40 Days for Conscience – Catholic Sistas

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Consciences formed in accord with Holy Mother Church, the Church that Christ Himself established, do not support HHS! From July 1st to August 9th, join Catholic Sistas in the next prayer campaign, 40 Days for Conscience.

As you may know, the deadline for our bishops to violate their consciences or face undue tax burden, lose their tax-exempt status and possibly end up in jail is August 1. If ever there was a time to fervently pray for the continued united voices of our bishops in the United States, now is it. We need you to commit to join us in prayer. Please join us by participating with us on Instagram and Facebook, where we will be conducting the campaign. Each day a new petition will be unveiled, giving you a new petition to pray with us for the day.

“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced on January 20 that almost all employers, including Catholic employers, will be forced to offer their employees health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception. Almost all health insurers will be forced to include those “services” in the health policies they write. And almost all individuals will be forced to buy that coverage as a part of their policies.In so ruling, the Administration has seemingly ignored the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our Nation’s first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty. As a result, unless the rule is overturned, we Catholics must be prepared either to violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees (and suffer the penalties for doing so). The Administration’s sole concession was to give our institutions one year to comply.We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second class citizens because of their religious beliefs. We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our religious freedom. Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build America’s cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, only to have their posterity stripped of their God given rights. All that has been built up over so many years in our Catholic institutions should not be taken away by the stroke of an administrator’s pen. This order reduces the Church to a private club, destroying her public mission in society. In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties. I hope and trust she can count on this generation of Catholics to do the same.” ~ Cardinal George

Encyclicals and Church Documents that support Freedom of Conscience:

Quanta Cura by Pius IX,
Mirari Vos by Gregório XVI,
Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors,
Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica,
Veritatis Splendor JPII,
Dignitatis Humanae & Humanae Vitae by Paul VI

What else can I do?

Join the USCCB in their Fortnight for Freedom starting June 21-July 4.

Review the USCCB’s fact sheet.

Send an e-mail to Congress.

Read comments by the USCCB in response to the latest mandate rule.

Text FREEDOM to 377377 to get the latest updates from the USCCB.

Ask St. Thomas More to intercede for us, as he is the patron saint of religious freedom.

Watch these videos on religious liberty.

Read 12 Things Everyone Should Know about The Contraceptive Mandate.

Read what the Church really teaches about Love and Sexuality.

Read up on HHS Mandate Legal Resources.

Add this to your daily prayers:

Prayer for the Protection of Religious Liberty

O God our Creator,
from your provident hand we have received
our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
You have called us as your people and given us
the right and the duty to worship you, the only true God,
and your Son, Jesus Christ.
Through the power and working of your Holy Spirit,
you call us to live out our faith in the midst of the world,
bringing the light and the saving truth of the Gospel
to every corner of society.

We ask you to bless us
in our vigilance for the gift of religious liberty.
Give us the strength of mind and heart
to readily defend our freedoms when they are threatened;
give us courage in making our voices heard
on behalf of the rights of your Church
and the freedom of conscience of all people of faith.

Grant, we pray, O heavenly Father,
a clear and united voice to all your sons and daughters
gathered in your Church
in this decisive hour in the history of our nation,
so that, with every trial withstood
and every danger overcome—
for the sake of our children, our grandchildren,
and all who come after us—
this great land will always be “one nation, under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.” ~ Cardinal George

“We must promote religious liberty for all people. Every man and woman must be free to profess his or her faith, whatever it may be. Why? Because that man and that woman are children of God.” – Pope Francis