January 11, 2015: Del Rio News-Herald * Letter to the Editor * Health and Human Services mandate versus God's mandate

Letter to the Editor,

HHS Mandate vs. HIS MANDATE

Health and Human Services Mandate versus GOD’S MANDATE

Who are the Little Sisters of the Poor and why are they being harassed and harangued by the United States Government?

The Little Sisters of the Poor is an international Roman Catholic Congregation of Religious Sisters and as their website so eloquently states: “The Little Sisters of the Poor offer the neediest elderly of every race and religion a home where they will be welcomed as Christ, cared for as family and accompanied with dignity until God calls them to Himself; and they have been doing this for over 175 years because of their faith in God.”

Currently, there are thirty homes in the United States and The Little Sisters serve more than 13,000 elderly poor people in thirty-one countries around the world.

The Little Sisters adhere to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

In accordance with their faith, they uphold the unique, inviolable dignity of all human life, especially those deemed “weak or worthless” in society.

The federal government’s contraception and abortion mandate, however, forces the Little Sisters to provide services that destroy human life, contradicting their very mission to respect it.

The government is forcing The Little Sister of the Poor to either violate their conscience or take away millions of dollars to pay fines to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The Little Sisters of the Poor raise money to help the elderly poor by begging, and the government wants to take this money away from them because they object to being forced to provide free contraception, sterilization procedures, and abortion-inducing drugs to their employees through health insurance plans.

Believing that every human person has God-given worth, the Little Sisters cannot provide contraceptive, abortion, and sterilization services that go against their religious beliefs.

Why is the government coercing a Catholic order of consecrated, religious women who have taken vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to pay for “contraception, sterilization procedures, and abortion-inducing drugs” and whatever happened to the prominently prevailing, often quoted “separation of Church and State” doctrine?

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals heard the oral argument for Little Sisters of the Poor v. Burwell on December 8, 2014 and The Little Sisters of the Poor are prayerfully awaiting the judges’ decision.

Daniel Blomberg, legal counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington, D.C. based law firm that is representing The Little Sisters of the Poor stated, “Normally, it takes four months on average for the Tenth Circuit to issue its written decision.”

Praying for Religious Liberty to prevail,

Marian Casillas, Ed.D.