Below are excerpts. Read the complete article here.
Today, groups of religious sisters, priests and other various Christian organizations will yet again be forced to plead for their basic First Amendment rights in front of the Supreme Court.
“As an American, I and everyone of my fellow citizens should be able to follow the law while following our faith,” said named petitioner Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life at a press conference on Tuesday. “And this government is making that impossible.”
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In his remarks, Fr. Pavone said that administration officials “are going above their pay grade,” by attempting to tell religious organizations whether or not the Health and Human Services (HHS) regulation violates their faith, to which he responded rhetorically, “who are you to tell us that?”
“If in the end, if we cooperate with this accommodation…if it is still our employees receiving the objectionable coverage through our health insurance plan, by our authorization, and only as long as we maintain [the healthcare plans]…how on earth are we not involved? Our employees, our insurance plan, our permission. How is that an opt-out? It’s not; it’s complicity. It’s cooperation in evil.”
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Probably the most ridiculous and irrational scenario created by the HHS mandate was described by Pavone in his remarks. His organization sends ordained Catholic priests to assist Catholic parishes. When they send a priest to such a parish, that parish enjoys the protection of the HHS exemption, however the representative from Priests for Life does not. Both parties share the same religion, same teachings, same objections and same claim for exemption, but the Obama Administration believes that the two shouldn’t share the same religious liberty because of an arbitrary regulation dreamed up by HHS bureaucrats. -
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“We [Priests for Life] were ordained to teach the catholic faith," Pavone added. "We know what it says and what it doesn’t say. We know what it means and what it doesn’t mean…We don’t worry about complicity because the government tells us to worry about it. We worry about complicity because our faith tells us to worry about it.”
See more at: https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2016/03/the-federal-government-is-not-a-theological-council#sthash.C4eSGQin.dpuf