USCCB Chairmen Respond To New Department Of Labor Regulations

From the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops

WASHINGTON—On December 3, the U.S. Department of Labor published a final rule to implement President Obama’s July 21 Executive Order prohibiting federal government contractors from what the Administration deems “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” discrimination. In response, four chairmen of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a statement. Those chairmen are Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development; Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, chairman of the Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage; Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty; and Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo, New York, chairman of the Committee of Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth.

The full statement follows:

The regulations published on December 3 by the U.S. Department of Labor implement the objectionable Executive Order that President Obama issued in July to address what the Administration has described as “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” discrimination in employment by federal contractors. We will study the regulations carefully, but we note the following initially. Our Church teaches that “[e]very sign of unjust discrimination” against those who experience same-sex attraction “should be avoided” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, CCC 2358)—but it appears on an initial reading that these regulations would prohibit far more than that “unjust discrimination.” In particular, they appear also to prohibit employers’ religious and moral disapproval of same-sex sexual conduct, which creates a serious threat to freedom of conscience and religious liberty, because “[u]nder no circumstances” may Catholics approve of such conduct (CCC 2357). Very many other people over a broad spectrum of different religious faiths hold this same conviction. Additionally, the regulations advance the false ideology of “gender identity,” which ignores biological reality and harms the privacy and associational rights of both contractors and their employees. In justice, the Administration should not exclude contractors from federal contracting simply because they have religious or moral convictions about human sexuality and sexual conduct that differ from the views of the current governmental authorities.
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Keywords: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB, Subcommittee on the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty; and Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo, Committee of Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, federal contracting, same sex, religious liberty, gender identity, Obama administration, executive order
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