We Will Not Comply
IN A RELATED STORY to my last — the Leftists now would prefer schools and charities and hospitals be penalized, fined, and closed rather than be run by Catholic charities, because we do not promote sterility and prenatal infanticide.
Those champions of freedom and progress would rather see children uneducated, the sick unhealed, the poor in the street and the prisoner in the jail go hungry and untended, rather that let our despicable and unclean Christian hands touch them.
This letter sums up the situation:
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever!
I write to you concerning an alarming and serious matter that negatively impacts the Church in the United States directly, and that strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all citizens of any faith.
The federal government, which claims to be “of, by, and for the people,” has just dealt a heavy blow to almost a quarter of those people—the Catholic population—and to the millions more who are served by the Catholic faithful.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that almost all employers, including Catholic employers, will be forced to offer their employees’ health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception.
Almost all health insurers will be forced to include those “services” in the health policies they write. And almost all individuals will be forced to buy that coverage as a part of their policies.
In so ruling, the Obama Administration has cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our Nation’s first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty. And as a result, unless the rule is overturned, we Catholics will be compelled to either violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees (and suffer the penalties for doing so).
The Obama Administration’s sole concession was to give our institutions one year to comply.
We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law.
People of faith cannot be made second class citizens. We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our religious freedom. Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build America’s cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, only to have their posterity stripped of their God given rights. In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties. I hope and trust she can count on this generation of Catholics to do the same. Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less.
And therefore, I would ask of you two things. First, as a community of faith we must commit ourselves to prayer and fasting that wisdom and justice may prevail, and religious liberty may be restored. Without God, we can do nothing; with God, nothing is impossible. Second, I would also recommend visiting www.usccb.org/conscience, to learn more about this severe assault on religious liberty, and how to contact Congress in support of legislation that would reverse the Obama Administration’s decision. That website again is www.usccb.org/conscience. Thank you, and I will keep you all in prayer during my “ad limina” visit to Rome this week. Sincerely yours in Christ,
+Alexander K. Sample
And here is another letter, a call to arms:
Friends and colleagues,
Ave Maria Radio Communication has launched a project called StopHHS.com.
As, I’m sure you know, On January 20, President Obama informed Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, that the Catholic Church in America has until August of 2013 to provide almost all of their employees with insurance that covers sterilization and contraception, including drugs like the ‘morning-after pill’ that may cause an early abortion. If the Church refuses to comply with this mandate from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), various penalties will ensue. The Church will be considered an outlaw, a bad neighbor and its leaders subject to prosecution.
To sixty million American Catholics the President has said that now to be good Americans, we must be bad Catholics. Archbishop Dolan understood immediately. His ironic response: “So you’ve given us a year to figure out how to violate our conscience.”
Through StopHHS.com, we are committed to reversing the decision of the Obama Administration to force Catholic organizations to provide contraception, sterilization, and abortifacient drugs in their health care plans.
We will accomplish this by providing a place where all reporting, commentary, statements, legislation, video messages, audio messages, interviews and press releases will be complied into one single comprehensive website. We will petition the Obama Administration through the voice of the people to reverse course and respect the consciences of Christians of all stripes as he promised to do in his Commencement Address at Notre Dame in 2009. We will urge support for all legislation that would force the Obama Administration to rescind their decision and would protect the Church from further government intrusion. And we will engage the media in an effort to provide accurate information to the American people on the issue of conscience protection.
I’m asking you first to go to the website, sign the petition and second to use whatever means you can to promote this effort. You can post a banner on your sites, use social media, e-blast, WHATEVER YOU CAN. Our facebook page is simply StopHHS.
Thank-you for your partnership in this vital mission.
Nick Thomm
Executive Producer
“Kresta in the Afternoon”
734-930-3164
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
