"it is right and just"

"It is right and just." You've heard those words before, quite likely yesterday if you attended Mass, perhaps today if you've been to daily Mass. You're probably thinking I'm back for Round Two of "stuff the geek girl thinks is really cool in the new Mass." If you missed Round One, you can check it out, with the "dewfall," here.

And although I do think "it is right and just" is really cool in the context of the Mass, no, that's not what this post is not going to be about the new translation. We'll get back to that (I promise!), just not today.

This post is about courage and cowardice, about knowing what is right and just, and defending that which is right and just against the evil of injustice. What am I talking about?

Well, you knew I had to bring it up sometime: the HHS Mandate. Yeah, you know the one. That nasty, infringing-on-religious-freedom mandate requiring Catholic employers to fund insurance coverage for contraception, and sterilization procedures. So many have said it, and it's time for me to lend my voice to the crowd: this mandate is wrong, it is evil, and it must be stopped.

Not simply because of what it requires (coverage of drugs and procedures that the Church finds morally offensive), but because of what it does and the precedent it sets.

What does it do? It violates our consciences. It violates our religious freedom. It is essentially the government telling us what to consider moral and immoral, what is right and just. It is the government trying to dictate to us the definition of truth.

That, my friends, is something the Constitution of the United States of America tells us the government cannot do. But then, who really cares about the Constitution anymore, right? It's just a dusty, old piece of parchment that's so behind the times. Kind of like what they say about the Catholic Church, right? So behind the times. 

For the record, I am a Catholic WOMAN who is married, works full-time, and has a master's degree in engineering. I support women's rights; had it not been for the efforts of many people to gain those rights for women, I would have been denied many opportunities. If I'd lived in the time of Susan B. Anthony, I probably would've been right out there with her, working for women's suffrage. However, I don't support the supposed "right" of women to kill their children (another post for another time), and neither do I support the HHS Mandate's requirement of Catholic organizations to fund coverage for birth control and sterilization. It's not about women's health or women's rights, my friends. I'm sorry, but it's just not. Birth control is readily and cheaply available to anyone who wants it, despite what some have claimed (just Google the name Sandra Fluke if you don't know what I'm talking about!).

Nor is this some kind of "war on women." No, certainly not. If this is a war on anything, it's a war on the Church. Reminder: the Church did not instigate this controversy. The Church did not cause this mandate to be written, or declare war on women. No, the Church is simply doing what she must do, and defending her teachings and beliefs, from a major attack.

Ultimately, this is about religious freedom, and we should all be grateful that many people of diverse backgrounds are recognizing it. Would we ever pass a law that would require people of other faiths to violate the tenets of their belief? It's a question that must be asked, and I believe that these non-Catholics who are standing up against this mandate are indeed asking it - because if they can do it to us, they can do it to anyone. What, or who, will be next?

I live in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, and our bishop, Archbishop Michael Sheehan, put it well: "People of faith cannot be made second-class citizens."

Some Catholics have criticized the bishops of the United States for what they have perceived as a lack of courage in standing up and speaking out on a wide variety of issues up to now. I would tell you this: I believe that our Lord does not care where we have been so much as He cares where we are going. Now is no time for division. We need to move forward in unity with our bishops, who are, at this very moment, defending what is right and just. It's the only way we're going to win this battle.

Pray for our bishops. Pray for each other. Pray that we may all have the strength to do what we must, in courage and in love, to uphold what is right and just. Because the HHS Mandate is neither right, nor just. 


+Peace, and all good. May the courage of Christ be with you this day and always.