Dear Friends,
As we celebrated Memorial Day this week, I know that our thoughts and prayers were, and are, very much with our men and women who serve so generously and courageously in the armed forces and those who have gone to see the face of Christ, especially those who have made the supreme sacrifice.
Tag: freedom
‘Heavenizing’ our freedom
Dear Friends,
This past Sunday we marked the Feast of the Ascension when, the Gospel tells us, Jesus took His place at the Father’s right hand; He took His place as the Eternal High Priest. This means something very powerful and very real for us today, for Jesus ascended and became the Eternal High Priest who leads all creation in the Eternal Divine Liturgy in Worship of God the Father, in the Communion of the Holy Spirit.
Freedom through Christ’s Resurrection
Dear Friends,
What a joy the celebration of the Sacred Triduum was and what a joy this Easter has been for me, and I hope it was the same for each of you!
Among the joys for me at Easter was the spending of time with many of our diocesan seminarians, who always inspire me with joy and with hope for the future.
It’s not just an issue in Pakistan and China
Thirty-some years ago, I spent a fair amount of time on religious freedom issues: which meant, in those simpler days, trying to pry Lithuanian priests and nuns out of Perm Camp 36 and other GULAG islands.
Had you told me in 1982 that one of my “clients,” the Jesuit Sigitas Tamkevicius, would be archbishop of Kaunas in a free Lithuania in 2012, I would have thought you a bit optimistic.
If you had also told me, back then, that there would eventually be serious religious freedom problems in the United States, I would have thought you a bit mad.
Sr. Mary James (Alice Margaret Mary) Geenen, dies
Sister Mary James (Alice Margaret Mary) Geenen entered Eternal Life February 20, 2012, the third child of Henry R. Geenen and Gladys Catherine (McCormick) Geenen. She was born March 31, 1919 in Freedom. She attended Saint Nicholas Elementary School. After graduating from high school she attended Saint Norbert College and Silver Lake College where she earned a BA Degree in Elementary Education with majors in Philosophy and English. She attended the University of Dayton earning a MS Degree in Elementary Education.
President’s ‘compromise’ still infringes upon religious liberty
 |
|
When President Obama mandated that religiously-based organizations violate core tenets of their faith, Americans were rightly outraged.
The president then announced an “accommodation” policy to these organizations, but the so-called compromise is not a compromise at all because it does not take away the mandate that infringes upon religious liberty.
On January 20, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, affirmed a rule that requires church-affiliated hospitals, agencies, and universities to provide contraception and sterilization in the health insurance for their employees.
Violation of religious liberty cannot stand
Normally this column addresses state policy issues. This time it speaks to a national question — the scope of religious liberty in our national health care reform legislation.
Contraception mandate: endangers religious liberty, women’s health
In implementing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) now requires almost all private health plans to cover contraception and sterilization as “preventive services” for women.
What happened to freedom of religion?
Is pregnancy a disease? Should Catholics, purchasing insurance for themselves or their employees be forced against their consciences to subsidize its prevention?
These questions lie at the heart of new regulations just issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which will administer President Barack Obama’s new health care law.
Ethics of reproductive health care
The regulations include a list of “preventive services” that all group health plans must provide without any co-pay. The list includes female surgical sterilization, plus all FDA-approved contraceptives, including some (like the prescription drug ella) that can act as abortifacients.
Common good must be focal point of budget debate
Now that the governor has presented his state budget to the Legislature, fiscal issues and spending priorities will dominate the legislative agenda for the next several months.
First, the Joint Committee on Finance will hold hearings on the proposals. Then some of the standing committees may hold “subject matter” hearings on aspects of the budget related to their areas of expertise.