1. SCOTUS LGBT Ruling Opens Floodgate to Sex Orientation Discrimination Lawsuits, By Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, National Catholic Register, June 17, 2020, Opinion
This past Monday the Supreme Court frustrated the rule of law and invited a tsunami of future federal employment discrimination lawsuits. In a 6-3 decision, the court held in Bostock v. Clayton County that Title VII – the federal law prohibiting discrimination in employment based on sex – makes it unlawful for an employer to fire an individual for being gay or transgender. Gay- and transgender-rights advocates are hailing the high court’s sweeping and new interpretation of Title VII as a great victory. Catholics should be concerned about Bostock’s lame reasoning and troubling implications.
The future demands of the Bostock decision raise serious questions for Catholic-run organizations. Will Catholic schools teaching their students that marriage is between a man and a woman be obliged to hire a teacher in a same-sex marriage? Will Catholic hospitals be forced to perform sex-reassignment surgeries or face stiff penalties? We will have to wait for Bostock’s progeny to resolve these questions.
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Objecting to Bostock in no way endorses bigotry, hate or violence. As Archbishop Gomez explained in restating Catholic teaching, “Every human person is made in the image and likeness of God and, without exception, must be treated with dignity, compassion, and respect. Protecting our neighbors from unjust discrimination does not require redefining human nature.”
Andrea Picciotti-Bayer is legal adviser for The Catholic Association Foundation
https://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/supreme-courts-lgbt-decision-will-open-floodgate-of-sex-orientation-discrim
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2. Stop discriminating against churchgoers, By Brian Burch, The Washington Times, June 17, 2020, Pg. B4, Opinion
It is imperative that our leaders stop discriminating against those who wish to gather for worship. Churchgoers are entitled to the same constitutional protections that peaceful protesters currently enjoy, and our society benefits from the faith of its citizens.
Politicians shouldn’t be able to pick and choose how to apply the First Amendment, but they have. As protesters gather throughout the country, defying curfew and stay-at-home orders, to speak out against police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s apparent murder at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, believers are prohibited from attending church services. This double standard isn’t going unnoticed.
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Perhaps more disheartening than public officials who apply this double standard though, are church leaders who do so. They are the very ones who ought to vigorously defend the free exercise rights of their flocks, but some have favored protests over religious gatherings.
In Washington, D.C., an outspoken critic of President Trump’s, Archbishop Wilton Gregory, sponsored an event near the White House to protest the death of George Floyd. It drew about 200 people. The same day as the protest, the archbishop announced that public masses would resume with stringent rules, including a maximum of 10 persons at a time.
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It would be wise and just to let people of faith back into their churches, where faith is nourished. Certainly today our country needs more, rather than less, of the blessings that come through faith.
Brian Burch is president of Catholic Vote, a national faith-based advocacy organization
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jun/16/stop-discriminating-against-churchgoers/
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3. Diplomats laud Church, other religions for role in fight against pandemic, By Elise Ann Allen, Crux, June 17, 2020
During a virtual tea party honoring the official birthday of Queen Elizabeth II held Monday, diplomats and representatives of various faith communities joined voices in recognizing the efforts made by the Catholic Church to assist the sick and needy during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
In a recorded address, Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State of Britian’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, praised the “important role of the Catholic Church on the ground” during the pandemic.
Insisting that the Church and the government of the United Kingdom share similar priorities, he highlighted issues such as joint campaigns on human trafficking and modern slavery as well as ongoing conversations about freedom of religion and preventing sexual violence in conflict situations.
https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2020/06/diplomats-laud-church-other-religions-for-role-in-fight-against-pandemic/
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4. US Supreme Court halts Texas execution over clergy question, By Juan A. Lozano, Associated Press, June 16, 2020, 12:07 AM
The U.S. Supreme Court granted a reprieve Tuesday to a Texas inmate scheduled to die for fatally stabbing an 85-year-old woman more than two decades ago, continuing a more than four-month delay of executions in the nation’s busiest death penalty state during the coronavirus pandemic.
The justices blocked Ruben Gutierrez’s execution about an hour before he could have been executed. Gutierrez’s attorneys had argued his religious rights are being violated because the prison system won’t allow a chaplain to accompany him in the death chamber.
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The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops filed a brief with the high court in support of Gutierrez.
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