In a press conference explaining Belmont Abbey College’s lawsuit against the federal government over the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that Catholic institutions provide coverage of contraceptives and sterilization procedures, College President Bill Thierfelder said he would rather close the college before submitting to the mandate, according to news reports.
The current religious exemption is too narrow to apply to Catholic colleges in that only institutions who exclusively serve and employ people of their own faith would qualify.
Thierfelder reiterated a comment by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that “not even the ministry of Jesus and the early Christian church would qualify as religious because they did not confine their ministry to their co-religionists or engage only in a preaching ministry.”
“We want to serve our community but we feel cornered,” Thierfelder said. “Let me make it clear. We are not forcing our beliefs upon anyone else. We respect the constitutional right of all faiths to freely exercise their religion. We simply want that constitutional right given to us as well.”
All Belmont Abbey College is asking is for the government to grant it a religious exemption, he said.
Thierfelder said he would consider closing the college if the issue over paying for contraception and sterilization on health plans wasn’t resolved.
“I believe we would go there,” Thierfelder said. “The point is I don’t think we’re going to have to get there. There’s many steps in between that we can take before we come to that conclusion.”
Thierfelder said, “This is not just a Catholic issue. This affects every American and their right to freedom and the right of conscience. If the government can compel private organizations to abandon their conscience as a condition of serving the public, what can’t the government do?”
The Cardinal Newman Society issued an expert legal analysis in September exposing the flaws of the HHS guidelines. Read this analysis and many more of The Cardinal Newman Society’s publications on the fight for the religious liberty of Catholic colleges here.
Belmont Abbey College is included by The Cardinal Newman Society in The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College for its strong Catholic identity.
Adam Wilson
CNS Staff
Matthew Archbold
Charlotte Hays
9 Comments
God bless him. Regarding religious freedom, we may need to do a Gandhi in the end. I, for one, would be willing to march and march and march, pray and pray and pray until the government stops its attack. We need solidarity. Such has been accomplished in the past, we can still…”…with God all things are possible.”
I am a chaplain at a “Catholic” hospital founded and still, at least in part, directed by an order of Catholic nuns. This hospital continues to compromise Catholic teaching in a wide variety of ways including doing routine vasectomies, tubal ligations, offering birth control and “the morning after” pill. Even the various Catholic symbols that at one time filled the hospital are being slowly removed and replaced with more politically correct symbols (the only crucifix to be found in the hospital is at my desk). By the time the new HHS mandate fully kicks in, this hospital will already be in compliance with it. I don’t believe there are any plans to protest it as I believe those who direct this hospital seem to agree with its provisions.
I have lost hope that anything will change at this hospital and fully expect it to make a clean break with the Catholic Church in the near future.
How refreshing to see a Catholic institution standing firmly on Catholic principles and witnessing to the truth as does Belmont Abbey College! It was monasticism that once preserved the Church through the dark ages. Perhaps it is once again monasticism that is destined to carry us again through the approaching dark age!
As an Alum of BAC I fully support the College President’s stand… If we are a Catholic College that stands for Catholic principles, then we must support all Catholic principles even if that means closing the doors.
Those universities and colleges that compromise Catholic principles or capitulate should not be permitted to call themselves “Catholic.” They should lose all support of the Church and the people, especially their financial support. bpp
A big mistake. Do not agree to close. Never agree to close. That is a capitulation. Do not capitulate on this… Have the marshals drag you out from behind your desk, padlock your office, and throw you, and whomever is brave enough to stand with you, into the clinker for however a brief time it takes….Make THEM close you under the glare of the fullest media coverage you can muster.
WOW,If only we had more Bill Thierfelder’s running our Catholic Institutions. I have to agree with Father Ken Olson. I’m afraid we will loose more and more of our religious identity in our Catholic hospitals and colleges unless we have more administrators like Bill Thierfelder stand up.
How about keeping the college open and closing the health service? I as an Orthodox Jew have a position close but not congruent to the Catholic position. I think that Catholic-compliant legislation would put me in a bad position in terms of abortions which Jewish law considers permissible. But that is not at issue. The issue here is freedom of conscience, and I am with you 100%.
Should have said THOSE abortions which Jewish law considers permissible. And they are few.
I believe that the staff member or members in the federal government’s Department of Health and Human Services who wrote the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that all institutions who serve the public must provide coverage of contraceptives and sterilization procedures and abortion is a lightweight.
So long as we have people like the present Obama admin in charge, Catholic institutions must shed their federal funding and survive on private donations. Maybe the Catholic institutions can get together and provide a health insurance plan (like we buy car and housle insurance) and other such things for benefits for their employees. The federal gov’t has no business being in health care/insurance in any case.
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