Catholic Ministries in Mississippi Impacted by Supreme Court Rulings

The Catholic Herald (UK) ^ | 6/6/16 | CNS

[marshmallow]

Recent major court rulings may affect the work of the Church in the southern American state, says bishop

Federal court decisions in three cases in late June will directly impact the work of the Catholic Church in Mississippi.

On June 30, US District Court Judge Carlton Reeves blocked the implementation of H.B. 1523, also known as the Religious Accommodations Act, hours before it was to go into effect July 1.

Earlier that week, the US Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a proposed law that would have required abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. Turning away the case means the last abortion clinic in Mississippi remains open.

In the third case, a tie vote in the Supreme Court blocked the Obama administration’s plan to temporarily protect more than four million unauthorised immigrants from deportation.

The coincidence that the rulings all came during the US Catholic Church’s fifth annual Fortnight for Freedom June 21-July 4 was not lost on church leaders in the state.

“The US bishops set aside these weeks for us to reflect on threats to religious liberty and to celebrate our protected American freedoms,” said Jackson Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz. “There is a certain irony to the fact that these all happened during the fortnight.”

The bishop released a statement relating to the religious liberty law and the abortion case on July 1. “We must strike a just balance between church and state, not just for our own protection, but for the protection of other faiths and society as a whole,” wrote Bishop Kopacz.

Reeves issued an injunction barring Mississippi from denying same-sex marriage licenses. In his ruling, he called H.B.1523 unconstitutional because, he said, it “grants special rights to citizens who hold’sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions’ reflecting disapproval of lesbian, gay........

[Lera]

[[The US bishops set aside these weeks for us to reflect on threats to religious liberty and to celebrate our protected American freedoms]]

They should have thought of that before they helped support Obama Care not to mention all the other freedom stealing atrocities they have supported over the years like the massive immigration. The last of which will soon be chopping off their heads .

[Jeff Chandler]

They should have thought of that before they helped support Obama Care not to mention all the other freedom stealing atrocities they have supported over the years like the massive immigration. The last of which will soon be chopping off their heads .

You speak a sad truth. The Catholic bishops who supported the jackboots upon the throats of the citizens, now feign dismay when they are told they too must comply. They also fervently support the importation of tens of millions of dependents who vote for the party which will give them other people's money and crush the Church.

Eventually there will be a government-approved Church as well as a small persecuted remnant of Christ's Church, just like in China.