U.S. Church to celebrate Fortnight for Freedom

Intermountain Catholic

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From Thursday, June 21 through July 4, the Catholic Church in America will celebrate a Fortnight for Freedom. During this time, I encourage all Catholics to give thanks for the many freedoms we enjoy in this country and the men and women who risk life and limb protecting our civil liberties.

Like all freedoms, religious liberty should not be taken for granted. Our American tradition of defending the free exercise of religion has benefited the country. Without it, parents would not be able to send their children to parochial schools, Catholic hospitals that serve all comers regardless of insurance levels would not exist, and refugees would have few places to turn to for help navigating their new homeland. When freedom is lost, even if temporarily, the common good suffers.

Consider, for example, Indonesia. Though Indonesia’s Constitution protects freedom of religion, religious minorities face ongoing persecution, including physical attacks and church burnings, with government complicity. In one tragic illustration in February 2011, a mob attacked an Ahmadiyah mosque, killing three men while police watched. The murderers were sentenced to six months in prison for "incitement, assault, and torture," but the victims of the assaults were also sentenced to six months in prison for "inciting the violence."

Unfortunately, similar examples of life without religious liberty are far too plentiful. Under former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, Christian churches were bombed and could be rebuilt only with the government’s permission. Christians who participated in the uprising that unseated Mubarak continue to be attacked. Since March 2011, roughly 100,000 Egyptian Christians have fled their homeland to escape religious persecution.

Here at home, violent attacks against religion are rare. Skirmishes over the lines between religious freedom and government establishment of religion do occur, but most are settled without injury in the courts or Congress, though parties to the settlements may not be fully satisfied with the results.

For example, Catholic health institutions provide approximately 25 percent of all HIV and AIDS care worldwide. One source of funding for Catholic programs is the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). During the process of reauthorizing PEPFAR in 2008, Catholic recipients expressed concerns that a new emphasis on contraception would prevent them from continuing to provide services. In the end, a strong conscience clause in the reauthorization enabled Catholic and other organizations to continue to assist HIV/AIDS victims without having to also provide contraception or referrals to other clinics for contraception.

Court and Congressional settlements are not always in religion’s favor. A recent example involves the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which provides funding for organizations to serve human trafficking victims. Catholic charities successfully provided legal, economic, and protective services for human trafficking victims in America for several years. Despite the recognized value of the charities’ work, they lost their contracts with the federal government last year. The decision to deny funding to the charities was not based on the track record of the organizations, which were highly rated by the decision-makers. Instead, the decision was based on the refusal of the Catholic entities to provide abortion and contraception services.

While the entities that lost funding to provide services to trafficking victims have not pursued other remedies, religious liberty is once again at issue in the courts. As reported in the Intermountain Catholic and many other newspapers, several Catholic entities filed suit against a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandate that would force them to provide insurance coverage for contraception in their internal employee health plans. Questions about the parameters of religious liberty in the U.S. will, once again, be determined by the federal court system.

Americans enjoy a level of religious freedom that can only be dreamed of in many other countries. With that freedom comes responsibility, which many religious institutions, including Catholics, fulfill through a wide range of charitable services. We rely on the government to maintain our constitutional protections, and it depends on us to serve vulnerable populations it is unable to fully assist.

This symbiotic relationship has benefited the common good for generations and we pray during the Fortnight for Freedom that the value of religious liberty will be recognized and upheld here and wherever it exists, and expanded to those countries where it does not.