Bishops aim to protect religious liberty

Is religious liberty really a "God-given gift", as Lori says ?

Does God really will for people to have the "liberty" - as a fundamental human right - to choose and openly worship according to whichever religion they prefer?

People do have free will and can choose to commit sin, but no one has the "right" to commit sin. So too, people may have the free will to worship according to a false religion, but they have no right to do so, even if subjectively they were acting in good faith.

God gave us one religion. "There is one Lord, ONE FAITH, one baptism."

If the Lord loves religious liberty so much, He certainly didn't appear to do so when the people were worshipping the golden calf.

I am in favor of the Catholic State showing tolerance toward those who are in error. But as a matter of principle, no one really has the fundamental God-given human right to be an animist, a voodoo witch doctor, a Satanist, etc.

I am also certainly in favor of the non-Catholic State like our own (i.e. the State which has not yet realized the truth of the Catholic Faith) showing tolerance toward or total freedom for the true Faith, so that it can be openly practiced as God wills.

What a farce! Bishops support Religious Freedom for all--except Catholics.

Dolan is out of touch with the pulse of the society he lives in and he is especially out of touch when it comes to the interests of all the Catholics he is supposed to serve. He hasn't a clue. The entire teaching authority of most but not all, bishops is non-existent partially due to backward, ignorant, homophobic and misogynistic policies of the Roman Church. Add the sexual abuse of children by priests and some bishops and you have a pretty good idea of why there is no respect for most bishops, especially people who think and act like Dolan. There are many religious institutions that should not have tax exempt status. This is one.

Let's not also forget the latest assaults on freedom within the Church: no female altar servers, must kneel while processing for Communion, and keep those gays in the closet (but don't let them push any more pedophiles out into the public eye!).

Freedom of conscience and religious liberty for the bishops and their True Believers? Freedom from obeying laws that accord civil rights to all citizens?

Funny -- I thought the bishops weren't into freedom of conscience at all. Most of their recent history (and the blogging history of their True Believers) is about CONDEMNING freedom of conscience in others -- lay, religious and clerical. Do none of them understand that their demands are laughable as a result?

As I've said (and many NCR comments have concurred), let the church and the bishops pay the same taxes as everybody else and MAYBE they will have earned the right to some political input. Right now, they delude themselves that anybody but the orthodox are happy with the hate speech that forms far too much of their political discourse.

Susan Lersch
susan.lersch@yahoo.com

They are talking about the conscience right of the hierarchy, of course - not of the people in the pews or even the priests. Indeed, the hierarchy should be adept at recognizing ignoring the conscience rights of others - they do it all the time in regards to women's ordination, homosexuality and birth control by married Catholics.

Wa waaa!
Here they go again.
When accused of abusing children and, as a result, our church's financial well-being--they simply recast themselves as victims!
We have been through this cycle before . . . when does it stop?
The problems of the bishops have nothing to do with Health & Human services--the problem is that they are so out of touch with their flock.

Most of these assaults come from Democrats and the left wing media
especially in Hollywood and on TV.

I wish the Bishops would put half as much energy into the poor, and healthcare beyond birth. I had an email discussion with a priest in my diocese during the healthcare debate. When I pointed out that at times, especially in the early years of my marriage, we were poor but we always had insurance, and I could always bring my daughters into the doctor when they were ill, his comment was 'it wasn't a crime to be poor'!! No comment on healthcare. He missed the point entirely-possibly on purpose?? How can they say they are 'prolife' and not care if a Mom can't bring her child to the doctor when they are sick, or an adult can't see a doctor for follow up care with high blood pressure, diabetes etc. I have a friend who is diabetic. She does not have access to healthcare because she doesn't have health insurance. She doesn't have the money to pay for high premiums and doesn't have any other way of getting health insurance. As a result, she tries to eat smart and exercise, but she has no idea what her blood sugar is. She has no idea if she has high blood pressure or high chlorestral which often go hand in hand if you become diabetic. I know if she became very ill she can go to the emergency room but doctors won't see you just to check your diabetes, BP etc, and if they did she still couldn't afford it. And without insurance, she can't afford her medicine. There are free clinics, and medicaid but she and her husband make just over the line to qualify for this kind of help. They are indeed the working poor. Where is their debate on this??? People die from lack of healthcare too.

Vote Republican! Is this what the holy, Catholic. Apostolic, and Republican Church wants the faithful to do? The bishops sounds like the evangelicals again. Shame on them. Religious liberty is just a smoke screen here,

It is sad to hear that the bishops seem only interested in the religious rights of those who agree with them. What of the religious rigts of those who disagree? Can't they be respected as well?

The Bishops should consider their history of depriving people of their religious liberty in their efforts to impose their "moral standards" into United States legislation thereby forcing people of all religious persuasions to comply. Also do they not insist on depriving the rights of women regarding their equality within the Catholic Church and their right to make medical decisions with their doctors without the interference of the government or public condemnation,the rights of homosexuals and lesbians to a commitment of intimacy before their communities. Do they not interfere with the legislative decisions of Cathoilic politicians when they use the Eucharist as means of blackmailing them to conform to the bishops judgements. And how much of the church's money have you spent doing these things?

Wake up bishops and examine your own consciouses. Is that how Jesus treated people?

Is there any other Bishops' concern than the issues related to the sexual life of all people?

It appears that social justice issues, wars, death penalty, immigration laws, the environment among other non-sexual matters are out of the Hierarchy's radar.
Fortunately, the recent report on Poverty awake the cosncience of some bishops, but to talk about it and at the same time using their power to achieve political changes (ie. health insurance Act) is beyond dissapointing.

Jesus came to the world and died on the Cross to return in his Resurrection for the salvation of the world. He did not impose his values, he lived them, and respected those who were not ready for Him. That religious liberty implies respect for the non-Catholics who live in this country. Their primacy of conscience should be respected, and so also ours.

If the Health care Act, in the Bishops' opinion, does not include the clause assuring respect for the medical personnel's consciences, let that part be reconsidered, but do not continue working for the killing of universal health care for the poor and the middle class just because it does not reflect perfectly the Catholic demands. Many Catholics approve the Act.
Religious liberty means the acceptance of diversity of the beliefs and values in our society.

How bizarre! The bishops want religious freedom for SOME - yet at the same time, they DON'T want religious freedom for MANY. Certainly they approve religious freedom for clerics IF they don't speak their conscience about abuses in the church. Others like women, children, and theologians don't warrant religious freedom because they're defective (women), children (not fully human although they were when they were embryos!), theologians (could write what they think and scandalize who knows what!) and laypeople (an insignificant part of the Body of Christ with no say-so in crucial religious matters).

I thought catholics had the right to say yes or no to anything that would be sinful. If you say yes to birth control it just might be a health reason, for example, a matter of life or death. "What would Jesus say?", a question taught to catholic students IN catholic not too long ago, apparently has been long-forgotten by the hierarchy in all of these issues brought to the fore by Archbishop Dolan and the group he should be leading, asking what Jesus would say, before rushing to dictate a letter to his secretary and to the members who still claim to be catholic. God have mercy on them all!

If only the church itself followed the recommendations of Vatican 2 “Document on Religious liberty”. If we actually practiced what is preached there ourselves and within the Church, we might have grounds for some expectation that other people might do the same.

I may be just an old (83) retired Franciscan priest, but a lot of Dolan’s concern don’t concern me much. For instance “mandate the coverage of contraception and sterilization in private health insurance” does not say people have to use it if they choose not too. But if their own freedom of Religion and Conscience determines they want to, they could.

Most of the items listed in the article I would personally support in good Faith and Conscience as an exercise of my own ‘Freedom of Religion” and conscience.

There seems to be some ambiguity on the interpretation of the meaning of religious liberty in the USA adn globally by the Roman Catholic Church. It's one thing to protect religious liberty of all people including Catholics. However Religious liberty in the context of having honest discussion on pastoral, Theological, moral and ethical issues results in the Jubilee of Repression of any dissent and the requirement to submit full intellect and will to all Magisterial teaching both Infallible and otherwise. Where is the Religious Liberty here to express yourself without being silenced or excommunicated. Where is the liberty now????

Here we go again... batching 'religious liberty' with marriage issues. If this committee has any substance whatsoever, it will be pro marriage for anyone who wishes to marry. After all, the state doesn't 'sanctify' anything nor can it protect the supposed sanctity of marriage as defined in a narrow sense, as only between a man and a woman. This is getting flakier all the time!

Religious liberty under assault? Certainly not in the marriage equality fight. Bishops want their beliefs about marriage enshrined into law and imposed on everyone in this society. We are talking about civil marriage, not religious marriage. They have always been able to officiate at any marriages they want to and to refuse to officiate at marriages they don't want to. They also want to discriminate against same sex couples in foster care/adoption agencies that get money from the state. They want the money, but not the responsibility to obey the law. And how did passage of marriage legislation in the State of New York infringe on their religious liberty to legislate marriages that take place in their churches? Their idea of religious liberty is for them to be totally free to impose their rules on everyone, including other religious institutions.

As far as the opponents of marriage equality being accused of bias and prejudice, they need to read the transcripts of the federal trial about the constitutionality of California's Prop 8. There the opponents of same sex marriage were given every chance to assert and defend rational bases for their opposition to such marriages. The trial proved that the sole bases for such opposition were religious beliefs. The opponents of same sex marriage could not prove there were any defensible rational reasons for their opposition. Children of same sex parents do not suffer. Marriage is good for couples and families. Heterosexual marriages are not affected. Same sex marriages do not lead to divorce or disease. Massachusetts still has the lowest rate of divorces in the country despite having had legal same sex marriages for years. But the bishops would have all same sex marriages dissolved if they had their way, trying to tear apart couples and marriages for the sole reason that they think somehow they have a pipeline to the mind of the creator of the universe.

I sometimes wonder why these unmarried men, many of them homosexual, are so fixated on trying to prevent and tear apart same sex relationships and so unconcerned about the major problems that do affect so many families and individuals today.

Really!! If the USCCB and its newest ad hoc committee are serious about combating or deflecting attacks on religious liberty and the freedom of conscience, they would do very well to enlist the help of a man whom they have made a real expert in these areas: Father Roy Bourgeois, M.M. Friend Roy would make a good chairman, even.

Just a thought, to be sure.

ELECTION YEAR ANTICS?..........Oh my God! Batten down all ecclesiatical hatches. The anti-Christ's diabolical legions are attacking (and, incidentally, President Obama wants another four years). Gays want to marry their partners, AIDs victims want condoms to avoid killing their partners, women want to avoid having a dozen kids... Can the end-times be far behind? ................Thank God the "right wing" politicians are in election cycle gear to preserve our civilization, while the "liberal" politicians are ducking for cover. Gullible Catholics must be kept fully distracted or they might dare to ask Archbishops Dolan, Chaput, et al. finally to comment on the disgraceful child abuse criminal cases pending in Philly, Kansas City, with many other cities likely to follow. What a cynical charade! Bishop Lori? He still hasn't finished cleaning up the child abuse cover-up mess Cardinal Egan left him in Bridgeport............ Why doesn't the clerical swat team do something constructive, like developing a cost-effective, victim sensitive approach to handling abuse victims' claims as described in the comment entitled, "A FLAWED LEGAL STRATEGY" accessible by clicking on to http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/do-lawsuit-allegations-touch-di... ..................It is disconcerting that Rome's legions of lock-step bishops continue to try to salvage Paul VI's anti-contraception encylical. The encyclical was a result of Paul VI's undercutting deceptively his own Birth Control Commission's recommendation that contraception be allowed, as described by clicking on to http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/new-birth-control-commission-papers-re... .................I think John Allen is correct that the International Criminal Court's (ICC)investigation of the Roman clique may be a "blessing in disguise", as further discussed in the comment entitled, "POPE IN HANDCUFFS?" , accessible by clicking on to http://ncronline.org/all-things-catholic/blessing-vatican-really-deep-di... Once the ICC prosecutor gets to the Roman clique's secret files, it will be possible for the first time in over a millenium to find out what the devil is really going on. The Spirit works in strange ways.

We are forced to pay taxes for a judicial system that kills prisoners that are no threat to society contrary to the teaching of the church and the pleas of our Holy Father and a defense department that wages war contrary to the church's just war doctrine.

Will Archbishop Dolan add that to his list of violations of religious liberty?

Or is sex the only issue?

Having the Bishops' concern about the 'assult on American liberties' is like having foxes guarding the hen-house.

You have to hand it to the hierarchs: dressing up their obsession with controlling what goes on sexually between a woman's legs as an issue of "religious liberty."

I personally don't need, nor do I welcome, any help protecting my religious liberty from the world's oldest all-male feudal oligarchy.

If hierarchs were really interested in Catholics' religious liberty they would all resign en mass and call for the democratic election of bishops and priests.

The hierarchs know their political hegemony over Catholic women and men will always be threatened when especially women exert their human rights over their own bodies, the exercise of their sexuality and the formation and development of their families.

No wonder that Catholic women and men have NOT been encouraging their sons, nor their daughters for that matter, to vocations as priests and religious for now more than forty years: Catholic bishops and priests are a dying vestigial breed heading for extinction.

By denying their sons and daughters to continue the hierarchs' hegemony, Catholic women ARE EXERCISING their "unalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" - religious liberty lives!

Oh, please, let's not do this. So much of what is deemed affronts to religious freedom are health issues, serious health issues. And since many many Catholic couples use contraceptives, any attempt to condemn this is hypocritical and detrimental to anyone unable to afford contraceptives (the poor). And same-sex marriage can easily be considered a civil matter. It can be consider under separation of church and state. I have never understood how this has harmed anyone. It is a civil union of two people; the sex should be irrelevant. It is no one else's business.

The past few months have seen the Bishops calling upon "conscience" to support and defend a number of their actions and positions. In view of the Church's actions against Father Roy Bourgeois for exercising his conscience in defense of ordaining women, I find the Bishop's sudden race to their "violation of conscience" defense more than little hypocritical.

They seem a lot more passianit about this than the earlier social justice notice.

My fear is that it is too little and too late. These issues have been insidiously creeping in for some time now.

The wording of this initiative as though it has some concern with protecting "religious liberty" reminds me of similar self-serving Republican Party statements to the effect that they only want to protect the people from "big government". The real threat to liberty is the threat to national soverignty posed by the operations of the RCC under the Roman dictatorship. This ad hoc committee will merely be about enforcing RCC dogma on birth control.

Certainly, what the bishops propose is to be encouraged. Unfortunately, I firmly believe that there is connection between the things that they oppose and the growth of a strident atheism in this country since 9/11, as shown by billboards in various parts of the country espousing non-belief and claiming that we do not need God ("the old guy in the sky")to remain moral. Of course the morality advanced by the atheists and the morality taught by the church are not the same. Still, the acceptance of this secular morality does tend to discredit the morality proposed by the church/

Interesting how quickly the hierarchy responds when it is clearly THEIR agenda.... Would that the agendas of the People of God should get such quick action - with personnel added too!!!

It would be nice to see Dolan and the rest of the old boy's club show the same concern for liberty in the church--what St. Paul called "the freedom of the sons (and daughters) of God."

Ultra right wing conservative madness!

It is no threat to any individual's religious liberty to require a service provider who receives government benefits or funding, or participates in government-sponsored service programs to provide benefits to employees or services to members of the public. The bishops and their new ad hoc committee want to engage in discrimination by punishing employees and members of the public, who are to be denied services and benefits, which do not violate their own individual religious principles.

Oh you Bishops of the U.S.A. disgust me. I am a former nun who was well educated for the 15 years as a nun. When I left the wonderful Sisters of Mercy it was for personal reason's. I could no longer be a Lesbian and a Nun both, as I kept falling in love with wonderful other intelligent, and loving Nun's. I must say after leaving the convent, I contiued my quest in the area's of Ancient History, Cultures and the ability to use Critical Thinking in the 20th and 21st Century. I am appalled that you Bishops and Priests continue to treat the American nun's and laity like they are Ignorant children who believe whatever you say. Sorry BOY's, we are all too old and wise for the Roman driven Old Boy's club. I know so many former nuns and lay friends who have left the Roman Catholic Church for Spirituality in the true sense of the word. We do not need you. Perhaps you can continue to brain-wash and control the people who are not educated and do not have critical thinking skills and who do not KNOW the GOD within their very selves as Jesus knew.

Time for the Catholic Church (and other churches) to lose their tax exemption! (Actually they should have lost it years ago for lobbying).

Another CHICKEN LITTLE strategy of Catholic FUNDAMENTALISM. In the long run, people saw thru the sham of Bush 43's Weapons of Mass Destruction, and eventually, people will see thru this feeble US vs THEM ploy as well.
Or is the USCCB being co-opted into an anti-Obama "mini-machine" arriving just in time to deliver the Catholic vote in order to SAVE US from another four years of a Democrat in the White House?

p.s. LORI is the best they can do?
http://search.bishop-accountability.org/search?q=Lori+bridgeport&btnG=Se...

Memo to IRS:
What is the tax-exempt status of a typical NON-religious entity that employs
"two full-time staffers, a lawyer and a lobbyist, to support committee work?"
Sounds like a thinly-veiled PAC to me.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pia/pac-527.pdf

I'm sorry, but what the bishops care about is money, not liberty. They want Catholic institutions -- charities, hospitals, universities, etc. -- to get taxpayer money, taken from all taxpayers, while refusing services to many of those same taxpayers, e.g., gay couples, women who want contraception, etc. They can't have it both ways.

I think the USCCB has just shown themselves as the ultimate hypocrits. On the one hand, they want to be defendders of religious freedom and freedom of conscience, will devote committees to work diligently to protect it but on the other hand will not support those of their own faith when their actions are ones that come about as a result of following one's conscience (Fr Ray Bourgieos. UU

Who will protect "our people" from the bishops?

it should be name "sex defense committee" instead.

Hurrah! At last the giant of freedom is awakening! Lick your wounds! Gird your loins, soldiers of Christ, for the battle ahead. May justice and goodness prevail and the Lord's Kingdom come! Amen!

As always it comes down to homosexuality. When will these hard headed (and heart hearted) old men learn that siimply because the government is granting to gay couples the same civil rights as straight couples in no way infringes upon the Church's ability to continue to preach hate and intolerance?

When are the bishops going to fight to accord religious liberty to the faithful??????

Very worthwhle, but how about a committee to protect us from bishops who are more concerned with the reputation of the Church before the interests of the people, chaired and staffed by laity, oooof course, since the bishops seen unable to "get it".

A clarification of who is church needs to be part of this discussion. The majority of Catholics believe the use of contraceptives is OK, that distribution of condoms to prevent HIV/AIDs is OK, and that same sex marriage is OK. So are the people of God the Church or are the Bishops?

And so the bishops kick off the republican 2012 effort. The very premise that these men are concerned with religious liberty is absurd. They oppose the liberties of their members and everyone else. The new rules apply to federal funds or that the institution or person comply or stop practicing. So the real issue is money. Sometimes a Catholic might be called on to make a sacrifice for her faith. This is the worst assault ever, get real rep.s.

There is not a single religious liberty threatened by the actions listed here. This is nothing more than the bishops kissing up to the republican party before election time. It is disgusting.

Good to know the Bishops will work for religious liberty. But please, Bishops, what about religious liberty within the Catholic Church where an educated conscience is "supposed" to be accepted. What about free thinking among theologians? What about debate among theologians, Bishops, and laity around the theologies today that were written based on the perspective of a flat earth society, politically motivated, and have little relevance today? What about the religious freedom of children who are still abused and the perpetrators still free? What about liberty of women to follow their calling to the priesthood? What about the liberty of gays and lesbians, created by God to be able to live their lives in loving freedom? What about men called to both prieshood and marriage - where is their freedom?

These and so many more issues are never discussed openly by the body of bishops who once spoke so clearly and forcefully on social justice issues?

Oh, please Bishops, be leaders into the future. We don't want to go back before Vatican 1.

The congregation is falling away because of behaviour of the representatives of the church. They do not practise humility, poverty, chastity nor compassion what on earth do you expect. Get back to the basics of religion. The public are tired of the church. Make amends, stop proselytising and offer constructive ideas instead of hot air and rhetoric. Right now, the RCC is a right old turn off!

Wlll their Graces, Messrs. Lori and Dolan, be sending a copy of their memorandum to SSPX, in as much as that group doesn't believe in religious freedom and would return your church to the world of the so-called Syllabus of Errors? As a mainline Protestant, I feel threats to religious freedom not only from overly intrusive government, but fundamentalist evangelicals who would gladly impose a theocracy on the USA based on sola scriptura literalism.

We now know what His Holiness (prompted by alarmed Latino and African RC bishops) thinks of evangelical and pentecostal cults. If Tim Dolan wasn't so openly the de facto chaplain to the GOP, he might see that threats to religious freedom exist in places other than government.

Doublethink redux!

Dolan & co. are trotting out the notion of "libery" to defend their infringement upon the liberties of others.

Archbishop Dolan's statements sound just like some of the self-serving utterances from the Republican Party about "protecting the people from big government". This alleged "assault on religious liberty" is just a straw man to camouflage the real agenda which is to impose the RCC's policies on birth control on everyone. The only threat to religious liberty is the threat to national sovereignty posed by RCC operations within nations.

How about the Church's assault on children and women

"BISHOPS AIM TO PROTECT SOCIETY"...in my view and I'm certain many others is just the opposite of protecting society. Opposition to dispensing condoms to protect against HIV is not protecting society at all but is a war on protecting society. The same argument is made on the bishops opposition to having contraceptives available. The bishops argument ought to be limited to the non-thinking mindlessly obedient sitting alone in its pews...that message ought to be don't do it...and to the rest of it population; if you are against same sex marrigage 'don't get one'. For the rest of society; leave us alone and may we be protected from the medieval onslaught of bishop bullying. Protect society indeed; the bishop only desire is its own dominion. Is there a larger group in society acting contrary to the general welfare of our citizens. I don't think so, and it is time to stand up, voice our oppostion to the bishops nonsense, stating we are not taking your direction; please go away.

Talk about Chutzpah! The Catholic liberty of lay catholics and theologians have been under attack by right-wing vatican bureaucrats ever since the final session of Vatican II. It's a bit disengenuous to ignore the obvious; every living human being is an equal participant in God's creation no matter their ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or gender. Our democracy has slowly grasped this while the theocracy of Rome is still clinging to the Constantinian power structure they sold their souls for nearly 1800 years ago. ...glass houses come to mind!
Joe Shveima

Assault? That's what's happening to Christians in Iraq and Indonesia and priests in Columbia who stand up for the locals. Seems like this is not the right word.

While black preachers across the country were strong and vocal from within and without the pulpit in support of Obama's election campaign the catholic church was not only silent but quietly supportive of Obama's candidacy.

How's that hopey changey stuff working for the church now???