Update on the Battle for Religious Liberty

Update on the Battle for Religious Liberty
In pursuit of the truth - cinops be gone - Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012
(Here are 3 articles from the Catalyst, Cath. Relig. & Civil Rights Journal- Sept./2012.)

Fight for Religious Liberty Mounts
The U.S. bishops made it clear over the summer that the Fortnight for Freedom was hardly the extent of their efforts to challenge the HHS mandate.

Daniel Cardinal DiNardo heralded the inclusion of the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act, and key provisions from the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, in the appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2013 of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor/HHS. These measures would strengthen the right of health care providers not to provide for abortion, and protect religious entities who object to those parts of ObamaCare they deem objectionable.

Business Owners V. ObamaCare
U.S. District Judge John Kane recently issued a warning to the Obama administration by granting an injunction that allowed the owners of a private company not to provide abortifacients, contraceptives, and sterilization services to their employees as mandated by ObamaCare.

The ruling in Newland v. Sebelius meant that the administration not only has to contend with Catholic non-profits who object to providing immoral services in their healthcare plans, they must deal with Catholics in the private sector who similarly object. By invoking the Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment religious liberty guarantees, the plaintiffs broke new ground for private employers.

Lawyers for the Obama administration were taken aback when Kane sided with the Catholic owners of Hercules Industries. The attorneys for the government were correct when they maintained that if the injunction were granted, it would mean that they would be faced with a flood of requests seeking an exemption. “These interests are countered,” Kane said, “ and indeed outweighed, by the public interest in the free exercise of religion.”

We will do what we can to get the word out to all Catholic business owners; the time to revolt is now. There is no virtue in complying with a government edict that violates the conscience rights of Catholics, independent of whether they work in the public or private sector. But there is great virtue in suing the administration by invoking the religious liberty principles as articulated in this case.

Obama Spins Catholic Dialogue
At an August campaign stop, President Obama addressed the HHS mandate saying, “We worked with the Catholic hospitals and universities to find a solution that protects both religious liberty and a woman’s health.” The president also said that Mitt Romney “joined the far right of his party to support a bill that would allow any employer to deny contraceptive coverage to their employees.”

Regarding the first remark, Obama was singularly dishonest. On February 8, Archbishop William Lori, who chairs the bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, said point blank that “no one from this administration has approached the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops for discussions on this matter of a possible ‘compromise.’” Was Obama suggesting that Archbishop Lori was lying? Furthermore, on Feb. 13, Lori made it clear that only after the original HHS mandate of Jan. 20 was revised and ready to be announced on Feb. 10 did the White House contact Archbishop Timothy Dolan, head of the bishops’ conference.

Regarding the other remarks, Obama was referencing the Blunt Amendment*; it secured conscience exemptions for health care providers. Not only was it not a product of the “far right,” it lost by only three votes in the U.S. Senate, with three Democrats joining with the Republicans; one Democrat was Senator Bob Casey, hardly, “a far right” zealot … a March New York Times poll showed that 57% of Americans believe that religiously affiliated employers should be able to opt out of the HHS mandate…

George H. Kubeck - *“It failed to pass because 10 CINOP Senators voted to defeat the Amendment.”