Statement from Bishop Daniel E. Flores, Diocese of Brownsville

Bishop Daniel E. Flores
Bishop of Brownsville
Publication Date: February 02, 2012

February 2, 2012
 
Catholics in the United States, and religious believers of all faiths throughout the nation, object in the most strenuous terms possible to the Federal Department of Health and Human Services so called contraceptive mandate. The HHS ruling requires Catholic institutions, including Catholic hospitals, schools, charities and parishes, to provide health care coverage that includes contraceptive and abortifacient drugs. This mandate would require Catholics, whose contributions support Catholic institutions, to subsidize directly medical practices which we consider immoral. Thus the mandate violates the rights under our constitution to the free exercise of religion. The Catholic Church in the United States strongly opposes this encroachment of the government into matters of religious conscience. I urge members of Congress representing the Rio Grande Valley to support legislation which overturns this governmental intrusion, and I urge Catholics, and indeed all who cherish the constitutional protection of the free exercise of religion, to write their representatives to voice their grave concerns.
 
Visit the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops page for more information:
 
https://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/conscience-protection/index.cfm