Newsflash


Write Your Congress Person about this issue Read More about conscience protection at USCCB

In 1634, a mix of Catholic and Protestant settlers arrived in Southern Maryland from England aboard the Ark and the Dove.  They had come at the invitation of the Catholic Lord Baltimore,who had been granted the land by the Protestant King Charles I of England.  While Catholics and Protestants were killing each other in Europe, Lord Baltimore imagined Marylandas a society where people of different faiths could live together peacefully.  This vision was soon codified in Maryland’s 1649 Act Concerning Religion (also called the “Toleration Act”), which was the first law in our nation’s history to protect an individual’s right to freedom of conscience.

Maryland’s early history teaches us that, like any freedom, religious liberty requires constant vigilance and protection, or it will disappear.  Maryland’s experiment in religious toleration ended within a few decades.  The colony was placed under royal control and the Church of England became the established religion.  Discriminatory laws, including the loss of political rights, were enacted against those who refused to conform.  Catholic chapels were closed and Catholics were restricted to practicing their faith in their homes.  The Catholic community lived under this coercion until the American Revolution.

By the end of the 18th century our nation’s founders embraced freedom of religion as an essential condition of a free and democratic society.  So when the Bill of Rights was ratified, religious freedom had the distinction of being the First Amendment.  Religious liberty is indeed the first liberty.

This is our American heritage, our most cherished freedom. If we are not free in our conscience and our practice of religion, all other freedoms are fragile.  If our obligations and duties to God are impeded, or even worse, contradicted by the government, then we can no longer claim to be a land of the free. Is our most cherished freedom truly under threat?

Among many current challenges, consider the recent Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate requiring almost all private health plans to cover contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs.  For the first time in our history, the federal government will force religious institutions to facilitate drugs and procedures contrary to our moral teaching, and purport to define which religious institutions are “religious enough” to merit an exemption.  This is not a matter of whether contraception may be prohibited by the government. It is not even a matter of whether contraception may be supported by the government.  It is a matter of whether religious people and institutions may be forced by the government to provide coverage for contraception and sterilization, even when it violates our religious beliefs.

Taken from the USCCB Conscience protection initiative- READ MORE.

What You Can Do!

1) PRAY - Follow the following links to guided prayer cards to our Lord with the intercession of our Blessed Mother and St. Thomas More.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas

Mary Immaculate, Patroness of Our Country

St. Thomas More, Patron of Religious Freedom

2) Write to Congress & HHS opposing the mandate and calling for conscience protections. !!!Deadline = June 19!!!

Click HERE to electronically write Congress (with an optional pre-written letter) voicing your conscience protection concerns.

3) Read more about the issue and decide what action is best for you.

USCCB CONSCIENCE PROTECTION WEBSITE

 

 

 
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Religious Liberty, What is at stake?

Where Has the Family Gone?

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The question being asked in many churches today is, “Why don’t we live like the believers who made up the first church?” In Acts 2:42-47 Paul writes:

They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking if the bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes. They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Frances Chan writes, “the church is intended to be a beautiful place of community.” What does community look like in the church today? When one member rejoices, does the whole community rejoice? When one suffers, do we all suffer? In the Acts church everyone suffered, rejoiced, and ate together. They had a commitment to the church as a whole. They lived out the Lord’s command to “love one another”. What would the bride of Christ look like if we all lived like the early church?

The answer: every believer would give everything they have to help those in need. The Holy Spirit would be present in all our lives. Can you imagine living a joy filled life every day? This is what it would be like if we lived like the early church. The thought of more believers being added to the Kingdom every day, because my church is following the Spirits leading, is a great feeling.

To live like the Acts church in the present day is not as easy as one might think. One has to be very intentional about their time. There needs to be regular prayer time, time for learning, fellowship, serving and praising of the Lord. Regular prayer time could be attending weekly Mass, coffee time with God, prayers at bedtime with your children, or any other way that you are sharing time with God. Time for learning could be attending a weekly Bible study, RCIA classes throughout the year, attending a Christ Renew His Parish retreat, reading on your own, or even starting a study yourself with friends. Fellowship is not as easy to find time for as one might think. With all the activities everyone is involved in one must really be intentional in making time to be with friends and share a meal. This time together will help one grow in community with other members of the faith. There are many ways to serve in the church or the local community. One just needs to find a place that works for them and serve for the Lord. Praising God is much easier than it sounds. When you attend Mass on Sunday you are praising God, when you sing along with the Christian radio station you are praising God, when you pray prayers of thanksgiving you are praising God.

All of these things done together will begin to change your life and when your life begins to change others lives will be changed too! Let’s join together and become the Acts church.

 

 

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