Our Response to the HHS Mandate

The Daughters of St. Francis of Assisi, of Lacon, IL stand firmly with the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR) and the U.S. Bishops in their denunciation of the HHS mandate of January, that contraceptive and abortion-drug services be provided in the health insurance plans by all Catholic institutions.

In the words of the USCCB on March 14, 2012, “Government has no place defining religion and religious ministry. HHS thus creates and enforces a new distinction—alien both to our Catholic tradition and to federal law—between our houses of worship and our great ministries of service to our neighbors, namely, the poor, the homeless, the sick, the students in our schools and universities, and others in need, of any faith community or none.”

We pray that God our Creator, from whose provident hand we have received our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, will bless us in our vigilance for the gift of religious liberty, and to give us the strength of mind and heart to readily defend our freedoms whenever they are threatened.

Monday, March 26, 2012
Feast of the Annunciation