Indiana has shown that it values religious freedom.

Will Notre Dame Continue to Betray its Catholic Identity?

By Patrick J. Reilly

"Apple CEO Tim Cook said Friday that he's "deeply disappointed" in Indiana's new anti-gay law.Tim Cook, who came out as gay last year, said laws enacted in Arkansas and Indiana are discriminatory and seek to legitimize injustice under the veil of religious liberty."On behalf of Apple, I'm standing up to oppose this new wave of legislation," Cook wrote in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post. (From: www.wsbt.com)

Indiana has shown that it values religious freedom. The University of Notre Dame has a moral obligation to embrace it.

On Thursday, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed the state’s new Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which says that government may not “substantially burden” religious exercise, except when using the “least restrictive means” of advancing a “compelling government interest.”

It’s similar to the federal law with the same name, which has been cited in a number of federal court cases involving religious freedom. The federal RFRA was central to last year’s Hobby Lobby ruling, in which the Supreme Court exempted certain private companies from the Obama administration’s requirement that employee health plans must cover sterilization and contraceptives, including some that cause early abortions.

Church leaders and attorneys also hope that RFRA will protect faith-based employers from any overreach resulting from laws redefining marriage, particularly attempts to require spousal benefits for same-sex couples even when it violates the employer’s deeply held beliefs. The results of RFRA claims in such cases are far from certain, but RFRA gives religious freedom a fighting chance.

There’s one catch: the federal RFRA applies to laws, regulations and actions of the federal government but not the states, where marriage is being redefined. So 19 states, now including Indiana, have passed state-level RFRA laws to place proper limits on the authority of state and local governments.

But last October, when a federal appeals court in Chicago struck down the state’s law defining marriage as between a man and a woman, there was no state RFRA protecting Indiana’s religious employers. The University of Notre Dame quickly offered spousal benefits to same-sex couples, insisting that it agrees with Catholic teaching in support of traditional marriage, but nevertheless claiming that it must comply with “relevant civil law.”

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