A Letter to President Obama

On Jan. 20, you officially began your second term as president of the United States. You were first elected in 2008 at a time of grave fiscal crisis in this country. That crisis, and its legacy, in many ways defined your presidency in your first term.

We will leave it to history to judge the decisions you made in that first term, but we want to voice our concern that a different legacy may haunt your second term.

We recall that when you were elected, you had promised to bring a divided nation together. In your first inaugural address, you said: “On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.” Later that year, you spoke at the University of Notre Dame, addressing some of the issues that divide us, most specifically abortion. You said: “Let’s honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our healthcare policies are grounded not only in sound science, but also in clear ethics . . .”

Despite your initial rhetoric, however, we have seen steps taken by your administration that have aroused our concerns about freedom of conscience and religious liberty, and about the desire for “unity of purpose over conflict and discord.” There have been numerous decisions by your administration to weigh in on some of the most divisive and conflicted social issues of the day, particularly regarding abortion, religious liberty and freedom of conscience.

Most disturbing has been the decision of your own Department of Health and Human Services to establish rules forcing both for-profit and not-for-profit companies and organizations to violate their consciences and provide funding for contraceptive services, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs. This mandate, which has to date not been tempered or moderated by your administration, despite your assurances, would force organizations — including our own — to violate the teachings of our Church or risk outrageously punitive monetary fines many times the cost of simply not providing healthcare benefits to our employees at all. READ MORE

by Gregory R. Erlandson is the President of the Publishing Division for Our Sunday Visitor, one of the largest Catholic publishing companies in the United States. Erlandson is also President of the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada, an advisor on the U.S. Bishops’ Communications Committee, and has been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. Read more reports from Gregory R. Erlandson