Bishops, other religious leaders to participate in massive nationwide protests against Obama Administration’s contraception mandate
Bishops from opposite ends of the state are scheduled to participate March 23 in “religious freedom” rallies, part of similar events planned nationwide to protest the Obama Administration’s contraception mandate.
Oakland Bishop Salvatore Cordileone is scheduled to speak at the “Stand Up for Religious Freedom” event in San Francisco at noon Friday, while San Diego Coadjutor Bishop Cirilo Flores is slated to speak at a similar rally at the San Diego County Administration Building the same day.
“Join Bishop Cordileone and other Bay Area religious leaders at this week’s San Francisco rally protesting Health and Human Services’ newly imposed mandate on health care,” says a notice in the March 19 edition of The Weekly, a publication of the Oakland chancery. “Rallies in over 80 cities across the country are being held at noon on Friday, March 23. The rally in San Francisco will be at the Federal Building, 90 7th Street, SF.”
“Bishop Cordileone has said, ‘People of all political and religious persuasions rightly understand this as an attack on our God-given and constitutionally-protected right to religious freedom,’” the notice in The Weekly continued.
For more information on the San Francisco rally, contact Dolores Meehan at (415) 860-7899.
“On Friday, March 23, from noon to 1 p.m. concerned citizens and community leaders will hold a Rally for Religious Freedom at the San Diego County Administration Building (West Plaza) to voice public opposition to the Obama administration’s Health and Human Services Mandate,” said a press release from organizers of the San Diego event. “The HHS Mandate forces all employers, even religious institutions such as Roman Catholic hospitals and universities, to offer contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs through their health plans, contrary to their religious beliefs and doctrines. The HHS provided a ‘religious exemption’ so narrow that it would exclude Catholic hospitals, universities and charities, forcing these institutions to act in direct opposition to Catholic teaching through the health care plans they provide. Institutions run by other religious organizations would be similarly affected.”
“The San Diego rally will be emceed by national radio talk show host Roger Hedgecock,” the news release continued. “Special guest speakers will include: Bishop Cirilo Flores (new Catholic Bishop of San Diego), Dr. Jim Garlow (Senior Pastor of Skyline Church and chairman of Renewing American Leadership in Washington, D.C.), Bishop George McKinney (St. Stephen’s Church of God in Christ), Kathy Marler (Public Affairs, Church of Jesus Christ of Later day Saints), Pastor Netz Gomez (Hispanic radio talk show host), Charles LiMandri (prominent San Diego attorney), Pastor Chris Clark (East Clairemont Baptist Church), Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse (founder, The Ruth Institute), Joe Infranco (Alliance Defense Fund), Thomas McKenna (Catholic Action), Dran Reese (Director, Salt and Light Council), and other ecumenical community leaders.”
Elsewhere in California, “Stand Up for Religious Freedom” rallies are planned at the following places in the following cities (all events are from noon to 1 p.m.) —
LOS ANGELES
Edward R. Roybal Federal Building
255 East Temple St.
MURIETTA AREA
Sam Hicks Monument Park
41970 Moreno Road, Temecula
SACRAMENTO
State Capitol Building (north side on L Street)
1315 10th St.
VENTURA
Ventura Government Center
800 South Victoria Avenue
In addition to Bishop Cordileone, others scheduled to speak at the San Francisco rally include Kevin Snider of the Pacific Justice Institute; Kevin McGary of the Frederick Douglass Foundation of California; Dolores Meehan of San Francisco Walk for Life West Coast; George Wesolek, director of Public Policy and spokesman for the Archdiocese of San Francisco); Antoine Lamar Miller, Pastor of Chosen Vessels Christian Church; Reggie Littlejohn of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers; Gary Wagner, Pastor of the Reformed Heritage Church); William B. May, president of Catholics for the Common Good; Enrique Morales Jr., co-Pastor ofIglesia de Cristo Nuevo Pacto in San Francisco; Marjorie M. Campbell of New Feminism; and Fr, Joseph Fessio, SJ, of Ignatius Press.
“Not since the 1960s has a cause so righteous and so just demanded the Body of Christ, in the power of our Lord’s Priesthood, to rise together in the public square to let our voices be heard,” said California pro-life hero Pastor Walter Hoye. “The lines have been drawn. The battle is already raging. Choose you this day, whom you will serve.”
“We agree with the Catholic bishops,” said Hoye. “This is not about access to contraception, universal health care, religious freedom of Catholics only or a matter of partisan politics. This is about the federal government forcing the Church to act against Her teachings.”
For more information on “Stand Up for Religious Freedom” rallies in California or elsewhere in the United States, Click Here.
Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2012 1:31 AM By Susanne
Is Archbishop Gomez going to speak at the Los Angeles event? |
Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2012 3:57 AM By Warren Goddard
Portsmouth Herald Obama, Shaheen assault religion March 12, 2012 2:00 AM March 7 — To the Editor: The die is cast! Given that the Obama administration has mandated that Catholic institutions materially cooperate with the intrinsically evil act of contraception and that Sen. Shaheen is for it; then, voting to re-elect President Obama or Sen. Shaheen is an assault on Christ and His Church. Warren Goddard Portsmouth |
Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2012 5:32 AM By RR
We are having a rally here in Peoria, Illinois and I plan to be at this rally with my sign! |
Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2012 6:30 AM By JMJ
Where oh where is the USCCB on this? They are the ones that should be declaring a day of fast and prayers. +JMJ+ |
Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2012 6:43 AM By JLS
**operative formula for seeking truth**: tyranny. This sort of kidnapping of God is the type of thing that deceives and destroys souls. The mindset that employs it is dwarfish, stunted, deformed, and guess what but look at what has been outed from the Church since that time … mainly due to God taking the blinders off the public via Vatican Council II. You cannot force God to bend to human ways, not even if the cardinals mandate it. |
Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2012 6:47 AM By Sandra
We’ll all be there Friday at noon. This is about our freedom and the continued “over reach” of the government on our rights. My sign will say “I will not comply” |
Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2012 7:20 AM By jp
This rally is well intentioned and will no doubt reach many people who put Christian religion first in their life. |
Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2012 7:30 AM By NUTUNE
There have been so many mind-boogling whoops and hollers from the psuedo Catholics (CINO’s) that even these soldiers of Jesus may be swallowed up in the foam. I will not be surprised at counter-demonstrations from those who don’t know female from male and right from wrong. They LIKE liberals. |
Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2012 7:45 AM By MIKE
PLEASE make arrangements to attend on FRIDAY, March 23 – – from noon to 1pm. Mark you calendar today. Send OBAMA (the man who wants to make government our god and control our health care) a message. Freedom of Religion is in the CCC as well as the US Constitution. |
Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2012 8:05 AM By Cody in Tucson
When this all started back on 1/20 Archbishop Gomez was one of the first bishops who had an article posted on CCD exhorting the laity to get out and protest this mandate. I don’t see his name in this article. Is he leading the protest in LA? Or is he MIA? |
Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2012 8:06 AM By Prof Helen
“We all are Catholics now.” |
Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2012 8:22 AM By Denise Riggio
In all the years of working in pro-life, never did this many Bishops join in a nationwide protest… if a protest like this would have happened against the evil of contraception in the first place(yes, you read it right, contraception, see Gospel of Life JPII) we wouldn’t be struggling with abortion, homosexuality, divorce and a myriad of other issues much less trying to convince the world that Catholics really do have a conscience. But then again I’m pretty sure a side effect of the Pill and sterilizations is a loss of wisdom. |
Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2012 9:31 AM By OSCAR
Denise, R – the evil of contraception is in the ‘CCC 2nd Ed” which was first published in the USA in March 2000. I keep wondering if most US Bishops would have promoted the reading and studying of the CCC – would Catholics have a better knowledge of their faith causing all of us to be better Catholics. – I think so. Heretical politicians, and others would have a more difficult time promoting evil and scandal through the media because millions would be able to correct them on the spot. “….the Catechism has raised throughout the world, even among non-Christians, and confirms its purpose of being presented as a full, complete exposition of Catholic doctrine, enabling everyone to know what the Church professes, celebrates, lives, and prays in her daily life.” – Pope John Paul II (pg xiv) Since this protest of Friday is the right thing to do for religious freedom, I will be there holding up my green copy of the CCC. |
Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2012 9:37 AM By MacDonald
@ JMJ 6:30 AM — “where is the USCCB on this?” If you go to the home page of the rally (“Stand Up For Religious Freedom”), you will find the USCCB item right there…on page one…in English…for all to see. |
Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2012 9:58 AM By Denise Riggio
For the record, contraception has been a grave evil since the beginning of time, first commandment God gave to Adam and Eve? be fruitful and multiply,Contraception is even something that can be understood as evil through natural law. the CCC only restates what faithful Catholics always believed, taught and practiced. Until we witness to all Catholics and non Catholics the grave evil and offense that contraception and sterilization is to God we will never see a real turn around in abortion much less broken families or homosexuality. Contraception used to be illegal, as any evil should be, in our country but the laws changed when Catholics stopped preaching and teaching and living that truth. |
Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2012 11:35 AM By St. Christopher
Rev. Hoye knows how to do it — stand up for Christ, stand up for morality, and take the heat, and prison and abuse, that comes along with it. This event will mean nothing without the bishops each taking on the same level of personal risk that was taken by Rev. Hoye. And, in addition, the bishops will need to do so in the context of Humanae Vitae, which is the true center of the storm. A number of traditional/orthodox Catholic commentators have correctly noted that the true sin of the Church has been the almost universal failure of Catholic bishops in teaching Humanae Vitae and correcting human failures related to it. Stop using birth control — that is the message. The President, of course, is abusing religious institutions by his policies, but it is not only that attempt to control that is at issue, it is what is being controlled. The issue, here, is not only abortion, but Catholic doctrine on contraception. The bishops should, must, step up and say: Stop the madness; the Church teaches that the culture of death starts in with contraception, which leads to so many of the ills of modern America. Say that, dear bishops, and you will be ridiculed, reviled, and not invited to all the good parties. Merely being a bishop is nothing, if the Faith is not lived. Posturing this fight as a political one, which the above discussion shows to be the case, does not get to the heart of the matter. Rev. Hoye cannot help much here, he is not Catholic. It is entirely up to courageous bishops and to the Pope, to frame the argument as it must be framed, and advocated. |
Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2012 12:33 PM By Arlette Gaffrey
Thank God the Bishops are showing that they will no longer sit back and let that man who thinks he owns this country trample on our religious rights. We have been asleep much too long and this is what happens when we are not vigilant. Hope it isn’t too late. |
Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2012 9:31 PM By Tracy
Susanne and Cody, the LA protest site is on the same street as the LA Cathedral a few blocks down. Yes, let’s hope Bishop Gomez is there. |
Posted Wednesday, March 21, 2012 3:15 AM By Carl
It is certainly sad that no event is scheduled in the Diocese of Orange. Since Friday, March 23, is the first day of the RE Congress it would certainly be easy to invite the participants to join in an event during the noon lunch break. Bishop Brown must be too busy planning the re-modeling of the Crystal Cathedral to worry about th HHS mandate. Or, maybe he’s too busy trying to figure out how the diocese is going to pay for it! |
Posted Wednesday, March 21, 2012 9:51 PM By Kenneth M. Fisher
Both I and my sister plan to be at the Roybal center on Friday, so you can come and throw things at me and or meet me if you like. God bless, yours in Their Hearts, Kenneth M. Fisher |
Posted Wednesday, March 21, 2012 11:25 PM By Loraine Bales
My husband Bill & I feel double blessed by living here in San Diego and having an event like this to be able to attend. Thanks to all of you who put this great rally together. |
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