CHARLOTTE — It has been six years since Belmont Abbey College, a Catholic liberal arts school near Charlotte, North Carolina, filed the first lawsuit challenging the federal contraception mandate.
“It’s hard to believe it’s gone on for this long,” college president William Thierfelder told CNA Oct. 9.
Last week, the Trump administration announced revisions to the HHS mandate, a regulation introduced by the Obama administration that required employers to fund employee health care plans covering contraception, sterilization, and some drugs that can cause early abortions.
The revisions considerably expand exemptions for religious groups and others with moral or ethical objections to the demands of the mandate.
Thierfelder said he is grateful that the current administration has acknowledged the original mandate as violating the right to religious freedom and is taking action to correct it.
Founded by Benedictine monks, Belmont Abbey College adheres to Catholic teaching on the sanctity of human life and sexuality.
When the HHS mandate was unveiled in 2011, Thierfelder knew the college could not in good conscience comply.
“We actually filed in November 2011, and it’s kind of interesting how we became the first ones to sue the federal government, because you would think it’s the most unlikely of all places – this little Benedictine monastery and college in the south,” he said.
“We had some issues with other governmental agencies prior to the mandate coming out,” he explained. “And so when this mandate did come out, we were particularly sensitive to what it was saying…I think we knew where this was going to go, and we just said, ‘We’ve got to do something about this now, before it’s imposed on us’.”
Thierfelder knew several people at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and they discussed the possibility of filing a lawsuit. He had expected to be joined in his initial filing by numerous other plaintiffs, particularly Catholic employers. But for various reasons, other organizations were not ready to take legal action yet, so Belmont Abbey decided to move forward as the lone plaintiff.
Over the next year, however, additional lawsuits would start to pour in.
“When people saw this little Catholic college in the south with no resources suing the federal government, I think it sort of woke people up to say, ‘I guess we should do something too.’ And from that point, a couple of Protestant colleges were next…and then little by little it started, and then there was kind of an avalanche.”
Ultimately, more than 300 plaintiffs from across the country would file lawsuits challenging the mandate. These included dozens of religious charities, universities, and Catholic dioceses, as well as individuals, U.S. states, and for-profit companies whose owners opposed the mandate on religious grounds.
Thierfelder described the months that followed as a “legal chess game” with various lawsuits receiving different initial rulings based on whether they were in favorable or unfavorable court districts, and the varying strength of individual cases.
With re-filings due to legal technicalities, and several cases combining as they worked their way through the courts, the years that followed were filled with waiting and uncertainty.
“It’s been a wild ride,” Thierfelder said, “and I’m very, very happy about what just came out, although it’s not over yet.”
Belmont Abbey’s case, like many others, will now need to be considered by a court with the newly announced possibility for an exemption taken into account.
While the mandate revisions offer strong reason to believe that Belmont Abbey will receive a favorable resolution, Thierfelder said that in his mind, the big-picture battle is not over.
“I still see us at the beginning of this, because this was still a very narrow exemption, the way it was structured. So although this may be good for us, there may be other businesses and individuals who still have issues with this.”
He also noted that the Oct. 6 revision is an “interim rule” rather than a final rule. Additionally, several states and organizations have threatened legal action against the modifications to the mandate, and a future administration could always attempt to change the rules back.
“I think we’ve got to be pretty resolute. I’ve said this from the beginning…I really do believe you’ve got to have the complete resolution that you are willing to die for what you believe,” he said.
“In our country, I don’t think it’s going to come to that,” he said, “but having dealt with this for so long, and having seen the arguments on the other side … it really almost seems all or none. Either you get what you want or they get what they want, and there’s no in-between ground at this point. So it’s unfortunate, but that’s where we are.”
In general, the Belmont Abbey community has been very supportive of the college’s decision to take legal action against the mandate over the last six years, Thierfelder said.
“I think it’s been an education for everybody, in a lot of ways: how our government works, what religious liberty is. I think at the beginning, people thought, ‘Is the HHS mandate an important issue, and what it is really about?’ and I think what people started to see is that this is a detail, but it was really infringing on our religious liberty.”
Thierfelder also hopes that the general public recognizes religious liberty as a right inherent to every human being.
“Because organizations were continually discussed – be it a religious organization like Belmont Abbey College or Hobby Lobby or something else – it could seem like this was more about organizations somehow fighting for religious liberty, when in fact this is a right that every human being has,” he said.
Moving forward, the Belmont Abbey College president said he will continue to pay careful attention to religious freedom issues.
“I’ve really pushed for religious liberty. Not that from a Catholic perspective we can’t very readily defend our beliefs on contraception or abortion or any other important issue related to the human person and relationships. But I think the way to approach this is based on religious liberty, because it is an inalienable right that everybody has been given,” he said.
“We certainly could argue the individual detailed cases or facts that comes to us, but religious liberty is an issue we need to say focused on.”
– By Michelle Bauman, CNA/EWTN News
CHARLOTTE — Married couples celebrating special anniversaries this year were the invited guests of Bishop Peter Jugis Oct. 22 at St. John Neumann Church. The annual wedding anniversary Mass honors couples who have been married 25 years or more. Sponsored by Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte, the diocesan event includes a reception with the bishop after Mass.
“I am happy to welcome you to this Holy Mass in honor of your wedding anniversaries,” he told more than 50 couples who, with family members, were present at the Mass.
Drawing from the special readings selected for the anniversary Mass – Gen 2:18-24, 1 Cor 12:31-13:8, and the Gospel of John 15:12-16 – Bishop Jugis reminded those present that these readings are the ones recommended for a wedding Mass.
“With these readings and with this Mass, we are remembering the day that you pronounced your wedding vows and began to live your marriage,” Bishop Jugis told them.
“I take this opportunity now to thank you for the witness of your love for each other and your love for the Lord, which you so generously in the past and for years in the future will be demonstrating, to build up not only your own families but also to build up the Body of Christ, the Body of the Church.”
Bill and Margaret Johnson, parishioners of St. Thérèse Church in Mooresville, attended the Mass to commemorate their 50th wedding anniversary. The couple is originally from Cincinnati, where they were married in St. Bartholomew Church. They have a son and daughter and four grandchildren. The couple brought up the offertory gifts at the Mass.
“The only thing you learn is to say, whatever it is, is: ‘I’m sorry,’” joked Bill Johnson when asked to share the secret to being married 50 years.
Margaret Johnson added, “Communication is the key. You have got to tell each other what is on your minds.”
They have always practiced their faith throughout their marriage, which is very important, they said.
Michael and Valerie Giggie, parishioners of Immaculate Conception Church in Forest City, are celebrating 25 years of marriage this year. Married at Belmont Abbey in 1992, they traveled from the mountains of western North Carolina to attend the wedding anniversary Mass. They have nine children ranging from age 6 to 24. Valerie Giggie read the first reading at Mass.
“We’re too stubborn to give up,” she said. “Prayer certainly plays a large part in that. Praying and also having children, teaching them as they grow older, helps.”
Amanda and Kevin McGoff were married 25 years ago at St. Paul’s Church in Pensacola, Fla. The couple has five children, ranging in ages from 8 to 19. The family are members of St. Mark Church in Huntersville, where Amanda serves as the music teacher for the preschool program.
“I think a good sense of humor goes a long way,” Kevin McGoff said. “I think the bishop nailed it when he talked about faith being the foundation. I went through RCIA before our marriage. Just starting off our marriage that way has really given our marriage that foundation.”
Amanda McGoff said she came to the realization through her years of study in the women’s group (Women of Joy Bible study at St. Mark Church) that she loves God more. “But that doesn’t take anything away from my husband. When I realize and accept and appreciate that I love God more, it makes it easier to love my husband and to be the wife that he needs me to be. It’s all about the unit and the grace we get from the covenant.”
In his homily, Bishop Jugis spoke of the covenant of marriage, a visible sign of the inexhaustible love of God.
“Love is faithful. Love is truth. Love is holiness, because it is living the very relationship with God – who is love,” he said.
True love is not self-seeking, he continued, but sacrificial in nature.
“That is the love that through the sacrament of holy matrimony He has planted right in the midst of your relationship, in the midst of your covenant with each other. By God’s gracious goodness, planted right in the middle of your family.”
Bishop Jugis shared the axiom: You are willing to give in proportion as you love. “I am sure you have discovered that over the 25, 50, 60 or more years you have been living together,” he told the couples.
“How is it possible to arrive at such a milestone? Isn’t it because you have decided to place the Lord first in your life, first in your marriage? That you have decided to place His love and His grace as the foundation for your marriage?
“And as a wise steward of God’s grace and God’s love, you knew where your success would be found: in the Lord, upon the strong foundation of His grace, of His love, of His holiness in your marriage.
“It is a sacrament that you are living. That sacramental grace – that grace of Jesus – is always there, available for you at any moment (so that) you can activate it and call it up for whatever need is in your common life of marriage,” he said.
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter