American Catholics rallied to protect religious freedom, life, and marriage!

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
12/7/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Bishops issue statement calling all the faithful to action.

Catholic bishops across the U.S. are calling upon the faithful to fast and pray as part of a renewed campaign to protect religious freedom in the U.S. Since last year's unconstitutional edict was issued from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the federal government has for the first time in American history, jeopardized the religious freedom of all Americans.

Images like this from Catholicvote.org, are being circulated to raise awareness about the threat to religious freedom in the U.S.

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA (Catholic Online) - The HHS edict requires that employers, regardless of religious conscience, fully fund abhorrent practices that offend their conscience. Those practices include the use of contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortifacients.

Being compelled under the law to finance these activities, religious employers of all stripes are forced to choose between the law of the land, and severe punishment. Those who subsequently comply with the law, may be in grave danger of participating in mortal sin.

A statement from the Bishops calls upon Catholics to pray and fast, abstaining from meat on Fridays. The campaign is also intended to elicit prayers and awareness of other issues including the fundamental right to life and the preservation of marriage as a sacred union between a man and a woman.

This comes as more states add themselves to the list of those that artificially redefine marriage to include pairings of same-sex individuals.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone further explained the position of the Church in his statement to the press. "With the challenges this country is facing, it is hoped that this call to prayer and penance will help build awareness among the faithful as well as spiritual stamina and courage for effective witness." Archbishop Cordileone is the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage.

"We also hope that it will encourage solidarity with all people who are standing for the precious gifts of life, marriage, and religious liberty," he added.

The nation needs a time of prayer and fasting possibly more now than ever before. A series of profound setbacks have been dealt to the Church over the past few years. Those setbacks include the election and reelection of a president who some feel is marginally hostile to the Catholic church, the passage of the HHS edict which compels Catholics and others to violate their conscience under threat of law, and the erosion of legal marriage with the notion that any two individuals of the same sex can be married.

Unfortunately for the government, sacraments and rights cannot be redefined, nor be dismissed by edict.

Catholics are therefore called to participate in five specific actions to serve as reminders of this fact and galvanize them to action.

-    Pray the Rosary daily
-    Attend a special Holy Hour on the last Sunday of each month
-    Participate in the upcoming 2013 Fortnight for Freedom
-    Include special prayers for the faithful at every Mass
-    Fast and abstain from meat on Fridays

By participating in these activities it is hoped that Catholics recall just how fundamental religious freedom is to American society and that more become active in protecting it for all.

� 2012, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Bishops, faithful, HHS, edict, unconstitutional, religious freedom, fasting, Fortnight for Freedom

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1 - 4 of 4 Comments

vance
5 months ago
The Bishops indeed need to rally the 52% of the Catholics who voted for Obama. It is their vote that helped put us here in our current political situation.
Joseph Rogers
5 months ago
I wholly agree with what the author is saying here however there is more we can do in a secular way.

1) Spread the word about the numerous studies that show men and women parent in different ways. Explain that kids need both parenting styles because they address different aspects of their humanity. For instances, women teach more of an emotional approach that helps kids understand others. Men teach responsibility and taking calculated risks which is essential in a world full of problems / traps. There's hard evidence for this and in a same-sex relationship the child is only getting half of the human experience. Our focus needs to be on the children.

2) The students over at 1Flesh have organized a great secular argument for why contraceptives are bad for you. They are listed on the WHO's database as class I carcinogens. The students make various other arguments and are very brave to challenge the contraceptive culture. Lets help them spread the word about the free and side effect free Natural Family Planning!

If we change minds / hearts we change votes! Jesus always was and is in favor of changing hearts first!
Joseph
5 months ago
One of the 'profound setbacks' to the Church is that Obama is 'marginally' hostile to the Catholic Church?? Pardon?? 'Marginally' hostile?? I know we Catholics are renowned for our ability to understate the howlingly obvious but this sentence takes first prize. It is this kind of timid, hesitant language that makes liberals hoot with derision and leave the faithful (surprise, surprise) totally uninspired. And as for prayer, it is of course central in the life of all Catholics, but how about also encouraging the faithful to write to their congressmen and senators, letting them know how angry they are about Obama's anti-Catholic bias?? To simply pray and fast and somehow hope God will put everything right smacks of the kind of complacency that easily morphs into the primal sin of presumption: 'It is written thou shalt not put the Lord thy God to the test.' Christ's answer to Satan no less, in response to one of Satan's three primal temptations in the wilderness, inviting Christ to renounce all practical action and presumptuously rely upon God to step in, do all the hard work, and save him.
mike robertson
5 months ago
"Catholics rallied to protect religious freedom, life and marriage" could be expressed as "Catholics rallied to pray for the enlightenment of Catholic democrats". Why? 1) Catholic democrats voted for a candidate who is waging his immoral and unprovoked war against the Church for the crime, as he sees it, of our obedience to God and His laws as opposed to obedience to this man and his immoral law. 2) Catholic democrats voted for a candidate who believes it should be legal to kill girls and boys outside of their mom's womb after they have survived the attempt to kill them in the womb. 3) Catholic democrats voted for a candidate who thinks he knows more than God as to what constitutes marriage. What God calls an "abomination", the Catholic democrats' candidate calls marriage. Yes, let us pray for the enlightenment of Catholic democrats. Pray the $ signs will be wiped from in front of their eyes and religious freedom, life and marriage will gather more importance in their minds and hearts. Amen.

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