Action alert: H.R 940 Health Care Conscience Rights

Ask Congress to Support H.R. 940, the Health Care Conscience Rights Act! Take Action! New bill would protect religious freedom and rights of conscience Dear Friend of Religious Liberty: Thanks in large part to your efforts, this week, Rep. Diane Black and fifty other House members introduced a new bill called the “Health Care Conscience Rights Act,” H.R. 940, which would protect Americans’ First Amendment rights by providing a full exemption for all those whose religious beliefs run counter to the HHS mandate. The bill would also protect institutions and individuals from forced participation in abortion. Here’s a video highlighting a few stories of people this bill would help. Also, check out Archbishop Lori and Cardinal O’Malley’s letters supporting the bill. Can you spare a few minutes to contact your Members of Congress? Urge them to support House bill H.R. 940 and help ensure its enactment as part of “must-pass” legislation. Members of the House should also be asked to co-sponsor the bill. Call using the "Take Action" link or click here to email your two Senators and Representative! Join with us in calling on Congress to protect the right of all people and groups to participate in life-affirming health care—without violating their consciences. Please contact your Congressional representatives today and urge them to support H.R. 940 to protect religious freedom and the moral convictions of all! For more information or to join the postcard campaign, go to NCHLA’s action alert. Thank you for all that you do in support of life and liberty! -Your Religious Freedom and Conscience Protection Team P.S. Please forward this to friends and family who share your concern to protect the rights of all to participate in health care! They can click here to sign up for our email list or text the word FREEDOM to 377377 for mobile updates.

Religious Freedom CALL TO ACTION

Call Congress to Protect Religious Freedom! Take Action! Ask for conscience protection in must-pass legislation Dear Friend of Religious Liberty: As you know, there are major threats looming against people and groups that are opposed in conscience to providing insurance coverage for sterilizations, contraception, or abortifacient drugs, or to participating in or facilitating an abortion. Now is the time to act! Congress will soon be considering a "must-pass" bill that will fund the federal government. Congress can include conscience protection as part of that bill and solve this problem now. Can you spare 5 minutes to contact your Members of Congress and ask them to support conscience protection for EVERYONE? Call or click here to email your two Senators and Representative. Please join with us in calling on Congress to protect the right of all people and groups to participate in life-affirming health care -- without violating their consciences! Not sure what to say? Here are some suggestions: The administration has issued a mandate requiring virtually all insurance plans to include sterilization and contraception, even including the morning-after and week-after pills. People who run secular charities, or religious or secular businesses, are being forced to buy insurance coverage for "services" to which they have a deeply held moral or religious objection -- with no exceptions. I oppose forcing people to participate in, fund, or provide things they believe are wrong or immoral. Though churches themselves are exempted from the mandate, religious ministries of service -- such as charities, schools, and hospitals -- are given second-class status under the law, in the form of a still-murky "accommodation." But these ministries are integral to our religious community and deserve the same exemption as our houses of worship. I oppose government action that defines our religious community narrowly and inaccurately, reducing freedom of religion to freedom of worship only. Freedom of religion is a bedrock principle on which our nation was founded. It is referred to as our "First Freedom" -- first on the list in the Bill of Rights, and first in priority among human freedoms. I support religious freedom as a fundamental human right of every person. A distinct blessing of being an American is that we are free to choose our faith, and live by the dictates of that faith throughout our lives -- at home, at church, and in the public square. Other countries may force faith underground, but in America we can follow our conscience while also participating fully in society. I support policies that allow Americans to live their faith in their jobs and in their everyday life. In the words of Cardinal Dolan, "In obedience to our Judeo-Christian heritage, we have consistently taught our people to live their lives during the week to reflect the same beliefs that they proclaim on the Sabbath. We cannot now abandon them to be forced to violate their morally well-informed consciences." I support the right of all men and women who work in health care -- whether providing services or providing insurance -- to live and work in harmony with their faith and convictions. Please call your Congressional representatives today and urge them to take whatever action is necessary to protect religious freedom and the moral convictions of all! For more information or to join the postcard campaign, go to NCHLA's action alert. A special note: Members of Congress will be in their home states and districts for the remainder of this week. This represents an excellent opportunity for you to talk with Members directly on the urgent need for conscience protection legislation. Thank you for all that you do in support of life and liberty! -Your Religious Freedom and Conscience Protection Team P.S. Please forward this to friends and family who share your concern to protect the rights of all to participate in health care!

Call to Action - Fortnight for Freedom

BISHOPS ISSUE CALLTO ACTION

TO DEFEND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

Urge strong lay involvement

Outline threats to First Freedom at all levels of government and abroad

Call upon dioceses to pursue religious liberty fortnight, June 21-July 4

WASHINGTON—The U.S. bishops have issued a call to action todefend religious liberty and urged laity to work to protect the First Freedomof the Bill of Rights. They outlined their position in “Our First, Most Cherished Freedom.” The document was developed by the Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), approved for publication by the USCCB Administrative Committee March 13, and published in English and Spanish April 12.

            The document can be found at http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/our-first-most-cherished-liberty.cfm

“We have been staunch defenders of religious liberty in the past.We have a solemn duty to discharge that duty today,” the bishops said in the document, “… for religious liberty is under attack, both at home and abroad.”

The document lists concerns that prompt the bishops to act now.  Among concerns are:

•           The Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate forcing all employers, including religious organizations, to provide and pay for coverage of employees’contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs even when they have moral objections to them. Another concern is HHS’s defining which religious institutions are “religious enough” to merit protection of their religious liberty.

•          Driving Catholic foster care and adoption services out of business. Boston, San Francisco, the District of Columbia and Illinois have driven local Catholic Charities adoption or foster care services out of business by revoking their licenses, by ending their government contracts, or both—because those Charities refused to place children with same-sex couples or unmarried opposite-sex couples who cohabit.

•          Discrimination against Catholic humanitarian services. Despite years of excellent performance by the USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services in administering contract services for victims of human trafficking, the federal government changed its contract specifications to require USCCB to provide or referfor contraceptive and abortion services in violation of Catholic teaching. Religious institutions should not be disqualified from a government contract based on religious belief, and they do not lose their religious identity or liberty upon entering such contracts. Recently a federal court judge in Massachusetts turned religious liberty on its head when he declared that such a disqualification is required by the First Amendment—that the government violates religious liberty by allowing Catholic organizations to participate in contracts in a manner consistent with their beliefs on contraception and abortion.

            The statement lists other examples such as laws punishing charity to undocumented immigrants; a proposal to restructure Catholic parish corporations to limit the bishop’s role; and a state university’s excluding a religious student group because it limits leadership positions to those who share the group’s religion.

            Other topics include the history and deep resonance of Catholic and American visions of religious freedom, the recent tactic of reducing freedom of religion to freedom of worship, the distinction between conscientious objection to a just law, and civil disobedience of an unjust law, the primacy of religious freedom among civil liberties, the need for active vigilance in protecting that freedom, and concern for religious liberty among interfaith and ecumenical groups and across partisan lines.

            The bishops decry limiting religious freedom to the sanctuary.

           “Religious liberty is not only about our ability to go to Mass on Sunday or pray the Rosary at home. It is about whether we can make our contribution to the common good of all Americans,” they said. “Can we do the goodworks our faith calls us to do, without having to compromise that very same faith?”

            “This is not a Catholic issue. This is not a Jewish issue. This is not an Orthodox,Mormon, or Muslim issue. It is an American issue,” they said.

The bishops highlighted religious freedom abroad.

            “Our obligation at home is to defend religious liberty robustly, but we cannot overlook the much graver plight that religious believers, most of them Christian, face around the world,” they said. “The age of martyrdom has not passed. Assassinations, bombings of churches, torching of orphanages—these are only the most violent attacks Christians havesuffered because of their faith in Jesus Christ. More systematic denials of basic human rights are found in the laws of several countries, and also in acts of persecution by adherents of other faiths.”

            The document ends with a call to action.

“What we ask isnothing more than that our God-given right to religious liberty be respected.We ask nothing less than that the Constitution and laws of the United States, whichrecognize that right, be respected.”  They specifically addressedseveral groups: the laity, those in public office, heads of Catholic charitableagencies, priests, experts in communication, and urged each to employ the gifts and talents of its members for religious liberty.

            The bishops called for “A Fortnight for Freedom,” the two-week period from June 21 to July 4—beginning with the feasts of St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher and ending with Independence Day—to focus “all the energies the Catholic community can muster” for religious liberty.  They also asked that, later in the year, the feast of Christ the King be “a day specifically employed by bishops and priests to preach about religious liberty, both here and abroad.”

Bishops' Latest on HHS 14 March 2012

BISHOPS PROMISE TO CONTINUE ‘VIGOROUS EFFORTS’ AGAINST HHS VIOLATIONS OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN HEALTH CARE REFORM MANDATE

Declare government has no place defining religion, religious ministry

Seek protection for conscience rights of institutions, individuals

Stress action with the public, White House, Congress, courts

WASHINGTON—The U.S. bishops are strongly united in their ongoing and determined  efforts to protect religious freedom, the Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said in a March 14 statement.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan

           The Administrative Committee, chaired by Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, president of the USCCB, is the highest authority of the bishops’ conference outside the semi-annual sessions of the full body of bishops. The Committee’s membership consists of the elected chairmen of all the USCCB permanent committees and an elected bishop representative from each of the geographic regions of the USCCB.

           The full statement can be found at www. www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/upload/Admin-Religious-Freedom.pdf.

           The Administrative Committee said it was “strongly unified and intensely focused in its opposition to the various threats to religious freedom in our day.” The bishops will continue their vigorous work of education on religious freedom, dialogue with the executive branch, legislative initiatives and efforts in the courts to defend religious freedom. They promised a longer statement on the principles at the heart of religious freedom, which will come later from the bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty.

           The bishops noted that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate that forces all private health plans to provide coverage of sterilization and contraceptives – including abortion-inducing drugs – called for an immediate response. Of particular concern, they said, are a religious exemption from the mandate that the bishops deem “arbitrarily narrow” and an “unspecified and dubious future‘accommodation’’’ offered to other religious organizations that are denied the exemption.

           The bishops thanked supporters from the Catholic community and beyond “who have stood firmly with us in our vigorous opposition to this unjust and illegal mandate.”

           “It is your enthusiastic unity in defense of religious freedom that has made such a dramatic and positive impact in this historic public debate.”

           The bishops said this dispute is not about access to contraceptives but about the government’s forcing the Church to provide them. Their concerns are not just for the Catholic Church but also for “those who recognize that their cherished beliefs may be next on the block.”

           “Indeed, this is not about the Church wanting to force anybody to do anything; it is instead about the federal government forcing the Church –consisting of its faithful and all but a few of its institutions – to act against Church teachings,” they said.

           The Church has worked for universal health care in the United States since 1919, they added, and said the current issue “is not a Republican or Democratic, a conservative or liberal issue; it is an American issue.”

           The bishops called the HHS mandate “an unwarranted government definition of religion,” with government deciding who is a religious employer deserving exemption from the law.

           “The introduction of this unprecedented defining of faith communities and their ministries has precipitated this struggle for religious freedom,”the bishops said.

           “Government has no place defining religion and religious ministry,”they said.  “If this definition is allowed to stand, it will spread throughout federal law, weakening its healthy tradition of generous respect for religious freedom and diversity,” they said.

           The bishops said the government’s foray into church governance “where government has no legal competence or authority” is beyond disturbing. Those deemed by HHS not to be “religious employers,” the bishops said, “will be forced by government to violate their own teachings within their very own institutions. This is not only an injustice in itself, but it also undermines the effective proclamation of those teachings to the faithful and to the world.”

           The bishops also called the HHS mandate “a violation of personal civil rights.”  The new mandate creates a class of people “with no conscience protection at all: individuals who, in their daily lives, strive constantly to live in accordance with their faith and values,” the bishops said. “They too face a government mandate to aid in providing‘services’ contrary to those values – whether in their sponsoring of, and payment for, insurance as employers; their payment of insurance premiums as employees, or as insurers themselves – without even the semblance of exemptions.”

           The bishops called for the Catholic faithful, and all people of good will throughout the nation to join them in prayer and penance “for our leaders and for the complete protection of our First Freedom – religious liberty.”

           “Prayer is the ultimate source of our strength,” the bishops said,“for without God we can do nothing. But with God all things are possible.”

*****
visit http://bit.ly/zx7mC2 for information on the upcoming rally to protest the HHS infringement on our religious liberty.  Thank you for helping the Church in her hour of need.