To launch this year’s Fortnight for Freedom observance in the Diocese of San Angelo, Bishop Michael J. Sis will celebrate Mass at Holy Redeemer Church, 2633 Conover, in Odessa, at 10:30 a.m., Sunday, June 21.
Fortnight for Freedom is a campaign begun by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to encourage the faithful to participate in religious liberty-oriented events during a 14-day period beginning in June and ending July 4. The focus of this year’s observance is ”The Freedom to Bear Witness.”
The first Fortnight for Freedom was in June 2012. Since then, the event has grown to many dioceses around the country, 70 of which held events in 2012.
Archbishop William Lori, chair of the USCCB’s Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, said: “Keeping the spirit of the Gospel means that Catholic institutions are to bear witness in love to the full truth about the human person by providing social, charitable, and educational services in a manner that fully reflects the God-given dignity of the human person."
In his monthly article for the West Texas Angelus, the newspaper serving the Catholic Diocese of San Angelo, Bishop Sis said the good health of the United States — and any society — is dependent on religious freedom.
“Religious freedom is being increasingly threatened around the world today, including in our own beloved country,” said Bishop Sis. “Human beings should be immune from compulsion in everything related to the making or rejecting of an act of religious faith, and religious organizations should have immunity from coercion in the public expression of their faith and the social implications of that faith.”
Religious liberty issues have prompted the Fortnight for Freedom movement, namely the Department of Justice’s attack on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act in 2011. Since then, efforts that would require employers — including religious and charitable organizations and religiously affiliated hospitals and universities — to include coverage for contraception, sterilization, and other forms of birth control as part of the Affordable Health Care Act have been under intense criticism by Catholics as well as by members of other faiths.
Pope Francis said religious freedom is not only that of private thought or worship, but also the liberty to live, both privately and publicly, according to the ethical principles resulting from found truth.