Domenic Canonico, Staff Writer

As part of the 2013 Notre Dame Symposium focusing on religious liberty under Obamacare, Bishop Robert Morlino of the Diocese of Madison addressed members of the Notre Dame community on September 20 in the Oak Room of South Dining Hall.  The topic of his address was the future toll of Obamacare on religious freedom.

The so-called HHS contraceptive mandate, requiring contraceptives and abortifacients to be covered under employer health plans, has pitted Catholic and other religious employers in a legal battle against the federal government.  Opponents of the mandate have called it a gross violation of the religious liberty of conscientious objectors.

Bishop Morlino, however, expressed a desire to change the terms of debate.  Though he recognized the mandate as a grievous assault on the free exercise of religion, he cautioned against focusing on religious liberty as the sole issue at stake, recognizing instead a more vital issue in the mix.

With the rights of conscientious objectors as the central question in the debate, the Bishop began by clarifying the Catholic concept of conscience.  Citing the Second Vatican Council document Gaudium et Spes, he defined conscience as “an inner sanctuary where the individual stands alone with God, who is to be obeyed.”

God’s law is written into the human conscience.  It follows, the Bishop argued, that God’s law, the natural law, can be known by human reason.  Any truth expressed by the natural law—that God exists, that human persons possess inherent dignity—is a matter of reason and not of faith.  The moral wrongs of contraceptives, he said, fall under this category.

Given this conception of conscience, Bishop Morlino advocated for a change in the terms of debate.  Catholic institutions ought to fight the mandate not only as a violation of religious liberty, he argued, but more importantly as a violation of the natural law.  Objectors should stand up for their belief that contraceptives are inherently wrong.

The Bishop stated, “We don’t believe the Catholic sense of conscience is true because it’s Catholic; we believe it’s Catholic because it’s true.” Catholic institutions should defend not only their liberty to be Catholic, then, but also the truth of their message, a message of reason that is not solely a matter of faith.

In addition to violating religious liberty and the natural law, Bishop Morlino also took issue with the government’s presumption to be able to define what authentically religious activity is, and to determine that the requirements of the HHS mandate pose no burdens on free exercise.

If each religion cannot define for itself what an authentic expression of faith is, he stressed, the government is intruding on free exercise and attempting to impose state secularism.

This assertion was in tension with earlier statements by political science professor Michael Zuckert, a panelist for a prior discussion in the symposium, who argued that there are instances where the government has a right to regulate or outlaw certain religious practices, such as the arranged marriages of young children.

Additionally, law professor Carter Snead of the Center for Ethics and Culture noted that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 asserts the government’s right to outlaw certain religious practices if it has a “compelling interest” in doing so, meaning a religion’s right to define what constitutes authentic expression is not an absolute right under the law.

The Bishop finally criticized sharply what he sees as an anti-baby sentiment in Western societies that manifests itself in the promotion of abortion, contraceptives and homosexual unions.

When asked what Notre Dame students could do to help correct our country’s situation, Bishop Morlino had no small task in mind: “What I really need from lay people is to go out and save the world; go out and proclaim the truth.”

Senior Elizabeth Argue realized that this challenge would not go unopposed.  “If we call all people to live under the natural law,” she said, “we will undoubtedly be accused of forcing our ‘religious beliefs’ on others.  In reality, however, natural law holds regardless of religious belief.

“To show people that there is a natural order in the things of this world, that there is Truth, that good and evil exist,” Argue continued, “would require a radical transformation of our relativistic culture.”

This is precisely what Bishop Morlino expects from the layman.  “The clergy is at the service of the laity,” he said, so that the laity may be at the service of the world.

Religious freedom, Bishop Morlino concluded, is valuable only insofar as it is “the freedom to pursue the only thing that really matters in the end,” God’s law that leads men to salvation.

Domenic Canonico is a sophomore Program of Liberal Studies and Applied Mathematics major.  Being from Nashville, he wishes he had a southern drawl, but all he can muster up is ya’ll.  Contact him at dcanonic@nd.edu.