A
Statement on Religious Liberty
United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops
Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty
We
are Catholics. We are Americans. We are proud to be both, grateful for the gift
of faith which is ours as Christian disciples, and grateful for the gift of
liberty which is ours as American citizens. To be Catholic and American should
mean not having to choose one over the other. Our allegiances are distinct, but
they need not be contradictory, and should instead be complementary. That is
the teaching of our Catholic faith, which obliges us to work together with
fellow citizens for the common good of all who live in this land. That is the
vision of our founding and our Constitution, which guarantees citizens of all
religious faiths the right to contribute to our common life together.
Freedom is not only for Americans,
but we think of it as something of our special inheritance, fought for at a
great price, and a heritage to be guarded now. We are stewards of this gift,
not only for ourselves but for all nations and peoples who yearn to be free.
Catholics in America have discharged this duty of guarding freedom admirably
for many generations.
In 1887, when the archbishop of
Baltimore, James Gibbons, was made the second American cardinal, he defended
the American heritage of religious liberty during his visit to Rome to receive
the red hat. Speaking of the great progress the Catholic Church had made in the
United States, he attributed it to the "civil liberty we enjoy in our
enlightened republic." Indeed, he made a bolder claim, namely that
"in the genial atmosphere of liberty [the Church] blossoms like a
rose."1
From well before Cardinal Gibbons,
Catholics in America have been advocates for religious liberty, and the
landmark teaching of the Second Vatican Council on religious liberty was
influenced by the American experience. It is among the proudest boasts of the
Church on these shores. We have been staunch defenders of religious liberty in
the past. We have a solemn duty to discharge that duty today.
We need, therefore, to speak frankly
with each other when our freedoms are threatened. Now is such a time. As
Catholic bishops and American citizens, we address an urgent summons to our
fellow Catholics and fellow Americans to be on guard, for religious liberty is
under attack, both at home and abroad.
This has been noticed both near and
far. Pope Benedict XVI recently spoke about his worry that religious liberty in
the United States is being weakened. He called it the "most cherished of
American freedoms"—and indeed it is. All the more reason to heed the
warning of the Holy Father, a friend of America and an ally in the defense of
freedom, in his recent address to American bishops:
Of particular concern are certain
attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the
freedom of religion. Many of you have pointed out that concerted efforts have
been made to deny the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic
individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil
practices. Others have spoken to me of a worrying tendency to reduce religious
freedom to mere freedom of worship without guarantees of respect for freedom of
conscience.
Here once more we see the need for
an engaged, articulate and well-formed Catholic laity endowed with a strong
critical sense vis-à-vis the dominant culture and with the courage to counter a
reductive secularism which would delegitimize the Church's participation in
public debate about the issues which are determining the future of American
society.2
Religious
Liberty Under Attack—Concrete Examples
Is our most cherished freedom truly
under threat? Sadly, it is. This is not a theological or legal dispute without
real world consequences. Consider the following:
- HHS mandate for contraception,
sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs. The mandate of the Department of Health and Human
Services has received wide attention and has been met with our vigorous
and united opposition. In an unprecedented way, the federal government
will both force religious institutions to facilitate and fund a product
contrary to their own moral teaching and purport to define which religious
institutions are "religious enough" to merit protection of their
religious liberty. These features of the "preventive services"
mandate amount to an unjust law. As Archbishop-designate William Lori of
Baltimore, Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty,
testified to Congress: "This is not a matter of whether contraception
may be prohibited by the government. This is not even a matter of
whether contraception may be supported by the government. Instead,
it is a matter of whether religious people and institutions may be forced
by the government to provide coverage for contraception or sterilization,
even if that violates their religious beliefs."3
- State immigration laws. Several states have recently
passed laws that forbid what the government deems "harboring" of
undocumented immigrants—and what the Church deems Christian charity and
pastoral care to those immigrants. Perhaps the most egregious of these is
in Alabama, where the Catholic bishops, in cooperation with the Episcopal
and Methodist bishops of Alabama, filed suit against the law:
It
is with sadness that we brought this legal action but with a deep sense that
we, as people of faith, have no choice but to defend the right to the free exercise
of religion granted to us as citizens of Alabama. . . . The law makes illegal
the exercise of our Christian religion which we, as citizens of Alabama, have a
right to follow. The law prohibits almost everything which would assist an
undocumented immigrant or encourage an undocumented immigrant to live in
Alabama. This new Alabama law makes it illegal for a Catholic priest to
baptize, hear the confession of, celebrate the anointing of the sick with, or
preach the word of God to, an undocumented immigrant. Nor can we encourage them
to attend Mass or give them a ride to Mass. It is illegal to allow them to
attend adult scripture study groups, or attend CCD or Sunday school classes. It
is illegal for the clergy to counsel them in times of difficulty or in preparation
for marriage. It is illegal for them to come to Alcoholic Anonymous meetings or
other recovery groups at our churches.4
- Altering Church structure and
governance. In
2009, the Judiciary Committee of the Connecticut Legislature proposed a
bill that would have forced Catholic parishes to be restructured according
to a congregational model, recalling the trusteeism controversy of the
early nineteenth century, and prefiguring the federal government's
attempts to redefine for the Church "religious minister" and
"religious employer" in the years since.
- Christian students on campus.In its over-100-year history,
the University of California Hastings College of Law has denied student
organization status to only one group, the Christian Legal Society,
because it required its leaders to be Christian and to abstain from sexual
activity outside of marriage.
- Catholic foster care and adoption
services. Boston,
San Francisco, the District of Columbia, and the state of Illinois have
driven local Catholic Charities out of the business of providing adoption
or foster care services—by revoking their licenses, by ending their
government contracts, or both—because those Charities refused to place
children with same-sex couples or unmarried opposite-sex couples who
cohabit.
- Discrimination against small
church congregations. New
York City enacted a rule that barred the Bronx Household of Faith and sixty
other churches from renting public schools on weekends for worship
services even though non-religious groups could rent the same schools for
scores of other uses. While this would not frequently affect Catholic
parishes, which generally own their own buildings, it would be devastating
to many smaller congregations. It is a simple case of discrimination
against religious believers.
- Discrimination against Catholic
humanitarian services. Notwithstanding
years of excellent performance by the United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops' Migration and Refugee Services in administering contract services
for victims of human trafficking, the federal government changed its
contract specifications to require us to provide or refer for
contraceptive and abortion services in violation of Catholic teaching.
Religious institutions should not be disqualified from a government
contract based on religious belief, and they do not somehow lose their
religious identity or liberty upon entering such contracts. And yet a federal
court in Massachusetts, turning religious liberty on its head, has since
declared that such a disqualification is required by the First
Amendment—that the government somehow violates religious liberty by
allowing Catholic organizations to participate in contracts in a manner
consistent with their beliefs on contraception and abortion.
Religious
Liberty Is More Than Freedom of Worship
Religious liberty is not only about
our ability to go to Mass on Sunday or pray the Rosary at home. It is about
whether we can make our contribution to the common good of all Americans. Can
we do the good works our faith calls us to do, without having to compromise
that very same faith? Without religious liberty properly understood, all
Americans suffer, deprived of the essential contribution in education, health
care, feeding the hungry, civil rights, and social services that religious
Americans make every day, both here at home and overseas.
What is at stake is whether America
will continue to have a free, creative, and robust civil society—or whether the
state alone will determine who gets to contribute to the common good, and how
they get to do it. Religious believers are part of American civil society,
which includes neighbors helping each other, community associations, fraternal
service clubs, sports leagues, and youth groups. All these Americans make their
contribution to our common life, and they do not need the permission of the
government to do so. Restrictions on religious liberty are an attack on civil
society and the American genius for voluntary associations.
The Union of Orthodox Jewish
Congregations of America issued a statement about the administration's
contraception and sterilization mandate that captured exactly the danger that
we face:
Most troubling, is the
Administration's underlying rationale for its decision, which appears to be a
view that if a religious entity is not insular, but engaged with broader
society, it loses its "religious" character and liberties. Many
faiths firmly believe in being open to and engaged with broader society and
fellow citizens of other faiths. The Administration's ruling makes the price of
such an outward approach the violation of an organization's religious
principles. This is deeply disappointing.5
This is not a Catholic issue. This
is not a Jewish issue. This is not an Orthodox, Mormon, or Muslim issue. It is
an American issue.
The
Most Cherished of American Freedoms
In 1634, a mix of Catholic and
Protestant settlers arrived at St. Clement's Island in Southern Maryland from
England aboard the Ark and the Dove. They had come at the
invitation of the Catholic Lord Baltimore, who had been granted Maryland by the
Protestant King Charles I of England. While Catholics and Protestants were
killing each other in Europe, Lord Baltimore imagined Maryland as a society
where people of different faiths could live together peacefully. This vision
was soon codified in Maryland's 1649 Act Concerning Religion (also called the
"Toleration Act"), which was the first law in our nation's history to
protect an individual's right to freedom of conscience.
Maryland's early history teaches us
that, like any freedom, religious liberty requires constant vigilance and
protection, or it will disappear. Maryland's experiment in religious toleration
ended within a few decades. The colony was placed under royal control, and the
Church of England became the established religion. Discriminatory laws,
including the loss of political rights, were enacted against those who refused
to conform. Catholic chapels were closed, and Catholics were restricted to
practicing their faith in their homes. The Catholic community lived under these
conditions until the American Revolution.
By the end of the 18th century, our
nation's founders embraced freedom of religion as an essential condition of a
free and democratic society. James Madison, often called the Father of the
Constitution, described conscience as "the most sacred of all
property."6
He wrote that "the Religion then of every man must be left to the
conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to
exercise it as these may dictate."7
George Washington wrote that "the establishment of Civil and Religious
Liberty was the Motive that induced me to the field of battle."8
Thomas Jefferson assured the Ursuline Sisters—who had been serving a mostly
non-Catholic population by running a hospital, an orphanage, and schools in
Louisiana since 1727—that the principles of the Constitution were a "sure
guarantee" that their ministry would be free "to govern itself
according to its own voluntary rules, without interference from the civil
authority."9
It is therefore fitting that when the
Bill of Rights was ratified, religious freedom had the distinction of being the
First Amendment. Religious liberty is indeed the first liberty. The First
Amendment guarantees that "Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
Recently, in a unanimous Supreme
Court judgment affirming the importance of that first freedom, the Chief
Justice of the United States explained that religious liberty is not just the
first freedom for Americans; rather it is the first in the history of
democratic freedom, tracing its origins back the first clauses of the Magna
Carta of 1215 and beyond. In a telling example, Chief Justice Roberts
illustrated our history of religious liberty in light of a Catholic issue
decided upon by James Madison, who guided the Bill of Rights through Congress
and is known as the architect of the First Amendment:
[In 1806] John Carroll, the first
Catholic bishop in the United States, solicited the Executive's opinion on who
should be appointed to direct the affairs of the Catholic Church in the
territory newly acquired by the Louisiana Purchase. After consulting with
President Jefferson, then-Secretary of State James Madison responded that the
selection of church "functionaries" was an "entirely
ecclesiastical" matter left to the Church's own judgment. The
"scrupulous policy of the Constitution in guarding against a political
interference with religious affairs," Madison explained, prevented the
Government from rendering an opinion on the "selection of ecclesiastical
individuals."10
That is our American heritage, our
most cherished freedom. It is the first freedom because if we are not free in
our conscience and our practice of religion, all other freedoms are fragile. If
citizens are not free in their own consciences, how can they be free in
relation to others, or to the state? If our obligations and duties to God are
impeded, or even worse, contradicted by the government, then we can no longer
claim to be a land of the free, and a beacon of hope for the world.
Our
Christian Teaching
During the civil rights movement of
the 1950s and 1960s, Americans shone the light of the Gospel on a dark history
of slavery, segregation, and racial bigotry. The civil rights movement was an
essentially religious movement, a call to awaken consciences, not only an
appeal to the Constitution for America to honor its heritage of liberty.
In his famous "Letter from
Birmingham Jail" in 1963, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. boldly said,
"The goal of America is freedom." As a Christian pastor, he argued
that to call America to the full measure of that freedom was the specific
contribution Christians are obliged to make. He rooted his legal and
constitutional arguments about justice in the long Christian tradition:
I would agree with Saint Augustine
that "An unjust law is no law at all." Now what is the difference
between the two? How does one determine when a law is just or unjust? A just
law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An
unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in
the terms of Saint Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not
rooted in eternal law and natural law.11
It is a sobering thing to
contemplate our government enacting an unjust law. An unjust law cannot be
obeyed. In the face of an unjust law, an accommodation is not to be sought,
especially by resorting to equivocal words and deceptive practices. If we face
today the prospect of unjust laws, then Catholics in America, in solidarity
with our fellow citizens, must have the courage not to obey them. No American
desires this. No Catholic welcomes it. But if it should fall upon us, we must
discharge it as a duty of citizenship and an obligation of faith.
It is essential to understand the
distinction between conscientious objection and an unjust law. Conscientious
objection permits some relief to those who object to a just law for reasons of
conscience—conscription being the most well-known example. An unjust law is
"no law at all." It cannot be obeyed, and therefore one does not seek
relief from it, but rather its repeal.
The Christian church does not ask
for special treatment, simply the rights of religious freedom for all citizens.
Rev. King also explained that the church is neither the master nor the servant
of the state, but its conscience, guide, and critic.
As Catholics, we know that our
history has shadows too in terms of religious liberty, when we did not extend
to others the proper respect for this first freedom. But the teaching of the
Church is absolutely clear about religious liberty:
The human person has a right to
religious freedom. This freedom means that all men are to be immune from
coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power,
in such wise that in matters religious no one is to be forced to act in a
manner contrary to his own beliefs … whether privately or publicly, whether
alone or in association with others, within due limits. . . . This right of the
human person to religious freedom is to be recognized in the constitutional law
whereby society is governed. Thus it is to become a civil right.12
As Catholics, we are obliged to
defend the right to religious liberty for ourselves and for others. We are
happily joined in this by our fellow Christians and believers of other faiths.
A recent letter to President Obama
from some sixty religious leaders, including Christians of many denominations
and Jews, argued that "it is emphatically not only Catholics who deeply
object to the requirement that health plans they purchase must provide coverage
of contraceptives that include some that are abortifacients."13
More comprehensively, a
theologically rich and politically prudent declaration from Evangelicals and
Catholics Together made a powerful case for greater vigilance in defense of
religious freedom, precisely as a united witness animated by the Gospel of
Jesus Christ.14
Their declaration makes it clear that as Christians of various traditions we
object to a "naked public square," stripped of religious arguments
and religious believers. We do not seek a "sacred public square"
either, which gives special privileges and benefits to religious citizens.
Rather, we seek a civil public square, where all citizens can make their
contribution to the common good. At our best, we might call this an American
public square.
The Lord Jesus came to liberate us
from the dominion of sin. Political liberties are one part of that liberation,
and religious liberty is the first of those liberties. Together with our fellow
Christians, joined by our Jewish brethren, and in partnership with Americans of
other religious traditions, we affirm that our faith requires us to defend the
religious liberty granted us by God, and protected in our Constitution.
Martyrs
Around the World
In this statement, as bishops of the
United States, we are addressing ourselves to the situation we find here at
home. At the same time, we are sadly aware that religious liberty in many other
parts of the world is in much greater peril. Our obligation at home is to
defend religious liberty robustly, but we cannot overlook the much graver
plight that religious believers, most of them Christian, face around the world.
The age of martyrdom has not passed. Assassinations, bombings of churches,
torching of orphanages—these are only the most violent attacks Christians have
suffered because of their faith in Jesus Christ. More systematic denials of
basic human rights are found in the laws of several countries, and also in acts
of persecution by adherents of other faiths.
If religious liberty is eroded here
at home, American defense of religious liberty abroad is less credible. And one
common threat, spanning both the international and domestic arenas, is the
tendency to reduce the freedom of religion to the mere freedom of worship.
Therefore, it is our task to strengthen religious liberty at home, in this and
other respects, so that we might defend it more vigorously abroad. To that end,
American foreign policy, as well as the vast international network of Catholic
agencies, should make the promotion of religious liberty an ongoing and urgent
priority.
"All
the Energies the Catholic Community Can Muster"
What we ask is nothing more than
that our God-given right to religious liberty be respected. We ask nothing less
than that the Constitution and laws of the United States, which recognize that
right, be respected.
In insisting that our liberties as
Americans be respected, we know as bishops that what our Holy Father said is
true. This work belongs to "an engaged, articulate and well-formed
Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-à-vis the dominant
culture."
As bishops we seek to bring the
light of the Gospel to our public life, but the work of politics is properly
that of committed and courageous lay Catholics. We exhort them to be both
engaged and articulate in insisting that as Catholics and as Americans we do not
have to choose between the two. There is an urgent need for the lay faithful,
in cooperation with Christians, Jews, and others, to impress upon our elected
representatives the importance of continued protection of religious liberty in
a free society.
We address a particular word to
those holding public office. It is your noble task to govern for the common
good. It does not serve the common good to treat the good works of religious
believers as a threat to our common life; to the contrary, they are essential
to its proper functioning. It is also your task to protect and defend those
fundamental liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. This ought not to be a
partisan issue. The Constitution is not for Democrats or Republicans or
Independents. It is for all of us, and a great nonpartisan effort should be led
by our elected representatives to ensure that it remains so.
We recognize that a special
responsibility belongs to those Catholics who are responsible for our
impressive array of hospitals, clinics, universities, colleges, schools,
adoption agencies, overseas development projects, and social service agencies
that provide assistance to the poor, the hungry, immigrants, and those faced
with crisis pregnancies. You do the work that the Gospel mandates that we do.
It is you who may be forced to choose between the good works we do by faith,
and fidelity to that faith itself. We encourage you to hold firm, to stand
fast, and to insist upon what belongs to you by right as Catholics and
Americans. Our country deserves the best we have to offer, including our
resistance to violations of our first freedom.
To our priests, especially those who
have responsibility for parishes, university chaplaincies, and high schools, we
ask for a catechesis on religious liberty suited to the souls in your care. As
bishops we can provide guidance to assist you, but the courage and zeal for
this task cannot be obtained from another—it must be rooted in your own concern
for your flock and nourished by the graces you received at your ordination.
Catechesis on religious liberty is
not the work of priests alone. The Catholic Church in America is blessed with
an immense number of writers, producers, artists, publishers, filmmakers, and
bloggers employing all the means of communications—both old and new media—to
expound and teach the faith. They too have a critical role in this great
struggle for religious liberty. We call upon them to use their skills and
talents in defense of our first freedom.
Finally to our brother bishops, let
us exhort each other with fraternal charity to be bold, clear, and insistent in
warning against threats to the rights of our people. Let us attempt to be the
"conscience of the state," to use Rev. King's words. In the aftermath
of the decision on contraceptive and sterilization mandates, many spoke out
forcefully. As one example, the words of one of our most senior brothers,
Cardinal Roger Mahony, thirty-five years a bishop and recently retired after
twenty-five years as archbishop of Los Angeles, provide a model for us here:
"I cannot imagine a more direct and frontal attack on freedom of
conscience than this ruling today. This decision must be fought against with
all the energies the Catholic community can muster."15
A
Fortnight for Freedom
In particular, we recommend to our
brother bishops that we focus "all the energies the Catholic community can
muster" in a special way this coming summer. As pastors of the flock, our
privileged task is to lead the Christian faithful in prayer.
Both our civil year and liturgical
year point us on various occasions to our heritage of freedom. This year, we
propose a special "fortnight for freedom," in which bishops in their
own dioceses might arrange special events to highlight the importance of
defending our first freedom. Our Catholic institutions also could be encouraged
to do the same, especially in cooperation with other Christians, Jews, people
of other faiths, and indeed, all who wish to defend our most cherished freedom.
We suggest that the fourteen days
from June 21—the vigil of the Feasts of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More—to
July 4, Independence Day, be dedicated to this "fortnight for
freedom"—a great hymn of prayer for our country. Our liturgical calendar
celebrates a series of great martyrs who remained faithful in the face of
persecution by political power—St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More, St. John
the Baptist, SS. Peter and Paul, and the First Martyrs of the Church of Rome.
Culminating on Independence Day, this special period of prayer, study,
catechesis, and public action would emphasize both our Christian and American
heritage of liberty. Dioceses and parishes around the country could choose a
date in that period for special events that would constitute a great national
campaign of teaching and witness for religious liberty.
In addition to this summer's
observance, we also urge that the Solemnity of Christ the King—a feast born out
of resistance to totalitarian incursions against religious liberty—be a day
specifically employed by bishops and priests to preach about religious liberty,
both here and abroad.
To all our fellow Catholics, we urge
an intensification of your prayers and fasting for a new birth of freedom in
our beloved country. We invite you to join us in an urgent prayer for religious
liberty.
Almighty
God, Father of all nations,
For freedom you have set us free in Christ Jesus (Gal 5:1).
We praise and bless you for the gift of religious liberty,
the foundation of human rights, justice, and the common good.
Grant to our leaders the wisdom to protect and promote our liberties;
By your grace may we have the courage to defend them, for ourselves and for all
those who live in this blessed land.
We ask this through the intercession of Mary Immaculate, our patroness,
and in the name of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in the unity of the Holy
Spirit,
with whom you live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
