It is very true that prayer always helps. Prayer is essential. We must pray and pray very hard about this. We must also act though by signing petitions, participating in the Fortnight for Freedom, etc.
But you know, I really do think we should be prepared for the worst. I am just afraid that we are on a slippery slope and if we don’t get back up to the top real fast we’re going to slide all the way down eventually so to speak.
The problem is this: those of us in the US live in what is called a “democratically elected Constitutional republic.” We elect our representatives who then vote based upon what they believe will continue to get them re-elected.
Sadly, most of the people in this country are still under the delusion that Obamacare will actually give them something for nothing (or for very little). (Remember, “free contraception”?)
As a consequence, the people who raise moral objections to this are seen as nothing but clanging cymbals…a small group of people who make a lot of loud noise.
Despite the fact that all of the US bishops (getting unanimity is a minor miracle in of itself) have come out against the “HHS mandate”, most people…including most Catholics…really don’t care. They see “free stuff” waved in front of them and are hypnotized by it.
The bottom line is that we need to pray for a revival of the Faith in this country. If we don’t have a revival in the Faith, we will never have a revival in the attitudes of the people toward moral issues. If we don’t have a revival of the Faith, we won’t have priests and bishops speaking out boldly about the whole mess (not just the HHS mandate). Without a revival of the Faith, the people won’t care even if the bishops do speak out. Without that, our elected representatives will not care a whit about the moral implications of this. With that, the elected representatives can be replaced with those who will vote morally.
Without a revival of the Faith, (the majority of) people won’t care about religious liberty as long as they have a full belly and plenty of room between their credit card balance and their credit card limit.