Dear Parishioners of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth:
The Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth on Monday, May 21, 2012 filed a lawsuit in Fort Worth federal court seeking to halt unprecedented attacks by various federal agencies on religious freedom.
The suit is against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the U.S. Department of Labor and Secretary Hilda Solis and the U.S. Department of Treasury and Secretary Timothy Geithner. Despite long and continuing objections by the Catholic Church of the United States and various religious organizations, federal agencies continue to insist on interfering with internal affairs of a church, contrary to what the Founding Fathers had in mind. The purpose of the lawsuit is to prevent the federal government from forcing its views on the Church.
The Diocese is asking a federal judge to bar federal agencies from formulating and enforcing the nationwide mandate that requires religious institutions to facilitate and fund activities that their religious and moral convictions forbid.
The issue is the attack on religious freedom in the form of a Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) mandate that requires all employers provide and pay for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization and contraceptives, with only a very narrow exception for certain organizations that the government deems sufficiently "religious."
The Diocese’s lawsuit is in keeping with the longstanding rights of freedom of religion. In addition to our forefathers’ conviction on this, the Second Vatican Council issued a decree Dignitatis Humanae on religious freedom. In this decree, the Council states:
This Vatican Council declares that the human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits. The council further declares that the right to religious freedom has its foundation in the very dignity of the human person as this dignity is known through the revealed word of God and by reason itself. This right of the human person to religious freedom is to be recognized in the constitutional law whereby society is governed and thus it is to become a civil right. (2)
In effect, the mandate prohibits Catholics in the Diocese of Fort Worth from only asking what we have asked since the first Catholic institution was created in the Fort Worth area in 1876 “Are you poor?” “Are you hungry?” Now the definition of religion used in the mandate would require us to ask, ‘Are you Catholic?’ To remain a religious institution under this definition, we could only help if you are Catholic.
Dearly Beloved, many of you have expressed to me your concerns that the mandates are an attack on religious freedom. My fellow Bishops and I agree. We cannot allow mandates to stand that narrowly extend religious freedom only to houses of worship, which reduces religious freedom to only the freedom to worship.
Your continued prayers and support of religious freedom are essential. Your continued communications with members of Congress is also essential. For more information and how to contact members of Congress, visit the diocesan web site at www.fwdioc.org.
May the Lord continue to be with us on this journey and may He bless each of you.
Gratefully yours in the Lord,
Most Rev. Kevin W. Vann, JCD, DD
Bishop of Fort Worth