A game among journalists is a headline that would always be true. I would suggest “USCCB Never Fails to Disappoint”:
With the words “religious freedom” becoming ammunition in the ongoing culture wars, Catholic leaders hope a weeklong campaign titled “Serving Others in God’s Love” will shift the focus more toward essential human rights and dignity.
Religious Freedom Week is being led by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and begins on Friday (June 22), the feast day for Thomas More and John Fisher, the 16th-century Catholics martyred for their opposition to King Henry VIII’s split from Rome. The effort was previously a 14-day campaign known as “Fortnight for Freedom” but was shortened, a spokeswoman said, to “provide a more focused period to concentrate attention on this issue.”
The campaign includes support for the federal Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act (H.R. 1881/S. 811), which the church said “would protect the religious liberty of child welfare service providers, including adoption and foster care agencies.” Opponents say it would allow discrimination, particularly against prospective adoptive and foster parents who are LGBT. Both versions of the bill have languished in subcommittees since 2017.
Catholic leaders will also draw attention to religious freedom crises around the world, officials said, as well as to their ability to provide services to undocumented immigrants.
Go here to read the rest. At The American Catholic we will go on with The Fortnight For Freedom. I am actually relieved that it will no longer be sponsored by the USCCB which often seems to understand freedom about as well as a pig understands penance.
Fortnight for Freedom was never really about religious liberty anyway. It was more about advancing a left wing political agenda.
Completely untrue Greg. The Fortnight for Freedom was not started in 2012 to enhance the re-election attempt of Obama. I suspect that the growing power of the Franciscan Bishops has caused the abandonment of the Fortnight for Freedom,
It was never about a real advancement of religious liberty. It was at best a dog and pony show…and a bad one at that.
Once again untrue Greg. The Fortnight for Freedom was a stand against the encroachments on religious liberty by the Obama administration.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/catholics-nationwide-preparing-fortnight-for-freedom-events
Like I said, a bad dog and pony show. This was all taking place at the same time when bishops like Dolan, who was the president of the USCCB at the time, had calumniously smeared the state of Arizona about two years prior to that over their immigration law. The same USCCB in March of 2012, filed an amicus brief against the same law siding with the Obama Administration, one of the reasons being they claimed it violated religious liberty.
Furthermore, that horrible equating just immigration laws with the HHS Mandate in the Fortnight statement since at least 2014 was signed off by an ad hoc committee consisting of “orthodox” bishops like Chaput, Gomez, and Paprocki, none of whom can be considered “Francis” bishops.
One element you opposed Greg hardly makes it a left wing effort. Catholic leftists clearly did not think so. Rather they feared the effort was clearly aimed at the Obama administration, and they were correct in that assumption.
A grassroots movement organized by three Prolife affiliates, Stand Up for Religious Freedom, was successful in bringing the blatant overreach of Obama’s HHS mandate to the public square. Thousands of protesters were privileged to hear from various speakers at each of hundreds of sites scattered throughout these United States. I will go out on a limb and say that these protests helped to gain a victory in DC in 16′. The first Fortnight for Freedom was associated with this movement. As one of hundreds of rally leaders we appreciated the support of our bishops and their spoken word to the faithful unaware of the mandate. No. It was no dog and pony show. It was part of the taking back a freedom that was being ripped apart and redefined by the ugly Obama administration. His administration wanted to tell us what it means to be a Catholic. Their attempt to define us help cripple Hillary in my humble opinion.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2012/06/08/stand-up-for-religious-freedom-rallies-our-rights-are-non-negotiable/
That “one element” equates a legitimate Catholic point of view with the attack on religious liberty in the same way the HHS Mandate did. When look at the overall backdrop against which the Fortnight was initiated showed where the bishops priorities really lie.
The Catholic left, like the left in general, scream about every little thing. And also, like the left in general, have known for several decades that they nothing to fear from the bishops.
That is not true Greg. Until the advent of Pope Francis the Catholic Church was always regarded with extreme hatred by almost all the Left.
The bishops in this country have been hard leftists, except where Church teaching clearly forbids it long before Bergoglio planted his backside o;the Chair of Peter.
Very few of the Bishops, even today, are hard Leftists. Unfortunately most of them are careerists and will follow the lead from the Vatican.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/uncle-ted-mccarrick-and-the-grand-inquisitor/
These are our Bishops!!
The USCCB believes that if they get in bed with the devil, the devil will protect them; like the devil protected Adam and Eve. Caesar is demanding scripts of homilies, outlawing the Holy Scripture, scandalizing the children of God, usurping authentic authority, confiscating private property and obliterating human rights.
I am sorry that I cannot put my tithe into the collection basket this Sunday. I have to pay for abortion, pornography, samesex weddings without the marital act and indoctrination into totalitarianism.
@Mary De Voe.
I detest these taxations as well. I do remember however that what is stamped on the coin belongs to him. What is engraved on our hearts belongs to the true King. We must be in but not of this world and giving to your local pregnancy center, soup kitchen or halfway house is another option.
I’m trying to remember that we must take what is good from our superiors and discard the rest. Weigh everything.. right?