{"id":18254,"date":"2014-01-05T13:30:42","date_gmt":"2014-01-05T18:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/?p=18254"},"modified":"2017-01-24T17:13:03","modified_gmt":"2017-01-24T22:13:03","slug":"archbishop-lori-to-congress-let-our-people-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2014\/01\/archbishop-lori-to-congress-let-our-people-go.html","title":{"rendered":"Archbishop Lori To Congress: Let Our People Go"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Archbishop William Lori took to the pages of The Baltimore Sun<\/a><\/em> yesterday in an effort to let the peoples\u2019 representatives in the House and Senate,\u00a0see, hear<\/a>, and act now to stymie Caesar. Take a look.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis recently reaffirmed that religious freedom is \u201ca fundamental human right\u201d and warned against the impulse to \u201crelegate [religions] to the enclosed precincts of churches, synagogues or mosques.\u201d The freedom of religion cannot be reduced to the freedom of worship.<\/p>\n

This resonates with the rich tradition of religious liberty in our country, which has long allowed Catholics and other people of faith to live out their beliefs beyond the sanctuary, whether by healing the sick, educating the young or feeding and clothing the poor.<\/p>\n

But a mandate of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) now jeopardizes these important ministries \u2014 health care, education, and social services \u2014 by forcing them to participate in covering drugs and devices that violate Catholic teaching. The mandate was enforced against some ministries beginning January 1.<\/p>\n

In order to protect their freedom to serve, many Catholic dioceses and their non-profit ministries took the difficult step of filing federal lawsuits in courts around the country. Most of those results have been encouraging.<\/p>\n

For instance, a federal court in Pennsylvania issued an order blocking the government from enforcing the mandate against the Dioceses of Pittsburgh and Erie and their related charitable, religious and educational ministries. The court found that enforcement could result in \u201cdecreased donations, loss of employees to other employers, loss of services\u201d and fines that could compel the closure of ministries that greatly benefit their communities. Soon after, a New York federal court granted similar relief on similar grounds. And on Tuesday, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor granted a stay in a case brought by the Little Sisters of the Poor, allowing them at least a temporary reprieve from the requirement.<\/p>\n

And in burdening that religious exercise, the mandate also harms those we serve, and in turn, the common good. Requiring these non-profits to set aside money to pay these onerous fines may threaten their very existence. In more ways than one, this serves no one.<\/p>\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Caesar, being benevolent, and all knowing, basically told The Little Sisters of the Poor that \u201cit\u2019s just a piece of paper you\u2019re signing; don\u2019t sweat it<\/a>.\u201d The Denver Catholic Register<\/em> expands on that below,<\/p>\n

The sticking point for both sides is a waiver\/authorization form that the Little Sisters must fill out to take advantage of a so-called accommodation for non-profit ministries. The form, however, has a dual purpose\u2014it signals opposition to the mandate, but also authorizes a third-party to provide the services it finds morally objectionable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Little Sisters and other applicants cannot execute the form because they cannot deputize a third party to sin on their behalf,\u201d stated the Becket Fund, which represents the Little Sisters, in a brief responding to the Obama administration. The group added that the administration is \u201csimply blind to the religious exercise at issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Obama administration minimalized the importance of the form, enticing the Little Sisters to \u201csecure for themselves the relief they seek\u201d \u2026\u201cwith the stroke of their own pen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Rienzi, senior counsel for the Becket Fund who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the nuns, said in a statement Friday that the administration was \u201ctrying to bully nuns into violating their religious beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the sisters don\u2019t sign the waiver\/authorization form, or if the courts don\u2019t uphold the injunction, they could be subject to devastating IRS penalties that could add up to millions of dollars a year.<\/p>\n

After checking back later with the sisters, who run Mullen Home for the Aged in Denver, Mother Patricia Mary stated, \u201cAt this point we are not saying anything. We are just kind of waiting \u2026 and continuing to work with the elderly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the rest<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mother Patricia\u2019s reply reminds me of a passage from the prophet Isaiah,<\/p>\n

For thus said the LORD GOD,
\nthe Holy One of Israel:
\nBy waiting and by calm you shall be saved,
\nin quiet and in trust your strength lies<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Keep praying. While you\u2019re at it, it would probably be a good idea to put a bug in your Congressional representatives<\/a> ears too. And don\u2019t forget The Becket Fund. Throw some shekels their way if you can spare a few<\/a>.<\/p>\n

RELATED<\/strong>,<\/p>\n

Fr. Dwight Longenecker: Henry VIII and the Little Sisters of the Poor<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Archbishop William Lori took to the pages of The Baltimore Sun yesterday in an effort to let the peoples\u2019 representatives in the House and Senate,\u00a0see, hear, and act now to stymie Caesar. Take a look. Pope Francis recently reaffirmed that religious freedom is \u201ca fundamental human right\u201d and warned against the impulse to \u201crelegate [religions] […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,41,37],"tags":[427,148,360,1518,1517,11,280,287],"class_list":["post-18254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-living","category-praying","category-working","tag-archbishop-lori","tag-hhs-mandate","tag-lawsuits","tag-little-sisters-of-the-poor","tag-op-ed-of-note","tag-prayer","tag-religious-liberty","tag-religious-orders"],"yoast_head":"\nArchbishop Lori To Congress: Let Our People Go<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Archbishop William Lori took to the pages of The Baltimore Sun yesterday in an effort to let the peoples' representatives in the House and Senate,\u00a0see,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2014\/01\/archbishop-lori-to-congress-let-our-people-go.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Archbishop Lori To Congress: Let Our People Go\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Archbishop William Lori took to the pages of The Baltimore Sun yesterday in an effort to let the peoples' representatives in the House and Senate,\u00a0see,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2014\/01\/archbishop-lori-to-congress-let-our-people-go.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Why I Am Catholic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-05T18:30:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-24T22:13:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/files\/2013\/03\/Archbishop-Lori.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Frank Weathers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Frank Weathers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2014\/01\/archbishop-lori-to-congress-let-our-people-go.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2014\/01\/archbishop-lori-to-congress-let-our-people-go.html\",\"name\":\"Archbishop Lori To Congress: Let Our People Go\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-05T18:30:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-24T22:13:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b038fe974070cf79eed8a68e30ebc\"},\"description\":\"Archbishop William Lori took to the pages of The Baltimore Sun yesterday in an effort to let the peoples' representatives in the House and Senate,\u00a0see,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2014\/01\/archbishop-lori-to-congress-let-our-people-go.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2014\/01\/archbishop-lori-to-congress-let-our-people-go.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2014\/01\/archbishop-lori-to-congress-let-our-people-go.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Archbishop Lori To Congress: Let Our People Go\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/\",\"name\":\"Why I Am Catholic\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b038fe974070cf79eed8a68e30ebc\",\"name\":\"Frank Weathers\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34cf0388f197f1eac3cb08280847f207?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34cf0388f197f1eac3cb08280847f207?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Frank Weathers\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/author\/frankweathers\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Archbishop Lori To Congress: Let Our People Go","description":"Archbishop William Lori took to the pages of The Baltimore Sun yesterday in an effort to let the peoples' representatives in the House and Senate,\u00a0see,","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2014\/01\/archbishop-lori-to-congress-let-our-people-go.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Archbishop Lori To Congress: Let Our People Go","og_description":"Archbishop William Lori took to the pages of The Baltimore Sun yesterday in an effort to let the peoples' representatives in the House and Senate,\u00a0see,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2014\/01\/archbishop-lori-to-congress-let-our-people-go.html","og_site_name":"Why I Am Catholic","article_published_time":"2014-01-05T18:30:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-01-24T22:13:03+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/files\/2013\/03\/Archbishop-Lori.jpg"}],"author":"Frank Weathers","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Frank Weathers","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2014\/01\/archbishop-lori-to-congress-let-our-people-go.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2014\/01\/archbishop-lori-to-congress-let-our-people-go.html","name":"Archbishop Lori To Congress: Let Our People Go","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-01-05T18:30:42+00:00","dateModified":"2017-01-24T22:13:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b038fe974070cf79eed8a68e30ebc"},"description":"Archbishop William Lori took to the pages of The Baltimore Sun yesterday in an effort to let the peoples' representatives in the House and Senate,\u00a0see,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2014\/01\/archbishop-lori-to-congress-let-our-people-go.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2014\/01\/archbishop-lori-to-congress-let-our-people-go.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2014\/01\/archbishop-lori-to-congress-let-our-people-go.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Archbishop Lori To Congress: Let Our People Go"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/","name":"Why I Am Catholic","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b038fe974070cf79eed8a68e30ebc","name":"Frank Weathers","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34cf0388f197f1eac3cb08280847f207?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34cf0388f197f1eac3cb08280847f207?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Frank Weathers"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/author\/frankweathers"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}