Big Win for Little Sisters

Richard A. Sokerka

After leading a ceremony for the National Day of Prayer May 4, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on religious freedom that provided a big win to the Little Sisters of the Poor.

During the White House ceremony, Trump told Little Sisters of the Poor there: “Your long ordeal will soon be over.” The sisters were among the religious groups that challenged the Obama Administration’s contraceptive mandate to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The text of the executive order, “Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty,” protects the Little Sisters of the Poor, and other religious nonprofits around the country from the government’s contraceptive mandate. The executive order comes after the Little Sisters fought the imposition of the mandate by the Obama Administration in four years of litigation and after multiple wins at the Supreme Court. The executive order instructs government officials to follow religious liberty laws, including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and reconsider the mandate, which would force the Little Sisters to provide services, such as the week-after pill, against their religious beliefs. The Obama Administration relentlessly fought to impose this mandate on the Little Sisters even though the government already exempted plans covering one in three Americans and large corporations, like Exxon.

Mother Loraine Marie Maguire, superior of the Little Sisters’ Baltimore province, said in a statement that the sisters are “grateful for the President’s order and look forward to the agencies giving us an exemption so that we can continue caring for the elderly poor and dying” without fear of government punishment.

With this executive order, President Trump fulfilled another campaign promise by instructing government agencies and lawyers to respect religious liberty and to consider how to change the Obama HHS mandate to comply with applicable law.

Cardinal DiNardo, president the of U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the executive order “begins the process of alleviating the serious burden of the HHS mandate,” requiring religious employers to provide coverage of birth control for their employees, even if they morally oppose it.

This is a well-deserved victory for the Little Sisters and other religious groups from the oppressive Obama mandate but the battle for religious liberty in our nation continues. Cardinal DiNardo pointed out: ‘In recent years, people of faith have experienced pressing restrictions on religious freedom from both the federal government and state governments that receive federal funding. For example, in areas as diverse as adoption, education, healthcare, and other social services, widely held moral and religious beliefs, especially regarding the protection of human life as well as preserving marriage and family, have been maligned in recent years as bigotry or hostility — and penalized accordingly. But disagreement on moral and religious issues is not discrimination; instead, it is the inevitable and desirable fruit of a free, civil society marked by genuine religious diversity.”

Cardinal DiNardo also pledged that the U.S. Bishops will “continue to advocate for permanent relief from Congress on issues of critical importance to people of faith,” noting that religious freedom is “a fundamental right that should be upheld by all branches of government and not subject to political whims.”

For Catholics and all people of faith, prayers were certainly answered on the National Day of Prayer.