“The Church cannot not oppose this unjust mandate…”

“This represents an unprecedented intrusion by the federal government to force religious institutions to facilitate and fund a product contrary to their own moral teaching. The mandate purports to define which religious institutions are “religious” enough to merit the protection of their religious liberty.

The Church cannot not oppose this unjust mandate. It is a matter of whether religious people and institutions may be forced by the government to provide coverage for contraception or sterilization, even if that violates their religious beliefs.

These efforts to restrict religious liberty are seemingly founded in a reductive secularism that has more in common with the French Revolution than with America’s founding. They seek to delegitimize the Church’s participation in public debate about issues that will determine the future of American society.

As the pope told Castro in Cuba, in upholding this basic human right to religious freedom the Church is not seeking any privileges for herself. The Church does not seek to impose her views but seeks the freedom to propose them in the public square and to witness to them coherently so as to contribute to human flourishing in society.”

— Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, writing here.