4
FRIDAY JULY 17, 2020
The Observer
(USCCB photo)
NFP poster
Watch Watch Sunday Sunday
Catholic TV in the Catholic TV in the Rockford Diocese starts with a faith-filled program at 6 a.m., followed by Mass at 6:30 a.m. on WREX channel 13 in Rockford and on cable.
View Mass anytime atwww.rockforddiocese.org/tv-mass View Mass anytime atwww.rockforddiocese.org/tv-mass Brought to you by the Diocesan Office of Communication and Publications
Insurance Plans Need Not Cover Birth Control
From page 1
decision and hoped it brings a close to this episode of gov- ernment discrimination against people of faith. Yet, considering the efforts we have seen to force compli- ance with this mandate, we must continue to be vigilant for religious freedom, they said. The statement was issued by Miami Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski, chairman of the US- CCBs Committee for Religious Liberty, and Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, chairman of the Com- mittee on Pro-Life Activities. The case examined if the ex- pansion of the conscience ex- emption from the Affordable Care Acts contraceptive man- date violated the health care law and laws governing federal administrative agencies. It highlighted - as it has be- fore when the Affordable Care Acts contraceptive mandate has come before the high court - the Little Sisters of the Poor, the order of women religious who care for the elderly poor. The sisters were represented, as they have been previously, by Becket, a religious liberty law firm. The oral arguments were the combined cases of Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania and Trump v. Pennsylvania . According to government es- timates, the Trump administra- tions rule changes would pre- vent 70,000 to 126,000 women from having contraception cov- erage in their employee health insurance. Ginsburg, who cited these numbers in her dissent, said the court had previously taken a balanced approach in accom- modating claims of religious freedom, one that does not allow the religious beliefs of some to overwhelm the rights and interests of others who do not share those beliefs. She said that in this decision the court, for the first time, casts totally aside countervail- ing rights and interests in its zeal to secure religious rights to the nth degree. The U.S. bishops said there had been multiple opportuni- ties for government icials to do the right thing and exempt conscientious objectors. Time after time, administrators and attorneys refused to respect the rights of the Little Sisters of the Poor, and the Catholic faith they exemplify, to operate in accordance with the truth about sex and the human person. Mother Loraine Marie Ma- guire, the orders U.S. provin- cial, said the Little Sisters of the Poor were overjoyed that, once again, the Supreme Court has protected our right to serve the elderly without violating our faith. In one of the two consoli- dated cases, Trump v. Penn- sylvania , the administration argued that the exceptions to the contraceptive mandate for religious groups were autho- rized by the health care law and required by the 1993 Re- ligious Freedom Restoration Act, known as RFRA. The second case examined whether the Little Sisters of the Poor had the standing to appeal the 3rd Circuit ruling since a separate court order had al- ready allowed them to refuse to provide contraceptive coverage in their employee health plans.
(CNS photo/Joshua Roberts, Reuters)
In this 2016 file photo, Sister Loraine Marie Maguire, mother provincial of the Denver-based Little Sisters of the Poor, speaks to the media out- side the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington.
Catholic School Teachers Perform Ministerial Roles
From page 1
schools, and therefore the se- lection and supervision of the teachers upon whom the schools rely to do this work lie at the core of their mission, Alito wrote. Dissenting votes were by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor. Education is a central aspect of the Churchs mission, the bishops said. As institutions carrying out a ministry of the Church, Catholic schools have a right, recognized by the Con- stitution, to select people who will perform ministry. The government has no authority to second-guess those ministerial decisions. The statement was issued by Miami Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bish- ops Committee for Religious Liberty, and Bishop Michael C. Barber, of Oakland, Califor- nia, chairman of the USCCBs Committee on Catholic Educa- tion. Adrian Alarcon, spokes- person for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles Catholic Schools, similarly pointed out that reli- gious schools play an integral role in passing the faith to the next generation of believers and that the archdiocesan Cath- olic schools are grateful that the Supreme Court recognized faith groups must be free to make their own decisions about who should be entrusted with these essential duties. In her dissent, Sotomayor said the courts ruling is not only wrong on the facts, but its error also risks upending anti- discrimination protections for many employees of religious entities. She said the court has re- cently lamented a perceived discrimination against reli- gion. Yet in this case, she said, the court swings the pen- dulum in the extreme opposite direction, permitting religious entities to discriminate widely and with impunity for reasons wholly divorced from religious beliefs, something she said will be impossible to ignore for long, particularly in a plu- ralistic society. This case examined if courts can hear employment discrimi- nation claims brought by Cali- fornia Catholic school teachers who claimed they had been vic- tims of job discrimination, and the schools that fired them by arguing they were exempt from anti-discrimination laws due to ministerial exception spelled out in a previous Supreme Court case about a fired teacher at a Lutheran school. The cases were a combina- tion of St. James School v. Biel and Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berrum , both schools in the Los Ange- les Archdiocese. At St. James School in Tor- rance, former fifth grade teach- er, Kristen Biel, sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Biel died last sum- mer, but her husband is seeking damages. Becket, the nonprofit reli- gious liberty law firm repre- senting the schools, said the school chose not to renew Biels one-year contract based on classroom performance. Our Lady of Guadalupe School in Hermosa Beach did not renew the contract in 2013 for Agnes Morrissey-Berru, who had taught both fifth and sixth grades since 1999, saying she had a problem keeping or- der in her classroom and meet- ing expectations under a new reading program. Morrissey-Berru sued, al- leging age bias under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. In both cases, federal dis- trict courts ruled in favor of the schools, citing ministerial exception. But two separate panels of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit reversed these decisions before they were brought to the Supreme Court.
(CNS photo/Jonathan Ernst, Reuters)
Demonstrators in Washington hold a large cross outside the U.S. Su- preme Court July 8. In a 7-2 ruling July 8, the Supreme Court said the California Catholic schools sued for job discrimination for firing teach- ers had acted within their rights in the recent firings.
NFP Awareness Week, July 19-25
WASHINGTON-Live the truth and beauty of Gods plan for married love! is the theme of this years Natural Family Planning Awareness Week. The national educational campaign of the United States Conference of Catholic Bish- ops (USCCB) c e l e b r a t e s Gods vision for marriage and promotes the methods of Natural Family Planning. Natural Family Planning (NFP) is a general title for ethi- cal, natural, safe and effective methods for both achieving and avoiding pregnancy in mar- riage. NFP methods teach couples how to observe and interpret the wifes signs of fertility and infertility. In the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, NFP methods re- spect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them and favor the education of an authentic freedom (2370). Natural Family Planning Awareness Week, July 19-25, includes the anniversary of the papal encyclical Humanae vitae (July 25) which articulates Cath- olic beliefs about human sexual- ity, marriage, conjugal love and responsible parenthood. The Life and Family Evan- gelization ice joins with the U.S. bishops in highlighting the benefits of NFP as ethical methods to help married cou- ples live Gods design for their marriages.
Info: Rockford Diocese Life and Family Evangelization Office at https://www. rockforddiocese.org/life/, click on Natural Family Planning or go to the NFP section of the USCCB website at usccb.org/nfp/what-is-nfp/index.cfm.
See providers list on page 5
Diocesan
Previous Page