Let's Not Forget God: Freedom of Faith, Culture, and Politics by Angelo Cardinal Scola & John L. Jr Allen

Author:Angelo Cardinal Scola & John L. Jr Allen [Scola, Angelo Cardinal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780804139007
Publisher: The Doubleday Religious Publishing Group
Published: 2014-06-03T00:00:00+00:00

The Situation in the United States

One particular case occupied the pages of the press on the occasion of the recent presidential election: the debate over religious freedom in the United States. The reason was the introduction by the Obama administration of regulations for implementing the recent health-care reform that require various kinds of religious institutions (in particular, hospitals and schools) to offer their employees health insurance policies that cover contraception, abortion, and sterilization procedures. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) decided to grant exemptions only to institutions that define themselves as churches in the strict sense or that provide services exclusively to fellow members of their religion. The dioceses of the United States, however, manage vast educational and health-care networks. They are therefore presented with a choice between violating Catholic moral teaching and separating themselves formally from works that are the result of centuries of effort, with the grave risk that these “ex-Catholic” schools or hospitals would then conform to the standards dictated by the administration. Moreover, juridically nondiocesan Catholic institutions too would find themselves either violating Catholic moral doctrine or paying severe financial penalties (one hundred dollars per day per employee, under the regulations proposed). Their very existence would in fact be compromised.

In various statements the bishops of the United States have openly affirmed that the HHS mandate is unacceptable primarily for three reasons.60 The first is that with it the government has claimed for itself the right to define what is a religious institution and has done so in an absurdly restrictive sense, leaving out all of the social works that Catholics consider an integral part of the proclamation of the Gospel. The second is that the HHS mandate forces institutions that it considers “nonreligious” to violate their own moral and religious teachings. The third is that it also violates the consciences of individual believers, forcing them to act against their most sincere convictions. This third point has raised a great deal of surprise and criticism because the bishops are seen as having implicitly affirmed a right to conscientious objection not only for religious institutions but also for all Catholic employers. In the rather heated debate that has arisen, many commentators, including the bishops, have spoken of attacks on religious freedom.

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