Detroit Catholics rally in large numbers to ‘Stand Up for Religious Freedom,’ plan two weeks of activism starting June 21
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.
Bishop Byrnes was standing in for Archbishop Allen Vigneron, who was unable to attend because of his father’s funeral.
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 mandate.
“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?”
The U.S. Catholic bishops have objected to the idea of any Church institutions complying with the mandate, even if the costs are shifted to other parties, as the Obama administration proposed in reaction to the bishops’ opposition.
The bishops have pointed out that the idea that insurance companies would have to cover the costs of contraception, sterilization and abortifacient drugs at no charge would still involve the Church in cooperation with evil, and besides, many Chruch institutions are self-insured – meaning that the “insurance company” is the Church itself.
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.
Fr. Eric Fedewa, associate pastor of St. Anastasia Parish, Troy, read the text of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion, and also Deuteronomy 6:10-15, which admonishes the people to “take care not to forget the Lord,” and “to not follow other gods.”
“This government is setting itself up as an idol,” Fr. Fedewa said.
The rally also heard from several non-Catholic speakers, such as Stacy Swimp, president of the Frederick Douglass Foundation of Michigan, who characterized the HHS mandate as “serving the nefarious agenda of Planned Parenthood.”
“They’re lying to the American people, and we are here to say we’re not going to stand for it,” he said.
The Rev. Claude Allen May, pastor of Oasis of Hope Christian Church in Detroit, said African-Americans make up the largest group of abortion victims in the country.
“We’ve been specifically targeted for extinction,” he 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.
The rally drew people of all ages. Ron Pelley, a member of St. Frances Cabrini Parish in Allen Park and an active member of the Knights of Columbus, characterized the administration’s indifference to Catholic objections to the HHS mandate as part of “a long strain of anti-Catholicism in American history.”
Gloria Gheesling, a member of Divine Child Parish, Dearborn, said she attended the rally “because I believe in freedom – freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.”
“The HHS mandate is entirely illegal, because it is against the First Amendment. I think we just have to stand up and fight, and I think we will,” Gheesling said.
On television
Watch highlights of the Stand Up for Religious Freedom rally on the Catholic Television Network of Detroit. It is set to air at the following times:
- 12:30 p.m. Thursday, June 14
- 4 p.m. Friday, June 15
- 3:30 p.m. Sunday, June 17
- 12:30 p.m. Monday, June 18
- 10 a.m. Wednesday, June 20
- 2 p.m. Friday, June 22
- 10 a.m. Monday, June 25
- 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 26
- 4 p.m. Wednesday, June 27
- 12:20 p.m. Thursday, June 28
- 1 p.m. Monday, July 2
- 11 a.m. Tuesday, July 3
