“Tongues as of fire appeared…and came to rest on each of them.”

- Acts 2:3

Congress

• For the Washington DC Office mailing address or to send an e-mail, go to www.house.gov. Enter your Zip Code. Click on your Representative’s name. You will find contact information, including an e-mail form on his or her home page.

White House

• President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW

Washington, D.C. 20500

• E-mail: www.whitehouse.gov/contact Click on “Submit your questions and comments here.” Choose Category: “I Have a Policy Comment.”

Dept. of Health and Human Services

• Secretary Kathleen Sebelius

U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services

200 Independence Ave. SW

Washington, D.C. 20201

Content – points to emphasize:

Congress

• The recent HHS mandate regarding insurance coverage of contraception and sterilization is just the latest example of the government forcing religious institutions and individuals violate their consciences.
• By narrowly defining which institutions can have a “religious exemption” the government is violating the freedom of our churches to define and freely practice their religion, as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
• Please enact legislation such as HR1179, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, to correct this and other attacks on religious liberty.

White House

• The recent HHS mandate regarding insurance coverage of contraception and sterilization is just the latest example of the government forcing religious institutions and individuals violate their consciences.
• By narrowly defining which institutions can have a “religious exemption” the government is violating the freedom of our churches to define and freely practice their religion, as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
• Mr. President, you promised the American public that you would ensure and protect our conscience rights. Now is the time to do so by allowing all organizations and individuals to offer, sponsor and obtain health coverage that does not violate their moral and religious convictions.

Department of Health and Human Services

• The recent HHS mandate regarding insurance coverage of contraception and sterilization is just the latest example of the government forcing religious institutions and individuals violate their consciences.
• By narrowly defining which institutions can have a “religious exemption” the government is violating the freedom of our churches to define and freely practice their religion, as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
• I urge you to allow all organizations and individuals to offer, sponsor and obtain health coverage that does not violate their moral and religious convictions.

Your Representatives and the Health and Human Services Department can also be contacted through the website of the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment. www.nchla.org. Click on “Send Messages to HHS and Congress today.” You may send their pre-written message or edit it. This is a quick and easy way to voice your concern.

What is the problem? In January, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – the HHS – issued a mandate that will require all employers, including religious employers, to provide health coverage for sterilizations and contraceptives, including drugs that induce abortions. The HHS will offer a narrow exemption for religious employers, but only if they primarily hire and serve people of their own denomination. But since our Catholic hospitals, schools and ministries to the poor serve not just Catholics, but people of all religious backgrounds – or even no religious background – they do not qualify for the exemption. As a matter of fact, Jesus himself would not have qualified because he healed and showed mercy to all people, not just the Jews.

This is unacceptable. Our faith is not confined to what we do here in this church building, nor is it limited to hiring, teaching, healing or helping only Catholics. Our faith requires us to love and serve all people. Our federal government is now attempting to re-define what it means to be Catholic and to force Catholics to violate their consciences.

We cannot allow this. One of the key principles upon which our nation was founded is the free exercise of religion. It is enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It has been protected for over two hundred years. But this new HHS mandate is essentially telling Catholics – and all people of faith – that from now on the free exercise of our religion will be recognized and protected only if we keep it to ourselves.

Bishop Jaime Soto respectfully asks each parish to mobilize parishioners to respond in the following ways:

• Through the remainder of May: Participate in a letter-writing campaign.

Letters of protest should be sent to President Obama, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the HHS, and members of Congress.

• June 9 or 10: Participate in a public Eucharistic procession.

At the conclusion of the Saturday, June 9 5:00 pm Corpus Christi Vigil Mass at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Bishop Soto will lead a Eucharistic procession through downtown Sacramento to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe with several stops for prayer along the way. Similar processions will take place that same day after the Vigil Masses at Sacred Heart Parish in Red Bluff (5:15 pm), and St. John the Baptist Parish in Chico (5:00 pm) and on Sunday, June 10 at St. Vincent Ferrer Parish in Vallejo after the 2:00 pm Mass. Specific details, including the procession route, will be sent to parishes next week.

• Before June 19: Respond to an important Action Alert.

The Dept. of Health and Human Services is holding a public comment period on additional rulemaking that applies the mandate to religious employers. Let the Administration know you oppose their unjust, coercive mandate and the so-called “accommodation” that violates the conscience rights of institutions & individuals alike. The alert can be found at www.usccb.org/conscience by following the link in the middle of the page.

• June 21 to July 4: Participate in the US Bishops’ Nationwide Campaign “Fortnight for Freedom”

A fourteen-day period of prayer and education between June 21, the vigil of the Feasts of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More, and July 4, Independence Day.

“God mounts His throne to shouts of joy; a blare of trumpets for the Lord!”

- Responsorial Psalm 47:6