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2-17-12 LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Thanks to Bishop Sheridan for column on HHS mandate
I would like to commend Bishop Sheridan for his courageous and accurately alarming words in “The Bishop’s Voice” in the Feb. 3 issue of The Colorado Catholic Herald, in reference to the recently imposed mandate from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that Catholic employers will be forced to offer anti-life health insurance coverage to their employees. The specific words: “We cannot — and we will not — comply with this unjust law” is a battle cry from our diocesan shepherd that resonates deep in my heart and the heart of my husband and family.
In our turbulent times, both in our country as we approach elections, and in the world with the entire economic state and innumerable offenses against life itself, we hunger for clear and holy leadership. We are refreshed and filled with hope that we are blessed to be in one of the dioceses in the U.S. where our church leaders are fearlessly standing up for Truth and Justice, especially in all regards where certain lives are deemed by our secular society to be “valueless” or “discardable.”
I would also mention our united stand in our family to the bishop’s call for all of us to “commit ourselves to prayer and fasting that wisdom and justice may prevail . . .” We have observed that the attacks against life do not only exist in groups outside the Catholic Church, but that Satan is especially attacking from within. With the Secretary of the HHS, Kathleen Sebelius, as well as Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader of the House of Representatives, both being self-professed Roman Catholics, we need not look far to notice some influential Catholic political leaders pushing an anti-life agenda and refusing to unify with the church’s teachings. But on a more local level, we have observed some unrest within even local Catholic communities and the temptation to divide over trivial matters, rendering many of us ineffective in the greater cause of building up the Kingdom of God.
It is in this area in which we would like to especially align with our bishop’s call to greater personal piety, that we may be a unified church, that we would strive for holiness, and that we would imitate Our Lord’s call to charity in whichever parish family we belong, and in our own families and vocations. While I tend to naturally be weaker in areas of personal prayer, and naturally stronger in activism, I have been blessed to have learned recently that God is calling me, and all of us, to focus on personal and family piety as the foundation for whichever pro-life work, parish, or ministry God calls us to. I believe that in increasing our devotions such as Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Daily Mass, the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, as well as increasing our unconditional love for our neighbor, we will lay the proper foundation to cast a smooth stone right into the forehead of the Evil Anti-life Goliath. I also believe that observing the “bigger picture” of our Catholic community and the Universal Church, as opposed to our own “little bubble,” will help us to avoid retreating in fear from the attacks against our church and burying our heads in the sand, which is indeed tempting at times.
As Bishop Sheridan, and Our Lord in Holy Scripture, states: “with God, nothing is impossible.” Let us not be distracted by economic strife, our own personal agendas, trivial differences between fellow Catholics and Christians, and the flaws of our neighbor . . . but let us unite, for God, and for life!
Shalimar Masters
Calhan
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