Detroit – The cause of religious liberty drew some 1,000 protesters to downtown Detroit Friday, June 8, as opponents of the HHS mandate demonstrated in several Michigan cities and some 160 cities nationwide.
Speakers frequently evoked the examples set by Christian martyrs down through the centuries as they urged faithful Christians to take the struggle beyond opposition all the way to the level of resistance.
“It is no longer enough for us to just be good Catholics of good Christians; God needs saints. It is time for us to take a stand,” Auxiliary Bishop Michael Byrnes told the gathering that filled the plaza adjacent to the Detroit’s Patrick McNamara Federal Building.
With a theme of “Stand Up For Religious Freedom,” the demonstrations heard from speakers who outlined the importance of overturning the U.S. Health and Human Services Department mandate that would require many, if not most, Church institutions to offer coverage for contraception, sterilization and abortifacient drugs in their employee health insurance policies.
Sr. Rose Marie Kujawa, CSSF, president of Madonna University in Livonia, cited the story of St. Stephen’s martyrdom by stoning as she urged the demonstrators to resist the HHS mandate’s encroachments of religious liberty.
Sr. Kujawa explained that her Felician Sisters-sponsored university is among the Church-related institutions that would be required to provide the objectionable coverage under the madate.
“Our question now is: If our government can withdraw our right to religious liberty, what is the next freedom that can be suspended?” she said.
Perhaps the government will also find freedom of speech or freedom of the press inconvenient, she suggested, asking, “If one freedom can be swept under the carpet, why not others?”
Popular Catholic radio personality Teresa Tomeo spoke of the example set by some Mexican Catholics in the 1920s, when they stood up to attempts of the Mexican government to oppress the Church. The Cristero War is now the subject of a new motion picture, “For Greater Glory,” which just opened recently.
Mary Healy, a professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, spoke of the martyrdom of St. Ignatius of Antioch in 110 A.D. for upholding the Christian faith despite the oppression of the Roman Empire.
“No state can claim absolute sovereignty over the allegiance of its people. God’s people have resisted – even to the cost of our lives,” she said.
Healy mocked the administration’s characterization of its opponents as carrying on a “war against women.”
“A war on women? A war involves killing people – abortion kills people,” she said.
Among the many people taking part in the demonstration was a contingent of about 60 teen-agers from the group, Crusaders for Life. At one point they released their balloons into the air, to show that they formed a giant rosary.
“The HHS mandate is totally wrong, and we’re not going to rest until it is stopped,” said Bobby Smith, 16, vice president of the group’s Detroit chapter and a member of SS. Cyril & Methodius (Slovak) Parish, Sterling Heights.
