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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration stepped up security at major transit hubs across the country after Tuesday's airport and subway bombings in Brussels, as top U.S. intelligence officials warned of the risk for copycat attacks at home. President Barack Obama vowed to help Belgium track down those responsible for the deadly explosions....
Washington D.C., Mar 22, 2016 / 04:52 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Members of the United States Congress have voiced their support for the Little Sisters of the Poor before their case is argued before the Supreme Court on Wednesday.“We talk a lot about public service up here. Well, these are the people who live it,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said of the sisters on the House Floor on Tuesday, noting that they serve the poor in 31 countries. “They are the definition of public service.”On Wednesday, oral arguments for Zubik v. Burwell will take place at the Supreme Court. The case is a bundle of seven cases against the HHS mandate, including as plaintiffs Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh, the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Archdiocese of Washington, and several Christian colleges.At issue is the administration’s mandate that employers provide contraceptive coverage in employee health plans, and the ensuing “accommodations” they offered religio...
Washington D.C., Mar 22, 2016 / 04:52 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Members of the United States Congress have voiced their support for the Little Sisters of the Poor before their case is argued before the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
“We talk a lot about public service up here. Well, these are the people who live it,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said of the sisters on the House Floor on Tuesday, noting that they serve the poor in 31 countries. “They are the definition of public service.”
On Wednesday, oral arguments for Zubik v. Burwell will take place at the Supreme Court. The case is a bundle of seven cases against the HHS mandate, including as plaintiffs Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh, the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Archdiocese of Washington, and several Christian colleges.
At issue is the administration’s mandate that employers provide contraceptive coverage in employee health plans, and the ensuing “accommodations” they offered religious non-profits to comply with the mandate.
The Affordable Care Act in 2010 required that preventive services be covered in employer health plans. In its guidelines released in 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services stated that these services included sterilizations and contraceptives, including some drugs considered abortifacients.
They crafted narrow religious exemptions for churches and their affiliates (such as parish groups and schools) using tax law. Religious non-profits who objected to having to provide the coverage, however, were not exempt from the mandate.
The administration then offered an “accommodation” for these objecting non-profits. The non-profits would send a form to the government stating their objection, and the government would then notify their insurer, who would provide the coverage at a separate cost.
Plaintiffs such as the Little Sisters, however, argue that they would still be cooperating with actions they believe are seriously immoral by facilitating the contraception coverage. Faced with steep fines for not complying with the mandate, and with no other option than violating their conscience, they took the case to court.
Institutions that are not exempt from the mandate include the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, dioceses, Catholic universities, adoption agencies, hospitals, and charities such as the Little Sisters. Hundreds of plaintiffs have filed lawsuits against the federal government over the mandate.
If the mandate goes into effect, the penalty for not providing the contraception and sterilization coverage could be up to $70 million a year for the Little Sisters.
However, health plans of large corporations such as Visa and PepsiCo are exempt from the mandate as they were “grandfathered” into the law’s requirements. An estimated one in three Americans are exempt from the mandate’s requirements.
Members of Congress held a press conference Tuesday afternoon supporting the Little Sisters in the name of religious freedom.
“This is not a partisan issue. This cannot be a partisan issue. It is a fundamental right,” Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) said of the case and of the freedom of Americans to practice their religion in public.
“The Supreme Court has the opportunity to stand up for this fundamental right of all human beings, a right that’s guaranteed to us here in the Constitution,” he added.
“It seems fitting that the case should be heard by our nation’s highest court during Holy Week,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.). She added that “neither religious belief nor practice ends at the threshold of a house of worship.”
“For me, it brings to mind Pope Benedict’s words about how ‘Charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is part of the Church’s nature, an indispensable expression of her very being,’” she said, quoting Benedict XVI's 2005 encyclical on Christian love, Deus caritas est.
“The people who serve in these ministries have dedicated their lives to living out their religious convictions, and they, not the government, are the best guide for what violates those principles.”
“I can tell you that there is precious little in this world that is more pure or worthwhile than their ministry,” Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) said of the Little Sisters.
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) recalled a conversation he shared with Sister Loraine Marie Maguire, Mother Provincial of the Little Sisters of the Poor:
“She said ‘I can’t sign a piece of paper that makes somebody else do what I cannot do myself. It’s my conscience, you know.’”
By Kurt JensenWASHINGTON(CNS) -- On the eve of the March 23 oral arguments before the Supreme Court in Zubikv. Burwell, best known as the Little Sisters of the Poor case, two plaintiffsappealed the case in the court of public opinion, and hinted that a politicalsolution might be their ultimate redress.RobertJ. Muise, a co-founder and senior counsel of the American Freedom Law Center,which represents Priests for Life, called the contraceptive mandate of theAffordable Care Act "clearly a case of material cooperation withevil," but conceded that the court may not rule in favor of the womenreligious and 36 other plaintiffs.Ifthat occurs, then it will be up to the election of a pro-life president -- Muisedidn't mention any candidates -- who could end the mandate through eitherexecutive action or by extending an exemption for nonprofit organizations whoobject to the mandate on religious grounds. Churches already have theexemption."Ultimately,"said Father Frank Pavone, national director o...
By Kurt Jensen
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- On the eve of the March 23 oral arguments before the Supreme Court in Zubik v. Burwell, best known as the Little Sisters of the Poor case, two plaintiffs appealed the case in the court of public opinion, and hinted that a political solution might be their ultimate redress.
Robert J. Muise, a co-founder and senior counsel of the American Freedom Law Center, which represents Priests for Life, called the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act "clearly a case of material cooperation with evil," but conceded that the court may not rule in favor of the women religious and 36 other plaintiffs.
If that occurs, then it will be up to the election of a pro-life president -- Muise didn't mention any candidates -- who could end the mandate through either executive action or by extending an exemption for nonprofit organizations who object to the mandate on religious grounds. Churches already have the exemption.
"Ultimately," said Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, "the solution is the elections and moving the elections in the right way."
They made their remarks March 22 during an afternoon news conference at the National Press Club.
The contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act requires most employers, including religious employers, to cover contraceptives, sterilization and abortifacients through their employee health insurance.
The Department of Health and Human Services has offered what it calls an "accommodation" or "work-around" that allows objecting employers to acknowledge their opposition to contraceptive coverage by notifying HHS in a letter. This triggers an arrangement for a third party to provide the coverage.
Priests for Life and the other defendants regard that process as a burden on the free exercise of religion.
"Catholic faith, Catholic priests, Catholic objection, but the government is dividing us on the basis of what? Classification under the tax code," Father Pavone said.
John Quincy Masteller, general counsel for Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California, complained that the government has drawn the religious exemption "more narrowly than ever before," defining it as simply the right to worship without government interference. The Catholic college faces fines of up to $2.8 million a year if it does not comply with the mandate.
"This is not about what we do in church on Sunday," Father Pavone said. "It's also to be free in what we do in business every other day of the week."
Other appellants include East Texas Baptist University, Southern Nazarene University and Geneva College, a Presbyterian institution, and the Archdiocese of Washington, and the dioceses of Pittsburgh and Erie, Pennsylvania.
All cite the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 in their defense.
RFRA,
as the law is called, states that the government "shall not substantially
burden a person's exercise of religion" unless that burden is the least
restrictive means to further a compelling governmental interest.
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