Catholic Dioceses sue the administration

Excerpt from "Cardinal Dolan of NY, Cardinal Wuerl of D.C., Notre Dame--And 40 Other Catholic Dioceses and Organizations--Sue Obama Administration," CNS News,by Terence P. Jeffrey. May 21, 2012--The Archdiocese of New York, headed by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., headed by Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the University of Notre Dame, and 40 other Catholic dioceses and organizations around the country announced on Monday that they are suing the Obama administration for violating their freedom of religion, which is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. The dioceses and organizations, in different combinations, are filing 12 different lawsuits filed in federal courts around the country.

"This lawsuit is about an unprecedented attack by the federal government on one of America’s most cherished freedoms: the freedom to practice one’s religion without government interference," the archdiocese says on the website preservereligiousfreedom.org. "It is not about whether people have access to certain services; it is about whether the government may force religious institutions and individuals to facilitate and fund services which violate their religious beliefs." The suits filed by the Catholic organizations focus on the regulation that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced last August and finalized in January that requires virtually all healthcare plans in the United States to cover sterilizations and all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives, including those that can cause abortions.

“We have tried negotiation with the Administration and legislation with the Congress--and we’ll keep at it--but there's still no fix," Cardinal Dolan, who is also president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement released by the conference this morning. "Time is running out, and our valuable ministries and fundamental rights hang in the balance, so we have to resort to the courts now," the cardinal said. "Though the Conference is not a party to the lawsuits, we applaud this courageous action by so many individual dioceses, charities, hospitals and schools across the nation, in coordination with the law firm of Jones Day. It is also a compelling display of the unity of the Church in defense of religious liberty. It's also a great show of the diversity of the Church's ministries that serve the common good and that are jeopardized by the mandate--ministries to the poor, the sick, and the uneducated, to people of any faith or no faith at all.”
"The lawsuit in no way challenges either women’s established legal right to obtain and use contraception or the right of employers to provide coverage for it if they so choose," said Cardinal Wuerl. "This lawsuit is about religious freedom." "The First Amendment enshrines in our nation’s Constitution the principle that religious organizations must be able to practice their faith free from government interference," Cardinal Wuerl said. Full story can be found here.

CMDA CEO David Stevens, MD, MA, (Ethics): "Cardinal Dolan is the President of the U.S. Council of Bishops in Washington, D.C., and the council serves as the public policy voice for the Catholic Church. We often stand alongside each other on bioethical and religious freedom issues, and we even coordinate our efforts at times.

"Religious freedom and right of conscience are the most important issues that all people of faith face. This is a battle we dare not lose. As one of our founding fathers so aptly said, 'We will hang together or we will hang separately.'

"That is why I traveled to New York City last week and met with Cardinal Dolan at his invitation in St. Patrick's Cathedral after he completed mass. He wanted to know more about CMDA and we discussed how we could work more closely together. I found him congenial, articulate, bold and decisive. A few minutes into our conversation, he asked if I could join him that afternoon on his radio program that is broadcast on Sirius Radio across the U.S.

"As his comments on Bill O'Reilly's show reveal, he has a clear and comprehensive understanding of the significance of the issue of religious freedom. During our on-air discussions during his radio show, I made the point that the contraceptive mandate is not a women's issue nor a Catholic issue as the secular media likes to portray. It affects all people no matter what their faith is, and it is an attack on our first and most precious right.

"George Washington articulated its importance well in a letter he wrote to the United Baptist Churches in Virginia on May 10, 1789, 'If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the constitution framed in the convention, where I had the honor to preside, might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it.... if I could conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded, that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.'
"After the interview, I told the Cardinal I was meeting that evening with John Brehany, PhD, an ethicist who leads the Catholic Medical Association in Philadelphia. He asked me if CMDA could advise their organization to help them grow and develop from their present membership of 1,700. John and I had a great time together and he will be coming to Bristol to spend a day at CMDA so we can learn from each other.

With the challenges medicine faces in cost containment, access, professionalism, bioethics and right of conscience, I’m convinced we must strengthen our bonds with other like-minded organizations and coordinate our efforts to reach the outcomes we all desire."

CMDA Ethics Statement: Healthcare Right of Conscience
Healthcare Right of Conscience Resource Page