Cleveland Catholics fight President Obama's health care mandate

CLEVELAND - Cleveland's Bishop Richard Lennon spoke to parishioners during a Thursday evening mass and said: "This is a serious and regrettable moment.”

The mass, held at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in downtown Cleveland, kicked-off "Fortnight for Freedom," a two-week, nation-wide Catholic protest against President Barack Obama's heath care mandate. That mandate will require employers to provide health services that the Catholic Church says goes against its teachings.

Sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs and contraception is what the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said is at the heart of the issue. The group said under the mandate, all employers, including Catholic employers, will have to provide those services.

Starting Thursday and ending symbolically on the Fourth of July, Bishops are encouraging parishioners to text, write, tweet and email; do everything they can to let family members and friends, as well as their representatives, know where they stand on the issue.

"I think it's a very serious issue. Religious freedom is one of the issues our country's been based on and once we start chipping away in any one area, it opens up a means to chip away more and more at our own personal freedoms,” said Kathy Miller, who attended the evening mass.

"If the mandate is not overturned, Catholic social services and hospitals will be levied with such heavy fines that they won't be able to survive,” Ellen Trepanier said.

When asked if the Obama mandate is an infringement on our right to freedom of religion, Dr. Tom Sutton of Baldwin Wallace University said it could really go either way.

"It really is a gray area because in the area of religious liberty, we've seen cases that have been decided on both ways. We saw mandated school prayer being knocked down as unconstitutional... At the same time, we have seen full funding, public funding for religious education Vis-à-vis parochial schools... being supported as not a violation of religious liberty,” Sutton said.

"What's interesting is that the Catholic Church, the Catholic Bishops, are actually reaching down into the parishes. They're going down into the grass roots of the parishes, having letters read at parish masses,” the professor of political science said. “I's unusual to see this forceful of a position and this kind of organized grass roots campaign by the U.S. Catholic Bishops, in particular."

Sutton said the stance of U.S. Bishops on the mandate issue, could end up playing a major role in who will get the Catholic vote in the upcoming presidential election.

"They're careful to say, 'We're not saying who to vote for. We're saying this is our position and you need to vote accordingly,’" said Sutton. "I would suggest just from a mobilization standpoint, this could be very effective ways to mobilize who they're trying to get to."

Not all of the Catholic communities across the United States are participating in "Fortnight for Freedom." It is completely voluntary, but the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist and other parishes in the northeast Ohio area will be participating in various special masses and vigils throughout the next two weeks.

Bishop Lennon will end "Fortnight for Freedom" with a closing mass on July 4 at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in downtown Cleveland.