[Archbishop Timothy Broglio] wrote in a letter that “The federal government, which claims to be ‘of, by and for the people,’ has just dealt a heavy blow to almost a quarter of those people — the Catholic population — and to the millions more who are served by the Catholic faithful. It is a blow to a freedom that you have fought to defend and for which you have seen your buddies fall in battle.”
However, it was another passage that seems to have triggered alarms at the Army office of the Chief of Chaplains.
“We cannot — we will not — comply with this unjust law,” stressed Broglio. “People of faith cannot be made second-class citizens. … In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties. I hope and trust she can count on this generation of Catholics to do the same.”
I was thinking out loud about this issue with a member of TEC. I am strongly opposed to what the O’man has done on this one because it is not about contraception, but about religious freedom and that testy constitution. But here’s the rub. I was saying “if the Feds can make Catholics do this there what’s stops thme from making other denominations do things they oppose”. And I tried to think of something the Feds could make TEC do that would violate their collective conscience and I couldn’t think of anything. Marry gay people? Require female celergy? Give commuinon to non-believers? Give communion to dogs? Have clown Eucharists with pizza? Do satanic rites on church altars? Support abortion for birth control? All of I could think of was a federal mandate requiring the bishop to use the wrong salad fork at the country club.
I couldn’t think of anything either.
I frequently put copies of pastoral letters at the church entrance and encourage parishioners to take them home and read them – particularly when they are long or not particularly relevant in the parish contet. The General Convention canon requires that pastoral letters be read or distributed.
How about forcing them to preach Christ crucified as the sole atonement for our sins? To say the creed without crossing their fingers? To proclaim Christ as THE way the truth and the life? They would get the picture.
NW Bob I was thinking along the same lines. Those awful things you cited would cause severe aversion reactions in some.