Bishop Anthony B. Taylor delivered this homily June 23.
This year, for the second year in a row, the bishops of the United States have called on us to observe a Fortnight for Freedom -- 14 days of prayer, action and study for religious freedom in our country.
It began June 21, the vigil of Sts. John Fisher and Thomas More who sacrificed their lives rather than violate their consciences, obeying God rather than King Henry VIII. The fortnight ends July 4, the day we remember all those who sacrificed their lives so that we could be free from the tyranny also of those who would force us to violate our consciences today.
This freedom to follow our conscience is our first and most cherished liberty. It is enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution and is under attack by those who seek to replace freedom of religion with freedom from religion. They would still grant us freedom of worship, but no longer freedom of religion, and when we really live our faith and refuse to set aside our faith when we leave the Church building, we are called "intolerant" -- when what we really are is "principled.” And we are called "judgmental" when what we really seek to be is "moral.” And we are called "behind the times" in an era of social change whenever we appeal to a "higher law.”
We could simply ignore all this like most people did in the time of Henry VIII, "live and let live" --except that won't work. Evil deeds that violate the laws that God enshrined in nature which anyone can see -- have evil consequences, even when done in ignorance; consequences damage all of society, not just those who do the deed themselves.
There are no laws forcing us to have abortions, use contraceptives, get sterilized, be promiscuous, have babies out of wedlock, get divorced, live together without being married, or now -- with encouragement from this week's Supreme Court decisions -- marry someone of the same sex, but our whole society suffers the devastating consequences, even those of us who have done none of these things. This should be sufficient to motivate us -- even if only out of self-interest--to stand up and say "enough."
But now, for the first time in memory, we have a law that directly targets our beliefs as Catholics and seeks to force us to do what conscience forbids. It is called the Health and Human Services "contraceptive mandate," which is a deceptive name because it also mandates that we pay for the far more objectionable sterilizations for contraceptive purposes and drugs that induce non-surgical chemical abortions. The mandate is not that these now be allowed --they are already widely available.
What is mandated is that you and I pay for these immoral procedures and thereby cooperate materially with acts that are in violation of our consciences and the clear--and widely known--teaching of the Catholic Church. The "accommodation" you may have read about in the newspaper and finalized on Friday is very insufficient and in some respects just "smoke and mirrors" because we will still have to pay for these "services" indirectly through higher premiums -- and worse, there is no exception to allow Catholic business owners to follow their conscience and the teaching of the Church on this matter. Plus, it forces those of you who buy insurance from the exchanges to buy policies that include coverage for government mandated "contraceptive services" you will never use, thus subsidizing with your premiums the sterilizations, artificial contraception and abortion-inducing drugs of those who do use them.
In today's Gospel Jesus sets out for Jerusalem, where he knows that his courageous proclamation of God's truth will lead to his arrest, torture and death. But he also knows that it will also lead to our freedom, because the truth of the Kingdom of God is more powerful than the lies and self-serving deceptions of the Kingdom of this World.
Jesus says, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what is left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God." We have set our hands to the plow; let us pray that God will give us the fortitude to remain faithful to the end.
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