Lex Cordis Caritas - The law of the heart is Love

There has been a lot of incorrect and misleading information about recent legislation in Indiana and Arkansas designed to protect religious freedom. Gay-rights activists have wrongfully characterized these laws as providing a license to discriminate against homosexual people. In fact, the state Religious Freedom Restoration Act adopted recently in Indiana and Arkansas is modeled on the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)adopted by Congress with nearly unanimous bipartisan support in both the United States House and Senate and signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1993.

On Friday, March 13, the second anniversary of his election as the Bishop of Rome and Successor of St. Peter, Pope Francis announced an Extraordinary Holy Year dedicated as a “Jubilee of Mercy.” In making this announcement, the Holy Father said, “Dear brothers and sisters, I have often thought about how the church might make clear its mission of being a witness to mercy. It is a journey that begins with a spiritual conversion. For this reason, I have decided to call an extraordinary Jubilee that is to have the mercy of God at its center. It shall be a Holy Year of Mercy. We want to live this Year in the light of the Lord’s words: ‘Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful’ (cf. Lk 6:36). This Holy Year will begin on this coming Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception [Dec. 8, 2015] and will end on Nov. 20, 2016, the Sunday dedicated to Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe — and living face of the Father’s mercy.”

The season of Lent has begun, during which every year we examine our lives to see where we have strayed from God and how we can turn our hearts back to the Lord in preparation for the celebration of his resurrection from the dead on Easter Sunday. This examination of conscience is both an individual and a communal task, that is, each person examines his or her own personal life to turn away from sin, but we as a society also need to take a look at how together we are living either in conformity with God’s plan or contrary to it.

On April 1, 2005, the day before the death of Pope John Paul II, then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich issued an “emergency rule” that required pharmacies that sell contraceptives to fill prescriptions for birth control without delay. There was no provision for pharmacists who objected in conscience to filling prescriptions for contraceptives as a matter of their religious beliefs. In fact, the reason Blagojevich issued his executive order was precisely because some pharmacists had refused to fill such prescriptions as a matter of conscience. It was the former governor’s position that pharmacists had no rights of conscience, saying, “Just fill the prescription.”

My prayer for this new year is that racial hatreds will be overcome, that ethnic prejudices and discrimination among all races may stop, that violence everywhere may cease, that lawful authority may be respected, that employment and educational opportunities may abound, that families and communities may abide in harmony, and that everyone will be able to live together in peace.