Catholic organization files class-action lawsuit to block HHS mandate

[_Abyssinia]

WASHINGTON (CNS) – A coalition of nearly 200 Catholic dioceses, agencies and businesses has asked a federal court in Oklahoma to block enforcement of a Department of Health and Human Services mandate that it says would force its members to violate their religious beliefs.

Under the banner of the recently formed Catholic Benefits Association, the entities contended in a class action lawsuit filed March 12 that the mandate’s requirement that they provide health insurance coverage for contraceptive drugs, abortifacients, surgical sterilizations and related counseling is contrary to the First Amendment’s free exercise, establishment and free speech clauses.

The mandate – under rules issued by HHS – requires nearly all employers to provide such coverage for their employees in their company health plan. It includes a narrow exemption for some religious employers that fit certain criteria.

catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1401036.htm

 

[glendab]

Praise God! I hope they win. Somebodies got to stop the mess from getting messier.

Glenda

 

[JamesTheJust]

Praise God! I hope they win. Somebodies got to stop the mess from getting messier.

Glenda

Amen.

However, if this federal court engages in judicial activism, as I contend many other pro-HHS courts have, the madness will continue.

 

[JamesBond007]

Unfortunately I think we lost this one. At this point its just a question of how will the clergy respond.

 

[ruly]

Why is it that the Church re-acts to this mandate. I knew this was going to be the outcome when Obama care came into the scene and the Church basically kept silent. Still at this time in my diocese there is hardly anything being said about the attack on the church and religious freedom. I wish the Church would take a pre - active role on this situations. What’s happening now is what happened with Roe V Wade, not an active role by the church until it was too late. I pray that we would be successful in defeating this mandate and hopefully as Catholics we would be more inform about who we elect as our representatives.

 

[Elizium23]

Unfortunately I think we lost this one. At this point its just a question of how will the clergy respond.

No, it’s a question of how the whole Church membership responds. There are thousands of lay-owned and lay-run businesses out there that will either have to comply or face going out of business due to onerous fines and penalties. Will they protest and then knuckle under like Notre Dame? Will they go down fighting like the LSOP? Will this be a fresh source of schism, a wedge issue that will tear the Church in the USA apart at the seams? That’s exactly what Obama, Biden, Pelosi, and Sebelius are hoping and praying for. “God Bless Planned Parenthood” indeed.

That being said, this fight is not lost yet. There is still a good chance that the SCOTUS will strike down the provisions. Keep on praying and don’t be silent. We need solidarity in this. The mandate controversy had a marked effect on my liberal Democrat mother, who voted for nobody in the last election because she couldn’t stand Obama and she couldn’t stand Romney either.

 

[TEPO]

Do they have the USCCB’s blessing?