Kudos for Little Sisters of the Poor

Richard A. Sokerka

The Little Sisters of the Poor have been in the news a lot this year, but the news is not to shine a light on their ministry to the poor: they operate 27 homes for the elderly poor in the U.S., including St. Joseph’s Home for the Elderly in Totowa in the Diocese of Paterson and support them all by begging for donations.

The Little Sisters of the Poor are in the news because they are at the forefront in the battle with our government to preserve our religious liberties. They have challenged the Obama administration’s efforts to compel them to cover drugs and procedures that violate Catholic doctrine and ethics in their health care coverage for employees. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has said they must collaborate in providing health coverage of sterilization and contraception, including some drugs that may cause abortion, or face burdensome government fines.

So the Little Sisters took their faith-fight against the federal restrictions to the U.S. Supreme Court. In May the court unanimously ordered a lower court to re-hear the case, which was seen as a favorable decision.

To honor the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Knights of Columbus recently presented them with their highest honor, “The Gaudium et Spes Award,” for their fight for religious liberty and their continued service to the elderly poor. The award aims to recognize those who have made outstanding contributions to the Catholic Church and society and it includes a gold medal and a $100,000 honorarium. The Little Sisters of the Poor are the first religious order to receive the award.

Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, supreme chaplain for the knights, said the Knights of Columbus wanted to recognize the Little Sisters’ “wholehearted response to the Gospel” and their stand “with singular courage for the Catholic faith and for the religious liberty of all. These sisters could no more comply with coercive government mandates than they could abandon the poor, the elderly and the dying,” the archbishop said.

Kudos to the knights for honoring the Little Sisters of the Poor. The award is well-deserved for no one is fighting harder to preserve our religious liberties in the United States of America than the Little Sisters of the Poor.