A new ad hoc Committee for Religious Liberty has been set up by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) amidst growing concerns over the erosion of freedom of religion in America.

The news comes in the wake of moves by the Obama Administration to require insurance companies to fund contraceptive services, including sterilisation procedures and abortifacient drugs regardless of religious affiliation.

The only exemption permitted to religious organisations is if they serve only individuals of their own faith. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo criticised the exemption as being so narrow ‘that the Good Samaritan would not qualify’ because he helped someone not of his faith.

USCCB president Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan (pictured) established the ad hoc committee after consulting with the Administrative Committee during the Committee’s September 13-14 meeting in Washington.

Support for ad hoc committee work will include adding two full-time staff at the USCCB, a lawyer expert in the area of religious freedom law, and a lobbyist who will handle both religious liberty and marriage issues.

In a letter to bishops to announce the ad hoc committee, Archbishop Dolan said religious freedom “in its many and varied applications for Christians and people of faith, is now increasingly and in unprecedented ways under assault in America.”

“This is most particularly so in an increasing number of federal government programs or policies that would infringe upon the right of conscience of people of faith or otherwise harm the foundational principle of religious liberty,” he said. 

“As shepherds of over 70 million U.S. citizens we share a common and compelling responsibility to proclaim the truth of religious freedom for all, and so to protect our people from this assault which now appears to grow at an ever accelerating pace in ways most of us could never have imagined.”

He added that “the establishment of the Ad Hoc Committee is one element of what I expect to be a new moment in the history of our Conference.

“Never before have we faced this kind of challenge to our ability to engage in the public square as people of faith and as a service provider.If we do not act now, the consequence will be grave.”

Archbishop Dolan said that, although he and his predecessor as USCCB President, Cardinal Francis George, had sent private letters to President Obama on religious liberty in the context of redefining marriage, none of those letters received a response.

“I have offered to meet with the President to discuss these concerns and to impress upon him the dire nature of these actions by government,” Archbishop Dolan said.

Apart from the aforementioned threat arising from the Obama Adminstration’s “contraceptive services” mandate, Archbishop Dolan listed five religious liberty concerns arising just since June:

–       An HHS requirement that USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services provide the “full range of reproductive services”-meaning abortion and contraception-to trafficking victims and unaccompanied minors in its cooperative agreements and government contracts. The position mirrors the position urged by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in the ongoing lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of MRS’s contracts as a violation of religious liberty.

–       Catholic Relief Services’ concern that US Agency for International Development, under the Department of State, is increasingly requiring condom distribution in HIV prevention programs, as well as requiring contraception within international relief and development programs.

–       The Justice Department’s attack on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), presenting DOMA’s support for traditional marriage as bigotry. In July, the Department started filing briefs actively attacking DOMA’s constitutionality, claiming that supporters of the law could only have been motivated by bias and prejudice. “If the label of “bigot” sticks to us-especially in court-because of our teaching on marriage, we’ll have church-state conflicts for years to come as a result,” Archbishop Dolan said.

–       The Justice Department’s recent attack on the critically important “ministerial exception,” a constitutional doctrine accepted by every court of appeals in the country that leaves to churches (not government) the power to make employment decisions concerning persons working in a ministerial capacity. In a case to be heard this term in the U.S. Supreme Court, the Department attacked the very existence of the exception.

–       New York State’s new law redefining marriage, with only a very narrow religious exemption. Already, county clerks face legal action for refusing to participate in same-sex unions, and gay rights advocates are publicly emphasising how little religious freedom protection people and groups will enjoy under the new law.