Thousands protest HHS mandate in Detroit, nationwide

Detroit— Upwards of 1,000 people enthusiastically cheered when Fr. Stephen Pullis took the microphone in downtown Detroit with a simple but forceful message.

“We cannot give up, we cannot back down, and we cannot be silent,” he said to a roar.

Fr. Pullis, associate pastor of St. Joseph the Worker Parish, Lake Orion, was among several speakers to address a March 23 rally called to protest the Obama administration’s compulsory contraception coverage mandate.

“It’s not for our government to decide how we are to follow Jesus Christ. It’s not for our government to decide which tenets of our faith are to be followed and which are to be set aside,” he told the rally that had been organized by Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and supported by dozens of other groups, including Ave Maria Radio.



Both Catholic and Protestant speakers addressed the protest, which filled the plaza outside the Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building. More than 140 other cities nationwide — including seven others in Michigan— participated in simultaneous protests organized in response to the mandate. The organizers’ website, standupforreligiousfreedom.com, reported afterward that nationwide protest participation totaled more than 63,000. An online petition at www.stopHHS.com had reached about 90,000 signatures as of publication.

People of faith must not be required to confine their exercise of that faith to their churches, synagogues or mosques, Fr. Pullis told the crowd. “They have a right to bring that faith into the public square and allow that faith to shape their lives.”

Among the speakers at the rally were Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Michael Byrnes, popular WDEO/EWTN radio host Al Kresta, U.S. Senate hopeful Clark Durant and several Catholic and Protestant clergy. Monica Miller, a professor at Madonna University and one of two nationwide coordinators of the rallies, also spoke, calling on those gathered to contact their “soon-to-be-voted-out-of-office” legislators.

“Let them know you’re upset,” Miller said. “Call Congress.”

Bishop Byrnes quoted Matthew 25:31-46, and said the Catholic Church cannot turn its back on its social ministries, and is not about to start “checking people’s baptismal certificates” as a prerequisite to offering aid.

At issue is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandate that all health insurance plans include contraception coverage — including sterilization and abortifacient drugs — in order to comply with the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.

While the mandate does include a religious exemption, it would apply only to houses of worship and not to religious-sponsored schools, hospitals or charities.

While the Obama administration later announced what it called a “compromise” that would force insurance companies instead to pay for the disputed services, the Church has stood firm in its opposition.

Fr. Gerard Battersby, who was at the rally with about 30 seminarians from Sacred Heart Major Seminary, said, “We don’t want to be ‘accommodated’ by the president; we have rights as citizens.”



“We want the president to protect the Constitution of theUnited States,” said Fr. Battersby, the seminary’s vice rector and dean of formation.

One seminarian, Bro. John Rigsby, SOLT, in his first year of pre-theology, said the issue at hand was an important one.

“We have to make people aware that religious freedom is being attacked, and we need to stand together for our religious freedom and uphold our constitutional values,” he said.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has said it would be impossible for the Catholic Church to comply with the mandate in its original form, and it also rejected the administration’s modification that would require the coverage be provided free-of-charge by the insurance carrier, aware that the costs would still be passed on to the Church in the form of higher premiums.

The bishops have also pointed out that some Catholic institutions are self-insured, a provision not addressed by the administration’s most recent proposal.

Maureen Butler, a freshman at Divine Child High School in Dearborn, said she was at the rally “to stand up for my faith.”

“If this goes through, I’m afraid my school will be shut down, and also it’s just unconstitutional. It’s not right, it’s not fair,”Butlersaid.

John MacDonald, a member of St. Nicholas of Myra (Byzantine) Parish, Clinton Township, called the HHS mandate “an abomination — it has to be stopped.”

Jen Nelson, a member of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish in Wyandotte, attended the rally on crutches after having sprained her ankle the day before. She said the notion pushed by the administration and the media that the Church is engaged in a “war on women” is far from the truth.

“If they really cared about women, they wouldn’t be pushing this, because hormonal birth control carries a very high risk of aggressive forms of breast cancer,” she said.

Gino Vitale was distributing fliers at the rally urging people to fast one day a week and pray daily through the first week of November “that God’s will be done to restore the sanctity of human life and freedom of religion.”

“If you read the Old Testament, fasting and prayer can be very powerful,” said Vitale, a member of SS. Cyril & Methodius (Slovak) Parish inSterling Heights.

Jernej Sustar, a seminarian and native of the former communist nation of Slovenia, issued a warning.

“In my 12 years in this country, I’m always saying you’re moving in the direction of what my country just rejected,” he said. “I see the same trends.”

Comparing the mandate to the persecution of first-century Christians in the Roman Empire, he added, “They want us to burn incense to other gods.”