WASHINGTON–Today’s decision to expand the HHS mandate exemption is
a “return to common sense, long-standing federal practice, and peaceful
coexistence between church and state,” according to the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, Archbishop
of Galveston-Houston and President of the USCCB, and Archbishop William E. Lori
of Baltimore, Chairman of the USCCB’s Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, are
hailing the Trump Administration’s announcement to provide a broad religious and
moral exemption from the mandate requiring health insurance coverage of
sterilization, contraception, and drugs and devices that may cause
abortions.

Cardinal DiNardo and Archbishop Lori offered the following
joint statement in response:

“The Administration’s decision to provide a broad religious
and moral exemption to the HHS mandate recognizes that the full range of
faith-based and mission-driven organizations, as well as the people who run
them, have deeply held religious and moral beliefs that the law must
respect. Such an exemption is no
innovation, but instead a return to common sense, long-standing federal
practice, and peaceful coexistence between church and state. It corrects an anomalous failure by federal
regulators that should never have occurred and should never be repeated.

“These regulations are good news for the Little Sisters of
the Poor and others who are challenging the HHS mandate in court. We urge the government to take the next
logical step and promptly resolve the litigation that the Supreme Court has urged
the parties to settle.

“The regulations are also good news for all Americans. A government mandate that coerces people to
make an impossible choice between obeying their consciences and obeying the
call to serve the poor is harmful not only to Catholics but to the common good. Religious freedom is a fundamental right for
all, so when it is threatened for some, it is threatened for all. We welcome the news that this particular
threat to religious freedom has been lifted, and with the encouragement of Pope
Francis, we will remain ‘vigilant, precisely as good citizens, to preserve and
defend that freedom from everything that would threaten or compromise it.'”

—
Keywords: Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Archbishop
William Lori, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB, U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, HHS mandate, Little Sisters of the Poor,
contraceptives, religious liberty, religious freedom

###

MEDIA CONTACT
Judy Keane
202-541-3200

Source:: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops