Rallies for Religious Freedom scheduled across United States

The Nationwide Rally for Religious Freedom is set to take place on Friday in more than 100 cities across the United States. The demonstrations are in opposition to the US Department of Health and Human Services Mandate which would require religious institutions to pay for services which violate their beliefs, such as contraception and abortifacients.

“I think that the bishops realize this is an absolutely crucial battle,” said Robert Royal, the president of the "Faith and Reason Institute”, based in Washington, DC. “If they lose this then the federal government of the United States of America can tell religious institutions basically anything.”

He told Vatican Radio the regulations would keep the Church from doing its work.

“In effect, if the Churches can’t have a public presence, in the way that the Catholic Church, given its social doctrine, understands that the Churches ought to have a public presence, then the Church is finished,” he said. “The only solution here that I think will satisfy all parties is simply that the Obama Administration will have to, and there are already signs of this, will have to back-off on those mandates…There is simply no way the Catholic Church, nor the Evangelicals – and once you put those two groups together you have about half the population of the United States – there is just no way they are going to accept what the Obama Administration is trying to do.”

Listen to the full interview by Alessandro Gisotti with Robert Royal: