seemingly willfully refuses to acknowledge, the bishops said:
This is not about access to contraception, which is ubiquitous and inexpensive [Continue reading …]
The week after the March 23 Rally for Religious Freedom, the US Supreme Court is hearing three days of arguments regarding the Affordable Care Act—the healthcare bill that has brought the HHS Mandate upon us among other deeply troubling concerns.
So on Sunday, March 25 from 2 to 4 p.m., people of faith will hold a vigil to Encircle the Court in Prayer, surrounding the Supreme Court building in prayer that justice may be done in these proceedings. You are invited to be a part of this historic event.
Specifically, prayers will be offered that whatever conclusions the Supreme Court reaches on the Affordable Care Act, that the religious freedom and freedom of conscience will be respected, that there will be no taxpayer subsidizing of abortion, and that the US Constitution will be honored. [Continue reading …]
It’s been a great encouragement to see religious leaders of many faith traditions, not just Catholics, speaking out against Obama’s HHS Mandate since it is decidedly not just a Catholic issue.
This weekend, Anglican pastor Fr. Kevin Miller preached a home run of a homily, lighting a fire under his congregation at Church of the Resurrection in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
Fr. Kevin made it perfectly clear that this issue will effect them as Anglicans. Drawing on the long tradition of Christians engaging in social activism, Fr. Kevin gave a clear call to action and encouraged them to get involved in fighting it in every way they can—including joining in the March 23 Rally in Chicago!
Listen to Fr. Kevin’s inspiring homily here. If your priest or pastor hasn’t spoken out about the Mandate, send them the link and encourage them to do so. Thanks to Fr. Kevin and all the courageous clergy who are inspiring the faithful to get active and stand up for religious liberty!
Last week the Stand Up for Religious Freedom Coalition highlighted a recent letter sent by Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), to his brother bishops.
Therein, Cardinal Dolan repeatedly underscored the fact that the HHS Mandate is first and foremost an assault on religious freedom, and that is how we need to frame this issue.
One of the the most striking passages in the letter reads as follows:
At a recent meeting between staff of the bishops’ conference and the White House staff, our staff members asked directly whether the broader concerns of religious freedom—that is, revisiting the straight-jacketing mandates, or broadening the maligned exemption—are all off the table. They were informed that they are. So much for “working out the wrinkles.” Instead, they advised the bishops’ conference that we should listen to the “enlightened” voices of accommodation, such as the recent, hardly surprising yet terribly unfortunate editorial in America. The White House seems to think we bishops simply do not know or understand Catholic teaching and so, taking a cue from its own definition of religious freedom, now has nominated its own handpicked official Catholic teachers.
The very first freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment is that of freedom of religion — which is most emphatically not limited merely to freedom of worship — and explicitly states that “prohibiting the free exercise thereof” is a no-no. [Continue reading …]
President Obama’s HHS Mandate effects everyone, but it affects young people in a most grave way.
That’s because the encroachment on religious freedom that’s starting right now with contraception is a first step toward eroding the longstanding tradition of robust religious freedom in our nation to an anemic “freedom of worship”.
If this progression is allowed to continue, our young people will be the ones paying the price with the loss of their freedoms.
That’s why we’re expecting a strong youth presence at the Nationwide Rally for Religious Freedom. We’ve already had reports of high school and college youth groups attending, youth choirs singing, young people speaking at the Rallies and more. [Continue reading …]
Fr. Claude Burns (a.k.a. Fr. Pontifex) has put the dire threat to religious freedom to a stirring spoken word with the help of our friends at Spirit Juice Studios.
Check it out and share it with your friends and spread it through your social media using the “Share This” button below!
One of the more fascinating commentaries on the HHS Mandate that has appeared recently is that written by University of St. Thomas law professor Michael Stokes Paulsen, entitled “Obama’s Contraception Cram-down: The Pork Precedent.”
Paulsen’s use of the words “cram-down” was quite deliberate, calling it “a perfect term” to describe the HHS’s policy:
The whole point, it seems, is to override religious objections to such a policy to the maximum extent politically possible, out of an intense ideological commitment to contraception and abortion as ‘preventive health care.’ It is vital, the ideologues say, to prevail over religious objections precisely in order to advance, and permanently entrench, this particular ideology and, further, to vindicate the power of government to impose such policies on everyone. Religious objections must be overcome, in part for the sake of overcoming religious objections.
He goes on to say that the HHS Mandate calls to mind a story from the book of Fourth Maccabees, one of the books of the “Apocrypha.”
In the second century B.C., the Seleucid Emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes decreed that all Jews would be forced to violate their consciences by eating pork and food sacrificed to idols. [Continue reading …]
Posted by Eric Scheidler (March 7, 2012 at 2:10 am)
My good friend and fellow pro-life warrior Fr. Frank Pavone, head of Priests for Life, has just issued a strong statement of encouragement and support for the Nationwide Rally for Religious Freedom. Father Frank was one of the first pro-life leaders I reached out to when I first conceived the Rally plan with my co-chair, Monica Miller.
Father Frank declares:
The growth of the Stand Up For Religious Freedom Coalition is one of the most encouraging developments in the response of the American people to the HHS Mandate. The Coalition makes clear that this fight is not just a matter of the Catholic Church and the bishops. This is a fight for America and for religious freedom, a Constitutional right that belongs to every American, and a basic human right that belongs to every human being.
Priests for Life, and I personally, am proud to be among the first to join forces with my colleagues Eric Scheidler and Monica Miller to launch this effort, which will go far beyond the March 23 rallies. This is a fight we will conduct for as long as it takes, and through a wide variety of activities that will be needed to win the victory.
Thanks for the kind words, Father Frank! I’m honored that we’re working together on this urgent battle to defend out cherished religious liberty.
The president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan, issued a letter [PDF] to his brother bishops on Friday in which he strongly hinted that the USCCB intends to file a legal challenge to the Obama Administration’s HHS Mandate:
[O]ur bishops’ conference, many individual religious entities, and other people of good will are working with some top-notch law firms who feel so strongly about this that they will represent us pro bono. In the upcoming days, you will hear much more about this encouraging and welcome development.
As with so many of the public statements issued by U.S. Bishops regarding the HHS Mandate, Cardinal Dolan did not mince words, calling the mandates, at various places, “choking,” “suffocating,” and “strait-jacketing.” [Continue reading …]
One of the first responses to the news of President Obama’s pernicious HHS Mandate was the Stop the HHS Mandate petition put together by Al Kresta and Ave Maria Radio. Sign the petition right now to make your voice heard!
In a 
The week after the March 23 Rally for Religious Freedom, the US Supreme Court is hearing three days of arguments regarding the Affordable Care Act—the healthcare bill that has brought the HHS Mandate upon us among other deeply troubling concerns. 
It’s been a great encouragement to see religious leaders of many faith traditions, not just Catholics, speaking out against Obama’s HHS Mandate since it is decidedly not just a Catholic issue.
Last week the Stand Up for Religious Freedom Coalition 
President Obama’s HHS Mandate effects everyone, but it affects young people in a most grave way.
One of the more fascinating commentaries on the HHS Mandate that has appeared recently is that written by University of St. Thomas law professor Michael Stokes Paulsen, entitled “Obama’s Contraception Cram-down: The Pork Precedent.”
My good friend and fellow pro-life warrior Fr. Frank Pavone, head of Priests for Life, has just issued a strong statement of encouragement and support for the Nationwide Rally for Religious Freedom. Father Frank was one of the first pro-life leaders I reached out to when I first conceived the Rally plan with my co-chair, Monica Miller.