Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
There has been a lot of talk about the Obama Administration’s mandate that all employers, including religious institutions, must provide coverage for contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs in their health insurance plans for their employers. This mandate, as our bishops have said very clearly, would force us to violate our deeply-held moral beliefs, to violate our consciences. It is a moral issue that MUST be opposed, even if it leads to the persecution of the Church and to our martyrdom!
One element of this mandate that has not been talked about very much is that it is actually anti-woman. The HHS mandate gives the appearance of caring about women’s health, of wanting women to be equal to men (in the sense of a false freedom from responsibility for their sexual behavior, like men who take no responsibility for their actions and their children), but it is, in reality, anti-woman. Please watch this YouTube video from the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C., in which a Catholic woman explains this very well: Gloria Purvis — HHS Mandate is Anti-Woman
May God give us all the strength and courage to resist evil and to fight for the sanctity of all human life, from conception until natural death, and to fight for the sacredness of marriage and family life!
Yours in the Merciful Heart of Jesus,
Fr. Ben J. Cameron, CPM
Assistant General, Fathers of Mercy