Archbishop Chaput: shutting down charitable services is ‘very much a possibility’

(Catholic Culture) — Commenting on the Obama administration’s contraceptive-coverage mandate, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia said that “shutting down services is very much a possibility if the circumstances require it.”

“We can’t violate what we believe as Catholics in order to do good works as Catholics,” he said in an interview. “That doesn’t make any sense.”


Archbishop Chaput added:

The government doesn’t have the right to force religious believers and institutions to violate their religious convictions. But that’s exactly what the White House is doing …  

The most important thing [Catholics] can do is realize that constitutional guarantees are just scraps of elegant prose unless people fight to keep them alive. This country has no special immunity to anti-religious bigotry in our courts and legislatures. If we don’t press our lawmakers to defend the rights of religious believers and communities, then we’ll lose those rights. It’s already happening.