[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 26 (Thursday, February 16, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E209]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    RECOGNIZING CATHOLIC PRESS MONTH

                                  _____
                                 

                          HON. JOHN A. BOEHNER

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 16, 2012

  Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, for more than 100 years the Catholic Press 
Association of the United States has provided news, information, and 
commentary on an ongoing basis to millions of readers. The CPA's bylaws 
make clear its commitment to help its members to ``serve effectively, 
through the medium of the printed word, the social, intellectual and 
spiritual needs of the entire human family, and to spread and support 
the Kingdom of God.'' Hundreds of Catholic publications benefit from 
the CPA, including my local paper, the Catholic Telegraph, which has 
published since 1831 and is read by 60,000 subscribers throughout the 
Cincinnati archdiocese.
  Today I rise to join the association's celebration of February as 
Catholic Press Month. I would also note the timeliness of Catholic 
Press Month and its immediate relevance to some of the important 
debates taking place in Washington, DC. As CPA President Greg Erlandson 
noted in his statement, ``This year Catholic Press Month comes at a 
particularly critical moment. Our bishops have made clear their concern 
with recent government regulations and the threat such regulations pose 
to religious liberty. It is during challenging times like these that we 
can best recognize the great blessing that is the Catholic press.''
  As has been well documented of late, a new mandate advanced by the 
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under President Obama's 
administration would require faith-based employers, individuals, and 
insurers--including Catholic charities, schools, universities, and 
hospitals--to provide services they believe are immoral. Those services 
include sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs and devices, and 
contraception. The mandate is being implemented as a result of the 
health care law signed by President Obama in 2010.
  In a January 26 letter about this mandate to the Catholic Telegraph, 
the Archbishop of Cincinnati, the Most Reverend Dennis Schnurr, 
expressed the frustration of many Ohio Catholics when he declared: ``We 
cannot--we will not--comply with this unjust law. People of faith 
cannot be made second-class citizens.'' In a subsequent letter on 
February 13, after President Obama announced what was called an 
accommodation, Cardinal Schnurr reiterated the Church's ``firm position 
that the freedom to follow one's conscience and to have access to 
health care are both fundamental human rights. We will not be forced 
into a position of choosing between the two.''
  In imposing this mandate, the federal government has drifted 
dangerously beyond its constitutional boundaries, encroaching on 
religious liberty in a manner that affects millions of Americans and 
harms some of our nation's most vital institutions. The Catholic Press 
Association has played a critical role in providing news about this 
issue to millions of readers throughout our country, in just the most 
recent demonstration of the service it provides to the Church as well 
as to our nation, its citizens, and the Constitution upon which our 
system of government is founded.
  As President Erlandson put it, ``Only the Catholic press gives 
Catholic leaders a voice with which to be heard by their people--
unmuted, uncensored and independent of the preconceptions and 
prejudices of too many secular media outlets.'' I congratulate the 
Catholic Press Association for the century of contributions it has made 
and will continue to make through the blessings of liberty in our great 
country.

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