Just sign on the dotted line, Sister; it’s just a piece of paper. Don’t worry about your faith

Little Sisters’ Case Reflects Administration’s Bully Tactics 

by GERALD J. RUSSELLO

Just sign on the dotted line, Sister; it’s just a piece of paper. 

Don’t worry about your faith.

That’s the position the government has put the Little Sisters of the Poor in, because it is enforcing the HHS contraceptive mandate against an order of nuns that provides free health care for the aged. The government has threatened the order with substantial fines if they don’t comply, which could cripple their ability to continue to help the poor.

In a moment of clarity, Associate Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor stayed the imposition of the mandate against the religious sisters Dec. 31, giving the U.S. Justice Department a deadline of 10am Jan. 3 to respond. At deadline, the Justice Department filed its brief as to why Sotomayor’s stay should be lifted.

The pettiness of the government here should not go unnoticed. The government could have let the stay continue and continued to argue its position before the lower court. Instead, it wants the court to end the stay and force the penalties to be imposed on the women religious.

More U.S. citizens should realize what the government is doing here in the name of “health care”: In this instance, as with so many of its efforts against Catholic institutions, the government is actually potentially reducing the number of people able to be helped.

Essentially, the government says in its brief that this case is much ado about nothing, and certainly not about religious liberty. The sisters have a way out, says the government: The order can just sign a certification that establishes the order has religious objections, and all will be well.
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