| Religious Liberty |
"The First Amendment is a guarantee that government will mind its own limited, secular, non-religious business, so that the people can enjoy their natural right to religious liberty." —Removing the Cross: American and French Perspectives by Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Curry, the Santa Barbara Pastoral Region Bishop in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.  We understand religious liberty is a fundamental principle of our society. We call for constant vigilance to protect the freedom of persons and institutions to respond to God in accordance with their faith. We acknowledge the need to balance the rights of religion and the compelling interests of the state.
The CCC monitors legislation and lobbies against infringements of the religious freedom of persons and religious institutions. In recent years, many public policy decisions made by the California government have come into conflict with Church teaching. Until 1999, it was common for legislators to offer a "conscience clause" exemption when the policies deemed to be in the best interest of the public placed Church institutions at odds. Secularists have taken the upper hand, renamed "conscience clauses" refusal clauses, and have instituted a contraceptive mandate—similar to California—in many states already. For more information on contraceptive mandates, the United States Catholic Conference has prepared a Fact Sheet. In addition, we have made available the text of a 15-page document, Conscience Clauses and the Challenge of Cooperation in a Pluralistic Society , which traces the religious freedom and conscience clauses in American society. The paper was presented at the February 2003 National Catholic Bioethics Center sponsored workshop for the Bishops of United States and Canada. California's Contraceptive Mandate The CCC was unsuccessful in securing an adequate conscience clause exemption for Catholic institutions to a 1999 contraceptive mandate contained in two bills, AB 39 and SB 41. The legislation, which became known collectively as the Women's Contraceptive Equity Act (WCEA), mandates that employee health plan pharmaceutical benefits include contraceptives. On July 20, 2000 Catholic Charities of Sacramento, Inc. filed suit in Sacramento Superior Court against the State of California, asking for a preliminary injunction to preclude enforcement of the WCEA. On March 1, 2004 the California Supreme Court ruled 6-1 against Catholic Charities in their case to invalidate the California law which mandates they include contraceptives in their employee health benefit pharmaceutical plans. Sacramento Bishop William Weigand appealed the California Supreme Court decision in the Catholic Charities case to the US Supreme Court. On October 5, 2004, the US Supreme Court denied review of the case, without comment. Catholic charities attorney Kevin Baines evaluated this decision as "disappointing." However, he predicted that the Supreme Court would eventually examine the issue of "whether it violates a church entity’s religious freedom to subsidize conduct it considers immoral... If the state of California can coerce Catholic agencies to pay for contraceptives, it can coerce them to pay for abortions, "he said. More information: |
