PORTLAND, Maine — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland will sponsor a lecture on religious freedom at 7 p.m. Saturday at Talbot lecture room in Luther Bonney Hall on the University of Southern Maine’s Portland campus.
Kristina Arriaga, executive director of the Becket Fund for Religious Freedom, will deliver an address titled “One Nation Under God With Liberty and Justice For All: Historical Reflections on Religious Liberty.”
Bishop Richard Malone, in a press release issued Wednesday, invited people of all faiths to attend.
Arriga’s trip to Maine is part of American Roman Catholic bishops’ opposition to President Barack Obama’s mandate that birth control be covered by health insurance. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has called it is one of many threats to religious freedom in government, according to The Associated Press.
Bishops at a national meeting in Atlanta last week insisted that they had no partisan agenda. They said they were forced into action by state and federal policies they say would require them to violate their beliefs in order to maintain the vast public-service network the church has built over a century or longer, the AP reported.
Arriaga’s speech in Portland is part of the “Fortnight for Freedom — a great hymn of prayer for our country,” announced last month by U.S. bishops. It began Wednesday, the memorial of St. Thomas More, and will end on July 4, the memorial of St. John Fisher. Both men were described in a press release announcing the Maine diocese’s participation in the fortnight as “remaining faithful in the face of persecution by political power.” Both men opposed King Henry VIII’s break with the Roman Catholic Church. They were canonized together on June 22, 1935, by Pope Pius XI.
The fortnight is focused on education and awareness, and special events are planned throughout the nation to highlight the importance of defending religious liberty, according to Marc Mutty, public policy director for the Maine diocese.
Arriaga has a master’s degree from Georgetown University and joined the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in 1995. The fund is a nonprofit, public-interest legal and educational institute that protects the free expression of all faiths.
The Catholic Church has absolutely NO credibility until it has made whole all the people abused as children. The Church is still sitting on records it refuses to release concerning some pedophile priests.
And they will slip further and further into irrelevancy. The Catholic Church has been trying to force the world to slow down or stop for centuries, for one reason and one reason only: to preserve their power and influence. They’ve fought against science, public education, philosophy, and art. They’ve fought against civic laws in every nation, even to this very day, by trying to shield and protect criminal priests from civic courts. Now they’re claiming religious persecution, for the simple reason that they don’t want to provide funding for birth control to their employees. All the trouble and difficulties in the world, and their biggest cause of upset is that women might want to avoid having babies. And they call it an assault on religious freedom. If the priests and bishops actually lived in the same world the rest of us do, instead of their ridiculous insular boys club, they just might be able to understand how absurd they are.
And they actually have a woman giving their speech for them. How progressive of them.
Their dishonesty and perpetual self-victimization is astounding. There are plenty of religious exemptions that protect religious liberty; however those exemptions extend to practicing and preaching only. When the church and religion is involved in administering health care plans or is hiring people for non-ministerial duties those exemptions end and as they should. We have certain standards in this country, such as a minimum standard of health care (requires contraceptives be covered) or the standard that we don’t allow discrimination, and religion can’t trump that. If you can’t adhere to those standards, then get out of those businesses. Offering sub-standard healthcare isn’t a matter of religious freedom.
Go get’um!! More irrelevancy from the “aristocracy”!
The Catholic Church, which is rather well known for trying to force their views on other people about subjects like birth control and abortion, is now trying to say that giving women in Catholic hospitals a choice as against their religious freedom. How? As no one will be forcing anyone to have birth control or an abortions. As is well known a great many Catholic women are using birth control for good reason to not be forced into poverty with more children than they can afford to take care of.
Italian Catholics have long said,” That he who does not play the game should not be making the rules.”
Perhaps some day the Church will treat woman as full fledged people. Of course that might require a woman Pope, so I will not hold my breath waiting for an end to the war on women. Strange considering that Jesus never said anything against birth control or abortion, nor did God.
Catholics consider a woman, Mary, Mother of Jesus, to be God’s greatest creature. God created men and women to fulfill distinct and complementary parts in this life. The Catholic Church will always elevate women, not “make war” on them.
Gee elevate one woman, to an impossible role. That does not do much for the rest of womanhood. You have only the option of being the saint not allowed to have sex, or the prostitute. I would say that is far more limiting than what man is allowed, and man gets to be the load and master,at that. Not too mention all women get to be blamed for Eve. This is uplifting, well then you have a different measure for what you call uplifting.
Look how the Church as protected its priests when they go bad, while attacking its Nuns for staying to their traditional role of caring about the poor and the suffering. Jesus did not treat his woman followers anything like as harshly as the Church has for centuries. Jesus treated his women followers with the same respect as he did his men followers.
Again as I said, he never mentioned the subjects that the Church is so big on today. So we have a difference of opinion and can only agree to disagree. So be it. I look forward to the day when the Church shows real respect for half of the human race, it’s women.
It would be great if they could speak in the Millinocket area. Many up north cannot make the journey south, but I’m willing to bet that if it was held at St. Martins, it would be a full house. I hope Mrs. Arriaga would consider a visit north.
Freedom? Of choice?? The Catholic church telling people they CAN”T and preventing them from FREEDOM OF ACCESS??? Really… When you PAY TAXES you can have a say in politics…otherwise don’t even…