Pope Backs U.S. Bishops' Concern About Religious Freedom

[garn9173]

Well, we have GOD on our side. I wonder who she figures she has on her side that can ultimately win?

and based on a recent decision, the SCOTUS as well (which is were this is going to end up).

 

[Teelynn]

It’s not the Bishops who are caving. It’s adoption and foster care sections of Catholic Charities of Ill, and the Catholic hospital system in California. They choose to renounce their religion instead of fighting. I understand that fighting is a costly endeavor, financially, intellectually, emotionally, and every facet of your life. But that’s our cross, and God will give us the grace to handle it.

From what I understand, in IL they have indeed eliminated their adoption services. But they have to have the money to fight it in court. They had been in court on a number of occassions this summer and that’s the last I heard.

 

[incense]

From what I understand, in IL they have indeed eliminated their adoption services. But they have to have the money to fight it in court. They had been in court on a number of occassions this summer and that’s the last I heard.

The bishop eliminated the services, since the gov required them to do something immoral. The Catholic agencies chose to thumb their nose at the bishop, remove the Catholic identity from the agency, and keep taking the gov money. The bishop had planned to fight it. I think it was the Thomas More Society in Chicago who was going to fight the case.

 

[Teelynn]

The bishop eliminated the services, since the gov required them to do something immoral. The Catholic agencies chose to thumb their nose at the bishop, remove the Catholic identity from the agency, and keep taking the gov money. The bishop had planned to fight it. I think it was the Thomas More Society in Chicago who was going to fight the case.

I will have to investigate this and see what is now going on. There are I believe, Catholic agencies nation wide that are starting to defect. I truly believe that the goal of this administration is to eliminate faith based agencies. It’s not rocket science.

 

[chepner3]

Very wise words (below). Thank you for sharing because I look forward to reading more of the Pope’s words:

“Our tradition does not speak from blind faith, but from a rational perspective which links our commitment to building an authentically just, humane and prosperous society to our ultimate assurance that the cosmos is possessed of an inner logic accessible to human reasoning,” he clarified. “The Church’s defense of a moral reasoning based on the natural law is grounded on her conviction that this law is not a threat to our freedom, but rather a ‘language’ which enables us to understand ourselves and the truth of our being, and so to shape a more just and humane world. She thus proposes her moral teaching as a message not of constraint but of liberation, and as the basis for building a secure future.”

Benedict XVI explained, thus, that the Church’s witness “is of its nature public: she seeks to convince by proposing rational arguments in the public square. The legitimate separation of Church and State cannot be taken to mean that the Church must be silent on certain issues, nor that the State may choose not to engage, or be engaged by, the voices of committed believers in determining the values which will shape the future of the nation.”

 

[Teelynn]

Very wise words (below). Thank you for sharing because I look forward to reading more of the Pope’s words:

“Our tradition does not speak from blind faith, but from a rational perspective which links our commitment to building an authentically just, humane and prosperous society to our ultimate assurance that the cosmos is possessed of an inner logic accessible to human reasoning,” he clarified. “The Church’s defense of a moral reasoning based on the natural law is grounded on her conviction that this law is not a threat to our freedom, but rather a ‘language’ which enables us to understand ourselves and the truth of our being, and so to shape a more just and humane world. She thus proposes her moral teaching as a message not of constraint but of liberation, and as the basis for building a secure future.”

Benedict XVI explained, thus, that the Church’s witness “is of its nature public: she seeks to convince by proposing rational arguments in the public square. The legitimate separation of Church and State cannot be taken to mean that the Church must be silent on certain issues, nor that the State may choose not to engage, or be engaged by, the voices of committed believers in determining the values which will shape the future of the nation.”

Very wise indeed…but I believe what what the government is actually engaged in now is not “freedom of religion" but "freedom from religion”. And we are now beginning to live the fallout from the change in definition.