Catholic Leaders in the US Raise Alarm over Challenges to Religious Freedom

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has issued a warning about the various threats to religious freedom in 2024. These threats are attributed to the Biden administration and the federal government.

The USCCB Committee for Religious Liberty released its 48-page annual report on Tuesday, identifying the top five threats to religious liberty this year:

• Attacks against houses of worship, particularly in relation to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
• The Section 1557 regulation from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which may impose a mandate on doctors to perform gender transition procedures and potentially abortions.
• Threats to religious charities serving newcomers, which are expected to increase as immigration becomes a prominent issue in the election.
• Suppression of religious speech on marriage and sexual difference.
• The EEOC’s Pregnant Workers Fairness Act regulations, aiming to require religious employers to be complicit in abortion in an unprecedented manner.

Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, who chairs the committee, wrote in the report about the panel’s “wide range of concerns,” which include “federal agencies misusing laws meant to aid pregnant women to promote abortion and the FBI’s suspicion of Catholics who worship in the traditional Latin Mass.”

Rhoades also emphasized the significant threat posed by the Section 1557 regulation, which would force Catholic hospitals and religious-based healthcare professionals to “perform gender transition procedures and possibly abortions.”

“While there is reason for optimism that such lawsuits would be ultimately successful once again, the regulation as proposed would undoubtedly exert a major chilling effect on the exercise of faith and conscience in healthcare, and would mark a regrettable entrenchment against the clear protections of the Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” the report stated.

The report also criticized the proposed changes to the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which would require employers to give paid leave to employees who seek to get an abortion as “unprecedented.”

“We have a distinctive voice and tradition, particularly with our understanding of human dignity, faith, and reason, natural law, the common good, and the rich heritage of Catholic social teaching,” Rhoades wrote. “And so we Catholics have a vital role to play in defending religious freedom and promoting the common good.”