The local Catholic radio station broadcasted that we must
draw a line in the sand; we must speak out loudly against the HHS mandate
requiring we pay (through our insurance) for acts against our faith. “We need to stand up for our religious
freedom.” It then asked that we sign a
petition against the HHS mandate.
This past weekend I attended a conference at Franciscan
University, in Steubenville, Ohio. Many
of the speakers there related ways in which we can evangelize our faith, and
some noted that speaking out and voting against unjust laws was a way of
evangelizing. But it was Fr. Terence
Henry’s Sunday sermon which rallied all Catholics to stand up against unjust
laws and government --- and they did, in a totally spontaneous standing ovation
at the sermon’s end. I haven’t heard
such a moving homily in years, if ever.
(I suspect you can order a DVD of it on the university’s website; I know
I shall try.)
Then Tuesday morning the small men’s group met for mass,
breakfast, and to listen to a CD. The Catholic-priest
speaker noted that this is the time for all Catholics to make a stand. We must educate ourselves (and our neighbors)
on the issues and the candidates’ positions before we vote this November, and
we MUST vote as our faith requires. In
addition to pro-life, we must elect those candidates also supporting our
religious freedom. He opined that the
Church should consider giving up its non-profit status, if necessary, to enable
it to speak out unfettered by government hand-out rules. The priest-speaker noted that the U.S.
Catholic bishops are united as never before in opposing the HHS mandate that
Catholics pay for contraceptives and abortificants. He urged us to write our congressional
representatives, write letters to the editor in newspapers and magazines, and
speak boldly to our neighbors. We must
be united in our opposition!
After the CD ended, our small group’s coordinator stood up
and looked out among us men, expectantly:
Thoughts? For a moment it was
quiet, then I raised my hand, and spoke words which had been building within me
for weeks and months:
“This not enough! Before the talk this morning I heard men
here at the table discussing friends, small business owners, who will refuse to
pay for acts they consider immoral, and they cannot afford to pay the large
fines the HHS mandate dictates for non-compliance with its dictate. Therefore, they are making plans to go out of
business. The men here today commented
that ‘This was a sad thing.’ I myself
have read discussions that perhaps Catholic hospitals and charities should
close their doors rather than comply.” Then
I repeated forcefully again: “It is not enough!”
“All forms of voicing opposition to the HHS mandate are well
and good, but then we must live our
opposition. If this law continues, we
must not close our doors giving in to this unjust, immoral law. We must continue our charitable works, and
then not buy the unjust insurance, and when the fines are assessed against us, we
must loudly and clearly say:
We Will Not Pay!”
“If an unjust government says: ‘Your Church may say this,
but I say THIS, and you must bow to this law,’ then we must respond that: ‘We
will have no gods before our God. We
will not bow to those who would say they are above our God!’”
We Will Not Pay!
“You may hire thousands of IRS agents to enforce the law, if
you must. You may dictate that we go to
jail for disobeying it, if you must. You
may deny us any medical coverage; you may watch us die in the gutter; you may
make us watch our children die of illness, if you must. But ….
We Will Not Pay!”
That is the leadership stand and cry I would like to hear
from our U.S. Catholic Bishops.
We Will Not Pay!!!
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