Next weekend our parishes have the privilege of participating in the proclamation of God’s Kingdom in Africa. Father Linus Nangwele from the African nation of Ghana celebrates all the Masses July 12-13 as we participate in the Mission Coop Program of our Diocese of La Crosse. Father Nangwele invites us to help our brothers and sisters in Ghana through our spiritual and financial support. Please be warm in your welcome of Father Nangwele!

Father Nangwele’s presence in our parishes allows me to be in my home parish of Sacred Heart in Marshfield next weekend. The Pastor of my home parish invited me to celebrate with the parishioners the 25^th anniversary of my ordination to the Priesthood. I will celebrate the 9:00 AM Mass of the Lord’s Day on July 13 and give the homily. A lunch will be served in the parish hall afterwards and will include a brief program featuring comments from one of my high school classmates as well as a former employer and teacher – both of them dear friends through all these years. My dad and stepmother are parishioners there and so it will also be a family affair as my brother will be present as will relatives from both the Burke and Louis sides of the family. Many parishioners who watched me grow up and then enter the seminary and begin priestly ministry have since gone to their eternal reward. So many of them assured me through the years that they prayed for me every day that I was in the seminary! To them, to those still living and praying for me, to that faith community in which I was baptized, confirmed, received Holy Communion, went to Confession, and celebrated my Mass of Thanksgiving, to the teachers – School Sisters of Notre Dame and lay men and women – of the parish school wherein what my family believed and was living was reinforced and strengthened, and to the parish priests who faithfully served God and the Church – I owe a deep debt of gratitude.

Several years ago I completed a course of certification in the Church’s biomedical ethics from the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia (www.ncbcenter.org). Subsequent to that I became a priest associate member of the Catholic Medical Society – founded in 1912 – whose mission is “to help Catholic physicians and healthcare professionals to grow in the spirit of Christ in their personal and professional lives, so they can bring His Spirit to the science and art of medicine” (www.cathmed.org). The President of this outstanding group – John Brehany – penned the best succinct reaction to the recent Supreme Court ruling: “The Catholic Medical Association welcomes the Supreme Court's decision in Burwell et al. v. Hobby Lobby. Once again, the Supreme Court has curtailed the Obama administration’s abuse of executive power and unprecedented attacks on religious liberty. At the heart of the Hobby Lobby and related cases is the right of Americans to live and work according to their beliefs without fear of government punishment. Americans should never be forced to surrender their religious beliefs when opening a business. The Supreme Court upheld that principle today. While the Obama administration’s coercive HHS mandate has been rejected, it is important to note that this is only a partial victory, applicable only to closely held corporations (e.g., family-owned businesses like Hobby Lobby). The Supreme Court has yet to decide cases involving not-for-profit corporations and churches. Moreover, Americans should continue to be deeply concerned about other problems with the HHS mandate—including a deep underlying unfairness in treatment under the law. Not enough people know that Obamacare provides exemptions for 100 million people for non-religious reasons but severely punishes people of faith. For example, the federal government will fine companies that don’t provide health insurance at all $2,000 per year per employee, but will crush companies which otherwise provide excellent employee health coverage with fines of $36,500 per year per employee if they do not pay for abortion-causing drugs, FDA-approved contraceptives, and sterilizations. Even apart from the attack on religious liberty and unequal treatment under the law, there are significant problems with the HHS mandate . President Obama’s HHS mandate improperly defines and promotes as “preventive services” drugs, devices, and interventions which undermine the nature and goals of authentic preventive medicine. Moreover, the HHS mandate will channel abortion-causing drugs, contraceptives, and sterilization to millions of young girls, increasingly without their parents’ knowledge and consent. The Catholic Medical Association welcomes this vindication of religious liberty and partial defeat of the HHS mandate. There is a great deal more work to do, however, in protecting religious liberty and in offering health care that truly serves the health and well-being of female patients and their families.”

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us! Saint Luke, pray for us!
Very Rev. Kevin C. Louis, STL