Catholic bishops urge day of fasting to protest insurance mandate

David O'Reilly
Philadelphia Inquirer
March 13, 2012

Calling the Obama administration's mandated insurance coverage for contraceptives an "assault" on religious freedom, Pennsylvania's 10 Catholic bishops have urged Catholics statewide to make Friday, March 30, a day of prayer and fasting.

"On that day, offer your sacrifice for the cause of religious liberty, that the Church may be granted the basic right to practice what she preaches, and for our political leaders, that their eyes may be opened to the rights of all Americans," the bishops said in a letter issued last week and read Sunday at some parishes in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia


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The two-page letter was generated by the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference (PCC), a lobbying and advocacy group based in Harrisburg. Its members are the state's eight Roman Catholic diocesan bishops, the Philadelphia-based Ukrainian Catholic archbishop, and the Byzantine-rite archbishop, in Pittsburgh.

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, head of the Roman-rite Archdiocese of Philadelphia, is president of the PCC and has been an outspoken critic of the White House's mandated contraceptive coverage, which he has called "flawed and dangerous."

While fasting on Fridays is a Catholic Lenten tradition, its use in a political controversy is without recent precedent, according to officials at the archdiocese and the PCC.

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"We're asking Catholics who are already observing Lent to take it the next step."

Hill also said the effort was not an attempt by the bishops to embarrass President Obama in an election year. "We didn't start it. We didn't ask for this," she said.

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full article at the Philadelphia Inquirer