Archbishop takes 'fortnight for freedom' to Rome

Archbishop takes 'fortnight for freedom' to Rome

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ROME (CNS) -- On the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Obama administration's health care law, Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore warned an audience in Rome about what he characterized as the law's threat to religious freedom. The archbishop, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Freedom, addressed a group called the Observatory on Religious Liberty, recently established by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the city of Rome. Archbishop Lori, who spoke several hours before the announcement of the court's decision, singled out the health care law's planned "HHS mandate," which would require the private health insurance plans of most Catholic institutions to cover surgical sterilization procedures and artificial birth control, in violation of the church's moral doctrines. "Embedded in the HHS mandate is an extremely narrow definition of religion put there as a litmus test to determine which religious organizations are religious enough -- by the government's definition -- to deserve an exemption from providing services contrary to their teachings," he said. The archbishop described the administration's effort in this case as part of a broader trend. "Unless we stop it now, this narrow, governmental definition of what a church is will likely spread throughout our nation's laws and policies," he said.

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Source: http://www.georgiabulletin.org/world/2012/06/28/news-6/?s=

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