Today’s Albany Times Union features an article on the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese’s attempts to overturn a New York State law requiring that they provide contraceptive coverage as part of their health care package. They object of course based on the R.C. Church’s stand against artificial birth control.

Some pertinent excerpts from Voices of faith argue against Wellness Act follow with my perspective at the end.

Albany Diocese charity goes to court to fight state’s birth control coverage mandate

ALBANY — Lawyers for the charitable arm of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany are set to argue next week before the state’s highest court that a mandate to provide birth control coverage in its health plan violates freedom of religion, speech and association.

Catholic Charities and two Baptist churches are challenging the constitutionality of the Women’s Health and Wellness Act of 2003, which requires employers that provide group insurance coverage for prescription drugs to include coverage for prescription contraceptives.

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Legal experts say the range of state and federal constitutional issues at hand — particularly the freedom to express religion — makes the case fascinating to watch. The Court of Appeals will be looking at which, if any, protections have been violated. While Catholic Charities argues the religious exemption is drawn too narrowly to be constitutional, court watchers point to the length of time it took the Legislature to approve and enact the WHWA, intimating it was thoughtfully and carefully created.

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In court papers, lawyer for Catholic Charities stated: “The WHWA coerces church entities to subsidize private conduct that the churches teach is morally wrong. Government in this country has historically respected the right of organized religions to ‘practice what they preach’ and to refrain from financing private conduct that they condemn.”

By departing from that historical practice, the WHWA has placed New York in opposition to the most fundamental values that underlie both state and federal constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of association, documents said.

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Now here’s the key fact:

More than $28 million of Catholic Charities’ $32 million annual operating budget comes from the government.

Jared Leland, a spokesman and lawyer with the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, supports Catholic Charities’ position.

The group’s credo is “that freedom of religion is a basic human right that no government may lawfully deny; it is not a gift of the state, but instead is rooted in the inherent dignity of the human person.”

With contraception and abortion, Leland said, “There is no ambiguity there. Contraceptive care runs afoul of the very tenets of that faith.”

An organization shouldn’t be forced to choose between its identity and its mission, he said: “There should be an exception to the rule.”

The WHWA does contain an exemption clause for religious employers, like seminaries, but state Assistant Solicitor General Shaifali Puri is expected to argue on Wednesday it doesn’t apply to Catholic Charities.

Two courts, including the local appellate panel, ruled that Catholic Charities does not qualify as a religious employer since it provides health care, food and clothing, domestic violence shelters, drug counseling and other services to people in need, regardless of their religious beliefs.

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The New York State Catholic Conference has said that the legislation is really intended to mandate coverage for abortion, in an attempt to destroy the church’s network of social services, hospitals, nursing homes and schools.

Albany Attorney Michael Costello will argue the Catholic organization’s case that religious beliefs prevent Catholic Charities from paying for something they believe is sinful.

More than 1,100 Catholic Charities staff members in the 14-county diocese — along with 2,100 volunteers — work at more than 100 sites, serving nearly 100,000 families and individuals annually from all faiths and walks of life.

Statewide, the Roman Catholic Church operates more than 700 schools serving some 300,000 students, 36 hospitals with more than 380,000 inpatient admissions, 57 nursing homes with 11,615 beds, and hundreds of social services agencies that serve more than 1.3 million people every year.

It is the largest nonpublic provider of education, health care and human services in the state. Services are not limited to Catholics.

Nearly 88% of their money comes from the government. Now they do many positive things with that money as the article explains. But, if an organization receives about 88% of its funding from the government, and provides services to all (without proselytizing them), can it still call itself a religious organization?

It appears that the lower courts don’t think so. So the question remains, Who do you serve and to whom are you bound?

The outcome will be interesting. Will the Church eek by or will they have to start acting like the Church in all their endeavors.