Dear Friends,
This morning, the Archdiocese of
Washington filed
a lawsuit to challenge the mandate,
recently issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, that
fundamentally redefines the nation’s longstanding definition of religious
ministry and requires our religious
organizations to provide their employees with coverage for abortion-inducing
drugs, contraceptives, and sterilization, even if doing so violates their
religious beliefs. Just as our faith compels us to uphold the liberty and
dignity of others, so too, we must defend our own.
Joining the
archdiocese in this local lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for
the District of Columbia, are three of our related corporations: Archbishop Carroll High School, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of
Washington, and the Consortium of Catholic
Academies. We are joined by the Catholic
University of America in this action as well. Ours is one of twelve lawsuits
filed today on behalf of 43
Catholic dioceses and organizations nationwide. 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. 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. As is generally the case with
laws that may burden religious exercise, the mandate includes an exemption for
religious organizations. And if the religious
exemption in the mandate were reasonable, there would have been no need for
this lawsuit—after all, we are indeed “religious” under any sensible
definition. However, the mandate’s exemption is the narrowest ever adopted in
federal law. Crucially, it does not include any organization that serves the
general public. So under this mandate, our Catholic hospitals, schools, and
social service programs, which serve all people, are not “religious enough” to
be allowed to follow our Catholic beliefs.
For Catholics, the practice of
faith has always required not just acts of worship, but also – necessarily –
loving, charitable service to others. The understanding of charity as an
essential religious activity goes back to the foundation of Christianity. Jesus
Christ taught that obeying the first great commandment -- loving God -- must
impel us to fulfill the second great commandment -- loving our neighbor as
ourselves. As put by the Apostle St. James: “Faith by itself, if it has no
works, is dead” (James 2:14-26). When asked what “love of neighbor” requires,
Jesus commanded his followers to act like the Good Samaritan, explaining that
Christian love must impel us to concrete action and must be universal –
extending not just to those of our own kind, but also to outsiders and even
enemies (Luke 10:25-36). And Jesus describes the Last Judgment, where he will
say to those he has placed at his right hand:
“Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave
me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was a stranger and you welcomed
me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in
prison and you came to me. … Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the
least of my brethren, you did it to me” (Matthew 25: 31-46).
Thus, for two millennia, Roman Catholic entities have
been engaged in charitable works – serving not just Catholics, but non-Catholics
as well, with the understanding that these works are an essential part of
Christian love and the practice of the Christian faith. As our Holy Father,
Pope Benedict XVI, has recently
put it, “love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the sick and needy of every
kind, is as essential to [the Catholic Church] as the ministry of the sacraments
and preaching of the Gospel. The Church cannot neglect the service of charity
any more than she can neglect the Sacraments and the Word.”
Considering the dedicated efforts put into these good
works, it is understandable to feel somewhat disheartened to see our government
attempt to force the Church out of the public square. To be clear, that is the
message that the HHS mandate conveys: our beliefs are not welcome. Those who
have the temerity to hold onto their convictions will be fined.
The First
Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom, however, was not meant to protect
merely the right to worship, but also the right to contribute the fruits of our
faith to the common good. And until now, our government had chosen to honor
that guarantee. Never before has the government contested that institutions
like Archbishop Carroll High School or Catholic University are religious. Who
would? But HHS’s conception of what constitutes the practice of religion is so
narrow that even Mother
Teresa would not have qualified. We know that such a law cannot stand. So
above all we find cheer in the worthiness of our cause and in the love of our
Creator, who imbued us with the very dignity and freedom that this lawsuit seeks
to protect.
The Church did not choose this fight. It is HHS that has
departed from long-standing practice and precedent to change the law; our
response merely aims to preserve our existing rights. Although the Church would
naturally remain open to good faith negotiations with the Administration, previous
discussions yielded no reasonable compromise, and the Church has been given
little reason to think further attempts would be fruitful. Bringing this claim
to the courts ensures a fair and impartial hearing—one that we believe we will
win. For up-to-date information on this matter, please visit www.preservereligiousfreedom.org.
To
further advance our support for religious liberty, I invite you to a special
event to publicly witness to our faith and our freedom in the nation’s capital.
On June 24, 2012, the Archdiocese of Washington will host a “Celebration of
Freedom.” The rally will be held at the Smith Center of The George Washington
University. Together with prayer and inspirational music, this rally will
feature a video that highlights our heritage of religious freedom and the vital
contributions of Catholics to building this nation. I hope you will join us for
this wonderful event to celebrate our faith and, most importantly, to pray for
our liberty. Your presence at this archdiocesan event will be testimony to how
important it is to celebrate our faith and, most importantly, to pray for our
liberty. This headline event is part of the Archdiocese of Washington’s
response to the “Fortnight for Freedom” called for by the
bishops of the United States. For more information and to register,
please visit www.sacredproperty.org.
In
the coming weeks and months, may God remind us that the freedom of religion is
only meaningful when we exercise it. And may God look with favor on our prayers
for the success of this endeavor we have undertaken in His
name.
With prayerful best wishes, I
am
Faithfully in
Christ,
Donald Cardinal
Wuerl
Archbishop of
Washington
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