Bulletins

June 30, 2013

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Our Bishop introduced the Fortnight of Freedom by encouraging

all the faithful to enter prayerfully into this “special period of prayer, study, catechesis and public action,” continuing through Independence Day, July 4....

Beginning on August 1, 2013, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ (HHS) mandate forcing employers to provide insurance coverage for abortion- inducing drugs, contraceptives and sterilizations to employees goes fully into effect. The conscience protections provided in the federal rule are weak, and Catholic business owners, religious organizations and other conscientious objectors will be required to comply or face serious fines. While relief might come from pending lawsuits, including those filed last year by many Church institutions across the nation, a final, definitive decision by the administration in support of our religious liberties has not yet been handed down prior to the August 1 deadline.

It is clear this violation of our First Amendment rights, and other challenges that Catholics face in the public square, still require us to come together as a community.

In one of his recent weekly columns, the Archbishop of Philadelphia stated:

Coupled with the White House’s refusal to uphold the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, and its astonishing disregard for the unique nature of religious freedom displayed by its arguments in a 9-0 defeat in the 2012 Hosanna-Tabor Supreme Court decision, the HHS mandate can only be understood as a form of coercion. Access to inexpensive contraception is a problem nowhere in the United States. The mandate is thus an ideological statement; the imposition of a preferential option for infertility. And if millions of Americans disagree with it on principle – too bad.

Specifically I encourage to pray and fast for someone in office who needs a change of mind and heart, to make sure your voter registration is up-to-date and to wait for nobody’s permission to speak the truth about the nature of marriage, the sanctity of intimacy and the dignity of the unborn. Do not let a Christian invoke the Faith in daring to claim that abortion is sacred ground. Ask yourself, “what would St. Paul do?”

God bless you.

Fr. Christopher J. Pollard