Denver archbishop: City wrong to snub company in religious freedom fight
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Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila has criticized a Denver city councilwoman for withdrawing a proclamation that praised a Catholic-run company, after she learned that the owners filed a religious freedom lawsuit against the federal government.
“Choosing to marginalize the owners of Hercules for their religiosity is an insult to the founding values of our nation,” the Denver archbishop said in an Aug. 23 opinion piece in the Denver Post.
“When religious people are marginalized from the public square all of us lose,” he said. “Religious values (like those of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., for example) have served as forces for great public good in America. Public shame of the religiously convicted undermines the American ideal.”
His comments come in response to the actions of Denver City Councilwoman Robin Kniech, who had initially intended to recognized the Denver-based HVAC manufacturer Hercules Industries’ 50th anniversary.
The business’ Catholic owners are suing the Obama administration over a Department of Health and Human Services mandate requiring employers to provide no co-pay insurance coverage for sterilization and contraception, including some abortion-causing drugs. They say the mandate violates their religious freedom.
A federal court has granted the company an injunction against the mandate until the case is resolved.
Kniech withdrew the proposed proclamation before its passage, saying she hoped to avoid a “partisan food fight” in an election year.
Archbishop Aquila said the resolution’s withdrawal is “unsurprising” but “disappointing.”
“By all appearances, Kniech discovered that Hercules had religious convictions, and she sought distance,” he said.
He said that the company’s religious values compel it to offer “generous health care coverage and benefits” and to support its unionized workforce.
“The same religious values compel them to protect their right to a clear conscience — to observe the norms of religious morality in their public life,” he wrote.
While the Archbishop Aquila said that governments can legitimately protect the public when religious conscience threatens “essential human freedom or dignity,” he rejected any contention that the mandate is in this category. [More]
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19 Comments
What else can we expect from robin kniech but animosity toward the Catholic Church? She is listed as an openly LGTB politictian in this website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_first_LGBT_holders_of_political_offices_in_the_United_States
Thanks, Hugo. My goodness, we live in a dirty country sinking as rapidly as the Titanic. And then, on this Catholic website, we have numerous people openly opposing the Church; we have heretic fake sisters running around the country on a bus; and we have naive souls like Tony who are trying to be helpful but who at times get in the way of the Church. Can the return of Jesus be far away?
I’ll answer my own question: no, I believe His return is imminent. As I believe Scripture (Revelation?) says, God will have to return when He does because otherwise everyone will fall away from the Church.
Jim, did you see that Sister Simone Campbell of nuns on the buss is going to offer prayer with Cardinal Dolan at the Democratic Convention?
Right — and shortly thereafter, she is joining the Muslims for prayer. Her actions have been so damaging to the Church and Catholics who are not particularly strong in their faith that the only way I will accept anything she does is if she apologizes for the grave scandal she has caused and publicly asks the Church for forgiveness. You know, if you kill my child and then help a little old lady across the street, I won’t conclude you are a good person.
[...] Catholic News USA [...]
Anyone read? Pope Benedict: “Insincerity is the mark of the devil”
I think you better wake up and join us in the fight to keep any employer from dictating their employee’s medical treatment before it’s too late and you’ve lost all your freedoms in America.
I should start a business, become Christian Scientist, and absolutely refuse to cover any possible scientific or medical treatment whatsoever for my employees, just to drive my point home.
Sorry for the repost, I thought I replied to Jim’s post down below, not to the article.
No problem, blag — an employer absolutely should have the right to not fund things contrary to their faith. The employee can either not take a position with the company in the first place because they don’t like the medical coverage, or the employee can buy their own contraceptives.
Doing what I propose protects the freedom of the employee to use contraceptives (at the own expense) and the freedom of the employer to not be forced to pay for things they believe are immoral.
I think you need to wake up and join the fight for religious freedom of employees to not have their medical needs dictated to them by employers, before it is too late and you’ve lost all your freedoms in America.
Ms Kniech got it right when she withdrew her petition in advance of the federal case adjudication. If the archbishop has a complaint here, maybe he should direct it against the great majority of Denver Catholic women who have chosen to use contraceptives.
If a bishop says it or the Church teaches it, Florian disagrees with it, and that settles it (for her — at least in this life). All of us will stand in front of the judgment seat of God some day, and all of us must give an account of our lives. None of us will have access to sleazy attorneys to defend us. The best defense will be that we have acknowledged and confessed our sins in the sacrament of Reconciliation.
But of course, non-Catholics do not use the sacrament of Reconciliation; and the converse also is true: those who do not use the sacrament of Reconciliation are not Catholic.
So then why should non-Catholic politicians continue to support a company with an obviously Catholic agenda? To do so would be to work against the social good those politicians believe to be better than the status quo, and are hoping to achieve? Note that I realize you may disagree with those politicians, but that does not negate my point – that the politician wants to change the world to what they see as better, and they disagree with this company. So why should the continue to support it?
The politician should continue to support the Catholic company, blag, for the same reasons she was supporting it before — because it is a good business. The fact that they filed a lawsuit against the federal government does not mean the business is now a bane on Denver — it remains a good business. And blag, the issue is not about supporting the Catholic Church — the issue is about supporting religious freedom. The bishop nailed the issue: Catholics who take their faith seriously are being marginalized. You better wake up and join us in the fight, blag, before it’s too late and you’ve lost all your freedoms in America.
blag- In Canada we suport a company which does a good job for the right price.
The Archbishop is correct In critizing the counsel woman’s withdrawl of the proclamation praising this company which without a doubt is a good business. Seems to me that this company is being penalized because they have taken a stand for their Christian beliefs. Florian, you say that the great majority of Denver Catholic women have chosen to use contraceptives. Where does your information come from? What is a great majority? …I could say that a great majority of dog owners have nutured thir male pets..with no facts or numbers to prove my statement.