Bishops move

This is not a chess game, but there is a lot of intense strategy involved.

The Democratic leadership members of the House have written public funding for abortion into their 1,990 page health care reform bill, and continue to resist the efforts of a coalition of about 40 House Democrats to amend the bill to explicitly exclude abortion funding. It’s a back and forth that Speaker Nancy Pelosi and abortion activists are winning at the moment, and since it’s a very late moment in pushing this bill through, the US bishops have made a remarkable counter-drive to reform the language of the bill.

They asked pastors across the country to include a bulletin insert in parish bulletins right away with their letter to members of Congress urging them to exclude abortion funding in the bill and protect freedom of conscience in the health care industry.

Their activism didn’t stop there. In fact, this nearly unprecedented campaign was really just getting underway.

The U.S. bishops have also asked that a special announcement be made at every parish at two separate Sunday Masses.  Their announcement tells laymen to contact their representatives and senators “immediately” and to “urge them to fix these bills with pro-life amendments,” so that “health care reform will be about saving lives, not destroying them.”

Furthermore…

The USCCB has started an ad campaign aimed both at congressmen and at the grassroots.  The campaign uses online advertising on various websites such National Review Online, Catholic Match, and Beliefnet, to urge people to oppose the pro-abortion health care bill.  The information distributed to US parishes also includes an ad that may be run in Catholic papers.

The bishops themselves are opposing the health care legislation by personal action.  Cardinal Francis George, president of the USCCB, with the chairmen of three USCCB committees engaged in health care, has written to the American bishops and asked for their “active and personal leadership” and to “redouble [their] efforts” to ensure that health care does not include abortion.

Cardinal George’s letter reads in part that “the outcome [of this debate] will depend not primarily on advocacy done in Washington, but on what we do in our own dioceses and states to make the case clearly and persuasively to influence how our Senators and Representatives vote.”

On another front, the Archdiocese of Washington is battling to pre-empt action the D.C. City Council is taking in a proposal to recognize same-sex “marriage” and redefine marriage.

The proposed law, called the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009, redefines marriage as “the legally recognized union of two people.” It says a religious association or a non-profit associated with a religion shall not be required to provide services, accommodations, facilities or goods related to the solemnization, celebration or promotion of a marriage that is in violation of the entity’s religious beliefs unless the entity makes those services available to members of the general public.

Representatives of the archdiocese…argued that the law would endanger Catholic services to the general public…

“The District will effectively force the Archdiocese either to violate the law or to abandon forms of religious practice – care for the poor, hungry and homeless – that are fundamental to the practice of Catholic social teaching,” the [Williams & Connolly] law firm commented.

In addition to overturning the definition of marriage, the legislation has no exemptions for churches, religious organizations such as the Knights of Columbus or religiously-owned nonprofits such as Catholic Charities if they provide services to the general public or rent space to individuals or groups outside of their faith.

According to the archdiocese, six prominent legal scholars including Prof. Robin Fretwell Wilson of Washington & Lee University have independently submitted a letter to City Council Chairman detailing serious religious freedom problems with the legislation…

Risks for religious organizations and individuals…

who cannot recognize same-sex “marriages” include the denial of access to government contracts and access to government facilities, such as leases. Licenses for objecting doctors and social workers could be revoked while child care licenses could be denied…

“This would have serious implications in the District of Columbia, where Catholic Charities provides foster care and adoption services for nearly 100 children every year as well as shelter every night for nearly one in three of the city’s homeless men, women and children under contracts with the city, which cannot provide these services itself as efficiently and cost effectively,” the Archdiocese of Washington said.

“Every year, Catholic Charities provides shelter, food, counseling, medical and legal assistance, and more to 68,000 people in the District of Columbia regardless of their faith,” explained Ed Orzechowski, president and CEO of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington. “If the Council passes this bill as written, these programs are at risk along with nearly 100 different parish social ministry programs, all of the other ministries operated by the Catholic Church and even meeting space for groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Scouts and neighborhood organizations who partner with churches.”

The lack of an adequate exemption, the archdiocese said, would require religious organizations and individuals to choose “between exercising their faith and following the law.”

Seeing all this unfold, the threats to the sanctity of human life and fundamental freedom of conscience, to the social moral norms of society and the exercise of religious beliefs unfettered by an imposing government bureaucracy…..and the bishops’ and co-religionists’ unprecedented defense of so sweeping a change in the fabric of this nation….reminds me of something I read again recently.

Acton Institute’s Kevin Schmiesing wrote this about religious freedom:

It should be obvious that this is no way of building a pluralistic society that is free and peaceful. The American Founders knew better when they fashioned an amendment forbidding the national government from establishing a church, guaranteeing all people the right to practice their faith, and leaving the rest to local custom and personal freedom.

Recognizing the influence of religion, tyrants have always begun their quest for absolute power by coopting religious leaders. Where they have failed in that enterprise, would-be despots have neutralized them by undermining their authority or doing away with troublesome ministers altogether. History’s tyrants recognized the progression that some of us have forgotten: Where people are free to act according their conscience, they will demand the right to determine their political destiny.