Seasons of Grace

Back on U.S. soil, Timothy Cardinal Dolan gets off to a running start—penning a letter to his brother bishops on the HHS Mandate and the subsequent Obama “accommodation.”

The new letter—which is dated February 22, 2012, and co-signed by USCCB President Timothy Cardinal Dolan and Bishop William E. Lori, Bishop of Bridgeport and Chairman of the USCCB Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty—asserts that President Obama’s so-called “accommodation” changes nothing.  The writers insist that religious freedom is a God-given right which “does not depend on any government’s decision to grant it.”

Cardinal Dolan again asks his brother bishops to help in the fight to pass the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act.

Here is the full text of today’s letter:

Dear Brother Bishops,

Since we last wrote to you concerning the critical efforts we are undertaking together to protect religious freedom in our beloved country, many of you have requested that we write once more to update you on the situation and to again request the assistance of all the faithful in this important work. We are happy to do so now.

First, we wish to express our heartfelt appreciation to you, and to all our sisters and brothers in Christ, for the remarkable witness of our unity in faith and strength of conviction during this past month. We have made our voices heard, and we will not cease from doing so until religious freedom is restored.

As we know, on January 20, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a decision to issue final regulations that would force practically all employers, including many religious institutions, to pay for abortion inducing drugs, sterilizations, and contraception. The regulations would provide no protections for our great institutions—such as Catholic charities, hospitals, and universities—or for the individual faithful in the marketplace. The regulations struck at the heart of our fundamental right to religious liberty, which affects our ability to serve those outside our faith community.

Since January 20, the reaction was immediate and sustained. We came together, joined by people of every creed and political persuasion, to make one thing resoundingly clear: we stand united against any attempt to deny or weaken the right to religious liberty upon which our country was founded.

On Friday, February 10, the Administration issued the final rules. By their very terms, the rules were reaffirmed “without change.” The mandate to provide the illicit services remains. The exceedingly narrow exemption for churches remains. Despite the outcry, all the threats to religious liberty posed by the initial rules remain.

Religious freedom is a fundamental right of all. This right does not depend on any government’s decision to grant it: it is God-given, and just societies recognize and respect its free exercise. The free exercise of religion extends well beyond the freedom of worship. It also forbids government from forcing people or groups to violate their most deeply held religious convictions, and from interfering in the internal affairs of religious organizations.

Recent actions by the Administration have attempted to reduce this free exercise to a “privilege” arbitrarily granted by the government as a mere exemption from an all-encompassing, extreme form of secularism. The exemption is too narrowly defined, because it does not exempt most non-profit religious employers, the religiously affiliated insurer, the self-insured employer, the for-profit religious employer, or other private businesses owned and operated by people who rightly object to paying for abortion inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception. And because it is instituted only by executive whim, even this unduly narrow exemption can be taken away easily.

In the United States, religious liberty does not depend on the benevolence of who is regulating us. It is our “first freedom” and respect for it must be broad and inclusive—not narrow and exclusive. Catholics and other people of faith and good will are not second class citizens. And it is not for the government to decide which of our ministries is “religious enough” to warrant religious freedom protection.

This is not just about contraception, abortion-causing drugs, and sterilization—although all should recognize the injustices involved in making them part of a universal mandated health care program. It is not about Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals. It is about people of faith. This is first and foremost a matter of religious liberty for all. If the government can, for example, tell Catholics that they cannot be in the insurance business today without violating their religious convictions, where does it end? This violates the constitutional limits on our government, and the basic rights upon which our country was founded.

Much remains to be done. We cannot rest when faced with so grave a threat to the religious liberty for which our parents and grandparents fought. In this moment in history we must work diligently to preserve religious liberty and to remove all threats to the practice of our faith in the public square. This is our heritage as Americans. President Obama should rescind the mandate, or at the very least, provide full and effective measures to protect religious liberty and conscience.

Above all, dear brothers, we rely on the help of the Lord in this important struggle. We all need to act now by contacting our legislators in support of the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, which can be done through our action alert on www.usccb.org/conscience.

We invite you to share the contents of this letter with the faithful of your diocese in whatever form, or by whatever means, you consider most suitable. Let us continue to pray for a quick and complete resolution to this and all threats to religious liberty and the exercise of our faith in our great country.

Timothy Cardinal Dolan
Archbishop of New York
President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Most Reverend William E. Lori
Bishop of Bridgeport
Chairman, Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty

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This week, Catholic Exchange has launched a new and creative web service to solve age-old spiritual problems.  “Brother Sebastian” is waiting to talk to you, to provide wise counsel and spiritual advice to anyone who has access to a computer.

On February 20, 2012, Catholic Exchange kicked off the “Ask a Monk” chat button on their webpage. 

Harold Fickett, editor-in-chief of Catholic Exchange, explained that “Ask a Monk” is something he’s been wanting to do for a long time.  “It’s part of turning an online publication into a multi-faceted tool of evangelization.  Beyond providing information, the internet can connect people and enable them to act in concert.  It can be used for the Kingdom of God, not only virtually but in the real world.  We have so many opportunities in this way—‘Ask A Monk’ is a sign of things to come.”

“Ask A Monk” works in two ways—via live chat and email.  When Brother Sebastian is not online, you can always send him an email.  He will answer your emails just as soon as possible.  You just go to the same place on the Catholic Exchange homepage, click on the “Ask A Monk” button, and fill out the form with your email message.

Who Is Brother Sebastian?  Well, Actually, Brother Sebastian isn’t a real monk.  He’s a whole bunch of monks. 

“Brother Sebastian,” Fickett explains, “is the collective name we have given to a small group of cloistered Benedictines who will be staffing this service.  They have asked that their monastery and the individuals involved remain anonymous in order to follow their Rule’s counsel of humility.  They are enthusiastic about extending spiritual counsel to the laity in this new way.”

A caveat for those who might want to turn to Brother Sebastian with serious spiritual problems.  The website reminds you that communication with Brother Sebastian does not substitute for the Sacrament of Confession (Reconciliation).  Be sure to see your parish priest for the sacrament.

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It’s kinda funny.  In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus warns us against doing good in order to be seen.  He gives us three examples:

• Almsgiving – “When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”
• Prayer – “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.”
• Fasting – “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.”

But today, Ash Wednesday, we seem to do just the opposite.  We plaster our suffering all over our foreheads, in the form of ashen crosses.

Who thought this was a good idea, anyway?

Today’s visible sacrifice, symbol of repentance, sorrow and humility—the smudgy symbol that greets passersby and announces “I’m a Christian!”—is a terse reminder of our humanity and our mortality.  The person who will benefit the most from his or her Lenten sacrifice is the one who perseveres quietly, with prayerful determination—not sniveling and complaining about the Friday abstinence or the lack of chocolate, but offering sacrifices and depriving himself in order to unite his small inconvenience with Christ’s infinitely greater sacrifice on the Cross.

I remember a time when I, a young university student, showed up for class on Ash Wednesday with one heck of a huge cross emblazoned on my forehead.  A student sitting beside me tapped me on the shoulder and whispered politely, “You have a smudge on your face!”  I laughed and explained that it was Ash Wednesday, and we had a pretty good discussion about sacrifice and symbol.  It was an evangelization moment that would never have happened on a regular Wednesday evening.

Mother Theresa penned a beautiful reflection titled “It’s Between You and God.” As we begin forty days of penitence, let’s keep that in mind.

IT’S BETWEEN YOU AND GOD

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you.
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone may destroy overnight.
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, others may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
Why?
Because in the final analysis, all of this is between you and God….
It was never between you and them anyway.

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Remember, man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.

–Genesis 3:19

Yeah, right.

You know, in your heart of hearts, that that means everyone else but you—don’t you?

It’s the human condition. We give lip service to our mortality, joking about it at the water cooler with a wry smile—but we live as though there were no tomorrow, and no end of tomorrows. It seems that many of us don’t REALLY believe that one day we will be gone, and the earth will continue on its axis as though nothing had happened.

I was thinking of a story about Madame Pompadour, the French lady of the court who was mistress to King Louis XV. Madame Pompadour was seriously ill and nearing death; but to her last moments, she lived as she had always lived—preening for her audience. On her deathbed, she called out to God, “Wait a second!” as she dabbed her cheeks with rouge.

On Ash Wednesday (observed this year on February 22) and throughout the Lenten season, the Church calls us to prayer and penitence, in preparation for the ultimate journey at the end of our lives. The ashes which are imposed on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday are a tangible reminder of our mortality, of the dissolution of our mortal bodies after death.

Ashes in Scripture and in Contemporary Culture – In the Bible, ashes are a symbol of mourning and penitence. The prophet Job (Job 42:3-6) says to God, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee. The other eye wandered of its own accord. Wherefor I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

The prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 6:26) called for repentance this way: “O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes.”

And the prophet Daniel (Daniel 9:3) says, “I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.”

Contemporary folk singer/prophet Michael Smith reflects on mortality in his classic “Dead Egyptian Blues.” King Tut is dead, he says, but soon we’ll be just like him. Pack your peanut butter sandwiches, wear your ashes proudly, and be ready.

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So many Americans, from all faith backgrounds and all walks of life, are opposed to the Obama Administration’s decision to force Catholic organizations to provide sterilization, contraception and abortifacient drugs in their health care plans.

This affront to religious liberty has been in the headlines and on the news—particularly in the Catholic world—every day, as we seek to influence our legislators to reject this assault on the First Amendment and on the Church. 

Now Ave Maria Radio has established StopHHS.com, a clearinghouse where you can find reporting, commentary, statements, legislation, video and audio messages, interviews and press releases on a single comprehensive website.  Al Kresta, head of Ave Maria Radio and host of the nationally syndicated “Kresta in the Afternoon,” writes:

“…We will petition the Obama Administration through the voice of the people to reverse course and respect the consciences of Christians of all stripes as he promised to do in his Commencement Address at Notre Dame in 2009. We will urge support for all legislation that would force the Obama Administration to rescind their decision and would protect the Church from further government intrusion.  And we will engage the media in an effort to provide accurate information to the American people on the issue of conscience protection.”

Go to the website, learn more about the HHS Mandate, and sign the petition.  Today, the number of signatures will probably reach 60,000—but your voice is needed to persuade our legislators to defend the Constitution, and to reverse this dangerous federal insertion into the lives and the faith of American citizens.

Really, go do it.  Sign the petition.

May God bless the United States of America. 

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