On Feb. 26, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati will celebrate the Rite of Election and the Call to Continuing Conversion.

The Rite of Election is celebrated with those seeking to receive the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and Eucharist at the Easter Vigil, and the Call to Continuing Conversion is celebrated with those seeking reception into the full communion of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as Catholics who are completing their initiation through the sacraments of confirmation and Eucharist.

The Rite of Election and the Call to Continuing Conversion mark the beginning of the season of Lent. This season of the church year is dedicated in a particular way to the final preparation period of these men, women and children seeking to celebrate the sacraments of initiation at Easter.

The term “election” refers to the fact that God has chosen these catechumens for membership into Christ’s body. During this public celebration, the church judges their readiness and affirms their intention to advance toward the Easter sacraments.

1,016 catechumens and candidates will come from parishes all around the Archdiocese of Cincinnati for this archdiocesan celebration. This is an opportunity for these men, women, and children who have been involved in the initiation process within the context of their parish communities to experience a sense of being incorporated into the larger Roman Catholic community as hundreds of people join in this celebration with them. (Separately, an additional 69 persons were received into full communion with the Catholic Church during the past year.)

This year there will be four celebrations to take place at the following times and places on Feb. 26: 3:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., the Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains, downtown Cincinnati, Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr presiding;

3:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church, Dayton, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph R. Binzer presiding.

Parishes have been assigned to a particular celebration according to the deanery in which they are located.

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati calls parishes, schools and institutions to a time of prayer for religious liberty as church bells ring at noon on Ash Wednesday, February 22. A suggested prayer is provided below.  May the toll of bells unite us in prayer for religious freedom for all people.

As we enter into this season of Lent preparing to celebrate the fullness of life in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, let our fasting and prayer bring to fulfillment religious freedom for all.  May our intentional efforts to follow Jesus Christ in our Lenten practices of fasting and prayer, lead all civic and religious leaders to unite in seeking freedom for all people to live and practice their faith.

USCCB call to for action against HHS mandate

USCCB llamado a la acción contra el mandato del HHS

Mandato general de HHS se queda igual, viola los derechos de conciencia y la libertad religiosa

Congreso tiene que actuar para arreglar el problema

El 20 de enero de 2011, el Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos (HHS, sigla en inglés) reafirmó una regulación que exige que casi todos los planes de salud cubran la esterilización, los abortivos y la contracepción. La exención que se ofreció a “los empleadores religiosos” era tan estrecha que no cubría a la gran mayoría de organizaciones religiosas, incluso a hospitales, universidades y organizaciones católicas caritativas, que ayudan a millones cada año. Irónicamente, ni siquiera Jesús y sus discípulos habrían calificado para la exención debido a que excluye a los que principalmente sirven a personas de otra religión.

El 10 de febrero, la Administración de Obama declaró que este mandato es final “sin ningún cambio”; una prórroga de un año para organizaciones religiosas que no estaban exentas (las organizaciones caritativas, hospitales y universidades); y la promesa de redactar más regulaciones para “acomodarlas” dentro del plazo de ese año adicional. Sin embargo, como se explica abajo, ese “acomodamiento” todavía los obliga a pagar “servicios” que violan sus convicciones religiosas.

La regla original que violaba nuestra libertad religiosa tan severamente no ha cambiado, sino que se ha concretado.

Después de anunciar cambios significativos en el mandato, HHS en cambio concretó la regla original emitida por primera vez en agosto de 2011, “sin cambio”. Es así que la ofensiva definición de un “empleador religioso” –que excluye a nuestras organizaciones caritativas, hospitales y colegios porque sirven a personas de otras religiones– aún sigue en pie, y todas esas instituciones aún están obligadas a cumplir con el mandato.

HHS ha prometido algún tipo de “acomodamiento” pero sólo después de las elecciones.

HHS expresó que tomaría un año más para redactar más regulaciones que “acomoden” a las organizaciones religiosas caritativas, escuelas y hospitales que aún siguen fuera de la exención para los “empleadores religiosos”. El impacto de estas reglas adicionales no se sentirá hasta después de las elecciones presidenciales, el único punto para que el Poder Ejecutivo tenga que rendir cuenta. Esto elimina un incentivo importante para que HHS proporcione la mejor protección de la libertad religiosa.

El prometido “acomodamiento”, aún en el mejor de los casos, seguiría obligando a nuestras instituciones a violar sus creencias religiosas.

Conforme al propuesto “acomodamiento”, si un empleado de estas instituciones religiosas desea cobertura de anticonceptivos o esterilización directamente del asegurador, el empleador opuesto a esto estará obligado a pagar como parte del plan de seguros del empleador. Ya que no hay otra fuente, los fondos para pagar esta cobertura provendrán de las primas que paguen el empleador y sus empleados, aún de los que por conciencia se opongan a ello.

No están exentos los asegurados, empleadores laicos o religiosos con fines de lucro ni individuos que objetan.

Los obispos católicos defienden la libertad religiosa para todos, y por eso repetidas veces han identificado a todas las partes interesadas en este proceso cuya libertad religiosa está siendo amenazada: todos los empleadores, los aseguradores y los individuos, y no solo los empleadores religiosos. Ahora todos los aseguradores, incluidos los que se aseguran por su cuenta, deben proveer esta cobertura a cualquier empleado que lo desee. A su vez, todos los individuos que pagan sus primas de seguro, no tienen escapatoria de tener que subsidiar esa cobertura. Y solo los empleadores que son entidades religiosas y a la vez no lucrativas, podrán calificar para este “acomodamiento” limitado.

Urgentemente necesitamos legislación para corregir las amenazas del mandato a la libertad religiosa y los derechos de conciencia. La Ley de Respeto a los Derechos de Conciencia se ha introducido en el Congreso (H.R. 1179, S. 1467) para asegurar que quienes participen en la compra de seguro de salud “retengan el derecho de proporcionar, comprar o afiliarse a una cobertura de salud que sea conforme a sus creencias religiosas y convicciones morales”.

ACCIÓN: Comuníquese con su Representante en el Congreso por correo electrónico, teléfono o fax:

• Llame al conmutador del Capitolio de EE. UU. al: 202-224-3121, o a las oficinas locales de sus congresistas.
• Envíe un mensaje electrónico al Congreso a través de www.usccb.org/conscience.
• Encontrará datos adicionales de contacto en los sitios digitales de los Miembros: www.house.gov y www.senate.gov

MENSAJE: “Por favor, copatrocine Ley de Respeto a los Derechos de Conciencia (H.R. 1179, S. 1467). La decisión de la administración de Obama de exigir cobertura de esterilización y anticonceptivos, incluso fármacos que pueden causar un aborto, hacen que la aprobación de esta medida sea especialmente urgente. Asegúrese de que la libertad religiosa y los derechos de conciencia de todos los participantes en el sistema de atención de la salud de nuestra nación se respeten”.

CUANDO: Ahora es el momento de conseguir copatrocinadores y apoyo. ¡Por favor actúe hoy mismo! ¡Gracias!

Congress Must Act to Fix the Problem

On January 20, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reaffirmed a rule that virtually all private health care plans must cover sterilization, abortifacients, and contraception.  The exemption provided for “religious employers” was so narrow that it failed to cover the vast majority of faith-based organizations—including Catholic hospitals, universities, and charities—that help millions every year.  Ironically, not even Jesus and his disciples would have qualified for the exemption, because it excludes those who mainly serve people of another faith.

On February 10, the Obama Administration made this rule final “without change”; delayed enforcement for a year against religious nonprofits that were still not exempted (our charities, hospitals, and colleges); and promised to develop more regulations to “accommodate” them by the end of that additional year.  But, as explained below, that promised “accommodation” still forces them to pay for “services” that violate their religious convictions.

The original rule that violated our religious liberty so severely has not been changed, but finalized.

After touting meaningful changes in the mandate, HHS instead finalized the original rule that was first issued in August 2011 “without change.”  So the offensive definition of “religious employer”—which excludes our charities, hospitals, and colleges because they serve people of other faiths—is still in place, and those institutions are still subject to the mandate.

HHS has promised some kind of “accommodation,” but only after the election.

HHS said it would take an additional year to develop more regulations to “accommodate” religiously-affiliated charities, schools, and hospitals that still fall outside the “religious employer” exemption.  The impact of these additional rules will not be felt until after the election, the only point of public accountability for the Executive Branch.  This eliminates an important incentive for HHS to provide the best protection for religious liberty

The promised “accommodation”—even at its best—would still force our institutions to violate their beliefs.

Under the proposed “accommodation,” if an employee of these religious institutions wants coverage of contraception or sterilization directly from the insurer, the objecting employer is still forced to pay for it as a part of the employer’s insurance plan.  Since there is no other source, the funds to pay for that coverage must come from the premiums of the employer and fellow employees, even those who object in conscience.

There is no exemption for objecting insurers, secular employers, for-profit religious employers, or individuals.

The U.S. bishops defend religious liberty for all, and so have repeatedly identified all the stakeholders in the process whose religious freedom is threatened by the mandate—all employers, insurers, and individuals, not just religious employers.  Now, all insurers, including self-insurers, must provide the coverage to any employee who wants it.  In turn, all individuals who pay premiums have no escape from subsidizing that coverage.  And only employers that are both non-profit and religious may qualify for the limited “accommodation.”

We urgently need legislation to correct the mandate’s threats to religious liberty and conscience rights. The Respect for Rights of Conscience Act has been introduced in Congress (H.R. 1179, S. 1467) to ensure that those who participate in the market for health insurance “retain the right to provide, purchase, or enroll in health coverage that is consistent with their religious beliefs and moral convictions.”

ACTION: Contact your U.S. Representative by e-mail, phone, or FAX letter:

• Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at: 202-224-3121, or call your Members’ local offices.
• Send your email to Congress through www.usccb.org/conscience.
• Additional contact info can be found on Members’ web sites at: www.house.gov and www.senate.gov.

MESSAGE: “Please co-sponsor and support the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (H.R. 1179, S. 1467).  The Obama administration’s decision to mandate coverage of sterilization and contraceptives, including drugs that can cause an abortion, makes passage of this measure especially urgent.  Please ensure that the religious liberty and conscience rights of all participants in our nation’s health care system are respected.”

WHEN: Now is the time to build co-sponsors and support.  Please act today!  Thanks!

By Mike Dyer

A very attentive and passionate audience heard and participated in a six-member forum and panel discussion opposing the U.S. federal government health mandate during a two-hour event at St. Cecilia Parish in Oakley Feb. 15.

The event was scheduled in response to the recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandate that would require all institutions that provide health insurance to cover the cost of contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization for their employees.

The Obama administration late last week revised the contraceptive mandate offering an accommodation that shifted the costs to the insurance company instead of Catholic individuals and institution, but the panelists still believed the revision did little to change the concept of the policy overall.

“It is the most intolerant religious crusade that we have seen in centuries,” Msgr. Frank Lane said.

Msgr. Lane, who has been a pastor in several parishes in the Columbus diocese, was one of the panelists who took part in the discussion. Msgr. Lane articulated the church’s moral philosophy on life issues and said it is the duty of Catholics everywhere to stand up against the moral bankruptcy of contraception.

Msgr. Lane urged those in the audience to continue to pray and apply the sacraments in this time of crisis and to hold true to their strongly held beliefs.

“If the Catholics of the country authentically lived their faith, there would be no room for this happening,” he said.

Each panelist was given up to seven minutes to share their individual perspective before the discussion was opened up to questions from the audience. The panelists included Fred Summe, a lawyer and vice president of Northern Kentucky Right to Life who discussed the legal ramifications of the mandate and its relationship to religious freedom.

Dr. Andrew Sodergren, a licensed clinical psychologist and director of Ruah Woods Psychological Services in Green Township, spoke about the Theology of the Body and why the church is opposed to birth control from a spiritual perspective.

Kate Iadipaola, who has been a Chastity Outreach Coordinator for Pregnancy Center East and an advocate for a homeless shelter for women and children, has taught Theology of the Body Classes for the Diocese of Covington and Archdiocese of Cincinnati. She cited extensive scriptural references that the church uses in its stance against contraception. She also described the important role of the laity in educating Catholics and taking action against the health care mandate.

Dr. Arthur Kunath, a physician at Tristate Arthritis and Rheumatology in Crestview Hills, Ky., spoke about the medical dangers of the birth control pill and the other risks associated with it from a medical standpoint. He also offered insightful perspective as a Catholic doctor.

Jenn Giroux, a mother of nine children with her husband, Dan, has been a registered nurse for 26 years. She has been involved at the pro-life movement on a national level for over 20 years. She offered several real-life examples of how contraception and abortion have hurt women over the years.

Giroux also described how abortion has had several ill effects on society. Giroux has also worked to build a criminal case against Planned Parenthood.

The meeting began with a welcome prayer from Father Jamie Weber, pastor of St. Cecilia Parish. Those in attendance sang “God Bless America” before the panel started its remarks.

The audience seemed connected with each panelist in its own unique manner and a round of applause followed each of the individual’s talking points.

Father Weber estimated between 360-380 people attended the meeting. The church parking lot was nearly full about 20 minutes before the meeting started, and several pews were filled many rows deep a few minutes before it began.

Dan Egan, sacramental coordinator at St. Cecilia, helped to organize the meeting, along with other parish staff members. Egan said he received 30 emails inquiring about the meeting. He also said another parish requested the same panel for a future forum at a later date.

Father Weber said the idea for the meeting came up a few weeks ago after Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr wrote an open letter to the Catholic community against the Health and Human Services edict. Father Weber said his parish staff was instantly proactive about acting on the letter and scheduling the panel to help parishioners be well informed.

“(The staff) wanted to do something automatically,” said Father Weber, who has been the pastor for three years. “It takes some time to get this together; we knew we had to do it immediately, as fast as we could. …I’m not surprised we had 360 people. We started to have a feeling (it would be a large attendance).”

Dave Willig, a parishioner at St. Antoninus in Covedale for more than 20 years, was one of several individuals who posed a question to the panel. He said afterward the event was “outstanding” for discussion on the sanctity of life. He heard about the meeting through friends and Sacred Heart Radio.

“It’s great to see our church motivated,” said Willig, who is a co-chairperson for Pro Life and Pro Family at St. Antoninus. “Hats off to Fr. Jamie Weber. He is an outstanding young priest and is showing great leadership with our church. Somebody needed to take the ball and run with it because we need to move as one and really come together…against this evil.”

Dr. Kunath, who is a member of Divine Mercy Parish in Bellevue, Ky., said he was very impressed with the size of the audience. He said the audience was sympathetic to the panel’s message and hoped they were better informed because of it. He said he believes the people in the audience will carry the message with them and act on it in a positive direction for the church community.

“I think it’s almost a miracle that you can fill a church and be talking about why contraception is evil,” Dr. Kunath said. “That’s the true miracle. And maybe out of this evil, some good will come of it.”

By Carol Glatz

ROME (CNS) – Catholic bishops should find out what is keeping sex abuse victims around the world from coming forward, said Bishop R. Daniel Conlon, chairman-elect of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People.

U.N. statistics have shown “that sex abuse is widespread and crosses all cultures and societies” and is not just a phenomenon plaguing the church or Western nations, he told Catholic News Service Feb. 13.

A further indication that abuse is a concern for the global church is the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s mandate for all bishops to establish anti-abuse guidelines by May this year, he said.

“We as a church, we want to be at the forefront of society in helping to deal with this issue so, even in countries where there have not been allegations of abuse in the church, the church can still be a forceful agent for bringing about change in the larger society,” he said.

Catholic bishops should find out what is keeping sex abuse victims around the world from coming forward, said Bishop R. Daniel Conlon, chairman-elect of the U.S. bishops' Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People. Bishop Conlon is pictured in Rome in 2011. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Bishop Conlon, bishop of Joliet, Ill., was in Rome to attend two international gatherings dealing with the church’s response to child protection. The first was a Vatican-backed symposium Feb. 6-9 organized by the Pontifical Gregorian University. The other was the Feb. 11-14 Anglophone Conference on the Safeguarding of Children, Young People and Vulnerable Adults.

The Anglophone conference has been meeting every year since 1996 and brings together bishops and experts in child protection to share concerns, successful policies and prevention programs. Bishop Conlon said the annual conference takes a more practical, rather than theoretical, approach to what is happening in the field of protection and how policies can be improved.

The conference, which began as a meeting for bishops from English-speaking countries, has expanded to include lay child protection officers, social workers, lawyers and church leaders from around the world. This year nearly 50 delegates attended from 15 countries, including Chile, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea.

Bishop Conlon said he would like to see even more bishops and representatives attend from Asia and Africa, even if they are not receiving many or any accusations of clerical abuse of minors.

He said, “They would recognize very much that there is domestic abuse” of children, which is also plagued by shame or silence that keeps the tragedy largely hidden.

At next year’s Anglophone conference — to be co-hosted by the United States and Sri Lanka — “I’d like to have someone address the cultural realities in developing nations,” he said, “to help us understand better what makes it unlikely at this point for a victim of sexual abuse as a child to come forward either as a child or later as an adult.

“We know that there’s harm that was done. So as much as we find it painful to deal with those allegations, we know that for the sake of the one who was abused, it’s beneficial to come forward” and say what has happened, he said.

Bishop Conlon said the Vatican’s top investigator of clerical sex abuse, Msgr. Charles Scicluna, spent almost an entire day Feb. 13 with the participants of the Anglophone conference.

The monsignor spoke to the group last year but spent much more time with the group this year going over what the Vatican expects and wants to see in each national conference’s abuse guidelines.

He said Msgr. Scicluna talked with participants “very humbly about how important it is for this dialogue to be going on. He wants people to tell him when they think that he’s not on the right path in regard to something. And he goes out of his way to say that people do have access to the Holy See, and they should take advantage of that and, at the same time, that the Holy See is listening to what’s going on.”

Though cases involving the sexual abuse of a minor by clergy “sometimes do not move as quickly as they need to move,” there is “no question” that the doctrinal congregation, the office that has juridical control of sex abuse accusations, “is very serious about child abuse and the protection of children.

“There is no question in my mind that putting children first is an article of faith here,” the bishop said.

He said the annual conference is an important reminder that putting children first is a task that calls for constant improvement and is “not an issue that’s going to pass off of the radar screen.”

The protection of children and vulnerable adults has also become an integral part of the church’s mission “in the same kind of way the catechesis, the sacraments, supporting families, or taking care of the poor” are part of the church’s life, he said.

Bishop Conlon was one of four delegates representing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The others were Al Notzon of San Antonio, chair of the bishops’ National Review Board; Deacon Bernie Nojadera, executive director of the bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection; and Mercy Sister Mary Ann Walsh, USCCB director of media relations.

By Carol Glatz 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -– As a sectarian conflict in Syria intensified, Pope Benedict XVI called on all Syrians to begin a process of dialogue and reminded the government of its duty to recognize its citizens’ legitimate demands.

Demonstrators gather during a protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad near Homs Feb. 13. Intense artillery and rocket fire by government forces Feb. 11 on residential areas in Homs left at least 200 people dead, opposition activists said. (CNS photo/handout via Reuters) (Feb. 10, 2012)

In Beirut, the patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church warned against toppling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, calling for dialogue to solve the crisis in the country.

“Our fear since the beginning of the bloody crisis in Syria was that the refusal of any sort of dialogue between the regime and the opposition will surely create a state of chaos that will definitely lead to a civil war,” Syriac Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan told Catholic News Service.

“The world must sustain all efforts for a dialogue to solve problems and uphold the democracy in a realistic and gradual way. Forcing the departure of the Syrian president will be a step for a civil war based on confessionalism,” the patriarch said.

In St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Feb. 12, the pope expressed his concern for “the dramatic and increasing episodes of violence in Syria.”

At the end of his Angelus prayer, he said he was praying for everyone who has been killed, injured and affected by a conflict that is “increasingly worrisome.”

“I renew an urgent appeal to put an end to the violence and bloodshed,” he said.

“I invite everyone, especially Syria’s political authorities, to favor the path of dialogue, reconciliation and a commitment to peace,” he said.

“It’s urgent to respond to the legitimate aspirations of the various sectors of the nation, as well as to the wishes of the international community, which are concerned about the common good of the whole country and the region,” he said.

A nationwide uprising against al-Assad’s government began last March, but Syrian security forces stepped up efforts to defeat the opposition movement, especially in Homs, a center of resistance.

Mourners carry the coffins of two bomb blast victims in Syria's northern city of Aleppo Feb. 12. Two suicide car bombers struck security compounds in Aleppo Feb. 10, killing at least 28 people. (CNS photo/George Orfalian, Reuters) (Feb. 10, 2012)

Intense artillery and rocket fire by government forces Feb. 11 on residential areas in Homs left at least 200 people dead, opposition activists said.

Bomb blasts in Aleppo Feb. 10 left at least 28 people dead and 200 others wounded.

The United Nations has not provided an updated death toll since it estimated in December that more than 5,000 people had been killed since the violence began last March.

Patriarch Younan, noting that Syria is among the most secularized countries in the Middle East, warned that a confessional war in Syria would be far worse than a political one.

“Remember Iraq,” he said, “where Christians were abused, killed in their churches and houses and forced to exile.” As a result, “they have been reduced to less than one-third of their previous numbers.”

The patriarch said that, so far, he has not heard of any direct targeting against churches in Syria, but he pointed to “the innocent victims – civilians as well as some clergy – (that) have fallen since the beginning of armed opposition.”

“We also hear of a massive exodus from villages and neighborhoods, due to threats coming from the so-called revolutionary committees in the name of God,” he said.

A native of Hassakeh, Syria, Patriarch Younan is the patriarch of approximately 150,000 Syriac Catholics worldwide, with nearly 40,000 in Syria.

The Archdiocese of Homs, he said, is the second-largest Syriac eparchy among the four still existing in Syria. The province of Homs, home to Sunnis, Alawites and Christians, used to be known for its tolerance until the last two decades with the resurgence of Islamic radicalism, he said.

“Christians used to live in peace with their neighbors, either in the city of Homs or in the countryside, where some villages are all Christians,” Patriarch Younan said.

Contributing to this story was Doreen Abi Raad in Beirut.

By Francis X. Rocca

ROME (CNS) – Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan of New York said Feb. 13 that President Barack Obama’s revision to the contraceptive mandate in the health reform law did nothing to change the U.S. bishops’ opposition to what they regard as an unconstitutional infringement on religious liberty.

Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan of New York is pictured after an interview with Catholic News Service in Rome Feb. 13. Cardinal-designate Dolan said that U.S. bishops do not see the White House as truly willing to accommodate their concerns over infringements on religious freedom in the HHS mandate and are therefore exploring "judicial and legislative remedies." (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

“We bishops are pastors, we’re not politicians, and you can’t compromise on principle,” said Cardinal-designate Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “And the goal posts haven’t moved and I don’t think there’s a 50-yard line compromise here,” he added.

“We’re in the business of reconciliation, so it’s not that we hold fast, that we’re stubborn ideologues, no. But we don’t see much sign of any compromise,” he said.

“What (Obama) offered was next to nothing. There’s no change, for instance, in these terribly restrictive mandates and this grossly restrictive definition of what constitutes a religious entity,” he said. “The principle wasn’t touched at all.”

Announced Feb. 10, Obama’s revision of the Department of Health and Human Services’ contraceptive mandate left intact the restrictive definition of a religious entity and would shift the costs of contraceptives from the policyholders to the insurers, thus failing to ensure that Catholic individuals and institutions would not have to pay for services that they consider immoral, Cardinal-designate Dolan said.

For one thing, the cardinal-designate said, many dioceses and Catholic institutions are self-insuring. Moreover, Catholics with policies in the compliant insurance companies would be subsidizing others’ contraception coverage. He also objected that individual Catholic employers would not enjoy exemption under Obama’s proposal.

“My brother-in-law, who’s a committed Catholic, runs a butcher shop. Is he going to have to pay for services that he as a convinced Catholic considers to be morally objectionable?” he asked.

Cardinal-designate Dolan said he emailed Sister Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity who heads the Catholic Health Association, on Feb. 10 to tell her that he was “disappointed that she had acted unilaterally, not in concert with the bishops.”

“She’s in a bind,” the cardinal-designate said of Sister Carol. “When she’s talking to (HHS Secretary Kathleen) Sebelius and the president of the United States, in some ways, these are people who are signing the checks for a good chunk of stuff that goes on in Catholic hospitals. It’s tough for her to stand firm. Understandably, she’s trying to make sure that anything possible, any compromise possible, that would allow the magnificent work of Catholic health care to continue, she’s probably going to be innately more open to than we would.”

In a Feb. 10 statement, Sister Carol praised what she called “a resolution … that protects the religious liberty and conscience rights of Catholic institutions.”

Cardinal-designate Dolan said Obama called him the morning of his announcement to tell him about the proposal.

“What we’re probably going to have to do now is be more vigorous than ever in judicial and legislative remedies, because apparently we’re not getting much consolation from the executive branch of the government,” he said.

The cardinal-designate said the bishops are “very, very enthusiastic” about the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, introduced by Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb. The cardinal said the legislation would produce an “ironclad law simply saying that no administrative decrees of the federal government can ever violate the conscience of a religious believer individually or religious institutions.”

“It’s a shame, you’d think that’s so clear in the Constitution that that wouldn’t have to be legislatively guaranteed, but we now know that it’s not,” he added.

In a phone interview with Catholic News Service in Washington, Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., chairman of the bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, echoed what Cardinal-designate Dolan said about the need for legislative action to enact a religious right to conscience protection into federal law.

“Our religious freedom is too precious to be protected only be regulations,” Bishop Lori said. “It needs legislative protection. More legislators, I think, are looking at it. There’s more bipartisan support for it. There should be a lot pressure exerted on Congress to pass it and for the president to sign it.”

In Rome Cardinal-designate Dolan said that some “very prominent attorneys,” some of them non-Catholic and even nonreligious, had already volunteered to represent the bishops.

“We’ve got people who aren’t Catholic, who may not even be religious, who have said, ‘We want to help you on this one.’ We’ve got very prominent attorneys who are very interested in religious freedom who say, ‘Count on us to take these things as high as you can.’ And we’re going to.”

He said the bishops draw hope for that fight from the Supreme Court’s recent unanimous ruling in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC, a case regarding the ministerial exception.

“You’d think that (the Obama administration) would be able to read the tea leaves, that these things are going to be overthrown,” the cardinal-designate said.

Bishop Lori told CNS that only after the original rule regarding contraception and sterilization coverage was revised and ready to be announced Feb. 10 did the White House contact Cardinal-designate Dolan and the USCCB.

The bishop suggested that Obama administration officials would have better understood the concerns religious organizations have about the rule had they tried to talk with the Catholic bishops, evangelicals and Orthodox church leaders who objected to the measure.

“That certainly did not happen,” he said.

Such a meeting would have allowed the bishops “to bring it home that our ministries of charity, health care and education flow from what we believe and how we worship and how we are to live.”

An administration official told Catholic News Service in an email Feb. 13 that the White House planned to convene a series of meetings “with faith-based organizations, insurers and other interested parties to develop policies that respect religious liberty and ensure access to preventive services for women enrolled in self-insured group health plans sponsored by religious organizations.”

Contributing to this story was Dennis Sadowski in Washington.

By Simon Caldwell

MANCHESTER, England (CNS) – A “deeply intolerant” militant secularism is taking hold of Western societies, said a senior British government minister heading a delegation to the Vatican.

Pope Benedict XVI arrives with Britain's Baroness Sayeeda Warsi at a meeting of religious leaders at St. Mary's University College Chapel at Twickenham in West London in 2010. The Muslim woman, co-chair of Britain's Conservative Party, will meet with the pope at the Vatican Feb. 15. (CNS photo/Alessia Giuliani, Catholic Press Photo)

Such secularism “demonstrates similar traits to totalitarian regimes – denying people the right to a religious identity because they were frightened of the concept of multiple identities,” said Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a Muslim. She said Europe must counter the threat by becoming “more confident and more comfortable in its Christianity.”

The Cabinet “minister without portfolio” and co-chair of the ruling Conservative Party made her remarks in an article published by the London-based Daily Telegraph Feb. 14, the first day of a two-day Vatican visit by the delegation of seven government ministers. They were to be joined by Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster before they meet the pope and Vatican officials to discuss a range of policy issues.

The trip was more than “a Valentine’s Day ‘love-in’ with our Catholic neighbors,” said Baroness Warsi. “This is about recognizing the deep and intrinsic role of faith here in Britain and overseas.”

She said that in her Feb. 14 address to the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, which she said she wanted to “ring out beyond the Vatican walls,” she would be arguing that “to create a more just society, people need to feel stronger in their religious identities and more confident in their creeds.”

“In practice this means individuals not diluting their faiths and nations not denying their religious heritages,” said Baroness Warsi.

“I will be arguing for Europe to become more confident and more comfortable in its Christianity,” she said. “The point is this: The societies we live in, the cultures we have created, the values we hold and the things we fight for all stem from centuries of discussion, dissent and belief in Christianity.

“These values shine through our politics, our public life, our culture, our economics, our language and our architecture,” she said. “You cannot and should not extract these Christian foundations from the evolution of our nations any more than you can or should erase the spires from our landscapes.”

The baroness said she feared “that a militant secularization is taking hold of our societies. We see it in any number of things: when signs of religion cannot be displayed or worn in government buildings; when states won’t fund faith schools; and where religion is sidelined, marginalized and downgraded in the public sphere.

“It seems astonishing to me that those who wrote the European Constitution made no mention of God or Christianity,” she said.

The baroness, the first Muslim female to hold a Cabinet post in a British government, said one of the “most worrying aspects about this militant secularization is that, at its core and in its instincts, it is deeply intolerant.”

She said that in her Feb. 15 audience with Pope Benedict XVI, she would give him her “absolute commitment to continue fighting for faith in today’s society.”

She stressed that she was “not calling for some kind of 21st-century theocracy” but “for a more open confidence in faith, where faith has a place at the table, though not an exclusive position.”

In excerpts of her Feb. 14 address reported in the British media, Baroness Warsi said the pope was right to highlight the increasing marginalization of religion during his September 2010 address in London’s Westminster Hall.

“I see it in United Kingdom and I see it in Europe,” said the published excerpts. “Spirituality, suppressed. Divinity, downgraded.

“Where, in the words of the archbishop of Canterbury, faith is looked down on as the hobby of ‘oddities, foreigners and minorities.’ Where religion is dismissed as an eccentricity because it’s infused with tradition,” she said. “Where we undermine people who attribute good works to their belief and require them to deny it as their motivation.”

She said response to militant secularization “has to be simple: holding firm in our faiths, holding back intolerance, reaffirming the religious foundations on which our societies are built and reasserting the fact that, for centuries, Christianity in Europe has been inspiring, motivating, strengthening and improving our societies.”

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops offers the following clarifications regarding the Health and Human Services regulations on mandatory coverage of contraceptives, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs.

1.     The mandate does not exempt Catholic charities, schools, universities, or hospitals. These institutions are vital to the mission of the Church, but HHS does not deem them “religious employers” worthy of conscience protection, because they do not “serve primarily persons who share the[ir] religious tenets.” HHS denies these organizations religious freedom precisely because their purpose is to serve the common good of society—a purpose that government should encourage, not punish.

 2.     The mandate forces these institutions and others, against their conscience, to pay for things they consider immoral. Under the mandate, the government forces religious insurers to write policies that violate their beliefs; forces religious employers and schools to sponsor and subsidize coverage that violates their beliefs; and forces religious employees and students to purchase coverage that violates their beliefs.

 3.     The mandate forces coverage of sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs and devices as well as contraception. Though commonly called the “contraceptive mandate,” HHS’s mandate also forces employers to sponsor and subsidize coverage of sterilization. And by including all drugs approved by the FDA for use as contraceptives, the HHS mandate includes drugs that can induce abortion, such as “Ella,” a close cousin of the abortion pill RU-486.

 4.     Catholics of all political persuasions are unified in their opposition to the mandate. Catholics who have long supported this Administration and its healthcare policies have publicly criticized HHS’s decision, including columnists E.J. Dionne, Mark Shields, and Michael Sean Winters; college presidents Father John Jenkins and Arturo Chavez; and Daughter of Charity Sister Carol Keehan, president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association of the United States.

5.     Many other religious and secular people and groups have spoken out strongly against the mandate. Many recognize this as an assault on the broader principle of religious liberty, even if they disagree with the Church on the underlying moral question. For example, Protestant Christian, Orthodox Christian, and Orthodox Jewish groups–none of which oppose contraception–have issued statements against the HHS’s decision. The Washington Post, USA Today, N.Y. Daily News, Detroit News, and other secular outlets, columnists, and bloggers have editorialized against it.

6.     The federal mandate is much stricter than existing state mandates. HHS chose the narrowest state-level religious exemption as the model for its own. That exemption was drafted by the ACLU and exists in only 3 states (New York, California, Oregon).Even without a religious exemption, religious employers can already avoid the contraceptive mandates in 28 states by self-insuring their prescription drug coverage, dropping that coverage altogether, or opting for regulation under a federal law (ERISA) that pre-empts state law. The HHS mandate closes off all these avenues of relief.

Additional information on the U.S. Catholic bishops’ stance on religious liberty, conscience protection and the HHS ruling regarding mandatory coverage of contraceptives, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs is available at www.usccb.org/conscience.

From the USCCB.org site.

All links current as of February 6, 2012.