April 9, 2012 — Catholic Action for Faith and Family announces a
timely and insightful thirty minute interview with Cardinal Raymond
Burke as he discusses critical matters of faith, religious liberty, and
culpability in relation to the threatened government mandate for
employers to provide free contraception, sterilization services, and
abortion inducing drugs. Catholic Action Insight, a special
program series hosted by Catholic Action founder and president, Thomas
McKenna, will air on EWTN on April 11 at 2:30pm and on April 13 at
9:00pm EST.
“We were very blessed to be granted this interview
with Cardinal Raymond Burke who,not only details the church teaching on
contraception and the moral conflict for Catholic employers who provide
contraceptive services to employees, but also provides education on the
role of the Church in this time of governmental interference with the
right to ‘freedom of religion’,” said Thomas McKenna, President of
Catholic Action for Faith and Family. Thomas and his film crew recently
returned from Rome where the interview was conducted.
“Cardinal
Burke stands in solidarity with U. S. Bishops and the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in defense and advocacy for
Church dogma while highlighting the critical role that the Bishops must
play as shepherds to their flock,” McKenna added.
Catholic Action Insight has released the following excerpts from the interview:
Thomas McKenna:
“It is beautiful to see how the Faithful has rallied behind the
Hierarchy… How does your Eminence comment on the union of solidarity of
our bishops?”
Cardinal Burke: “Yes, I have received emails
and other communications from lay Faithful who say that they are
supporting their bishops 100% and they have communicated to their
bishops their gratitude and assured them that they want them to continue
to be courageous and not to be deceived by any kind of false
accommodations which in fact continue this same kind of agenda which
sadly we have witnessed for too long in our country which is totally
secular and therefore is anti-life and anti-family.I admire very much
the courage of the bishops. At the same time I believe they would say it
along with me that they are doing no more than their duty. A bishop has
to protect his flock and when any individual or government attempts to
force the flock to act against conscience in one of its most fundamental
precepts then the bishops have to come to defend those who are
entrusted to their pastoral care. So I am deeply grateful to all of the
bishops who have spoken about this and who are encouraging the members
of their flock to also speak up because our government needs to
understand that what is being done with this mandate is contrary first
of all to the fundamental human right, the right to the free exercise of
one’s conscience and at the same time contrary to the very foundation
of our nation.”
Thomas McKenna: “So a Catholic Employer,
really getting down to it, he does not, or she does not provide this
because that way they would be,in a sense, cooperating with the sin… the
sin of contraception or the sin of providing a contraceptive that would
abort a child, is this correct?”
Cardinal Burke: “This is
correct. It is not only a matter of what we call “material cooperation”
in the sense that the employer by giving this insurance benefit is
materially providing for the contraception but it is also “formal
cooperation”because he is knowingly and deliberately doing this, making
this available to people. There is no way to justify it. It is simply
wrong.”
This comment by one of the highest ranked American
Cardinals is the clearest explanation to date on the issue of an
employer’s culpability when providing contraception, sterilization, and
abortion inducing drug options in the insurance plans for employees.
Cardinal Burke has illuminated with piercing clarity the controversial
issue which has seen dissent from Church teaching on this matter among
Catholic institutions and universities here in the United States.
Cardinal Burke’s profound statements come at a critical time in this
divisive debate over the legality and morality of forcing anyone to act
against his own conscience.
Cardinal Burke issued a public statement of support for Catholics to sign the Stop the Birth Control Mandate Petition.
For
more information on the entire interview and the additional times it
can be seen on EWTN or to watch the full interview after it airs on EWTN
please visit CatholicAction.org.
