Learning to be Quick to Listen

In a narrowly tailored 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court June 30 said closely held companies may be exempted from a government requirement to include contraceptives in employee health insurance coverage under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The court said that Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Woods, the two family-run companies that objected to the government mandate that employees be covered for a range of contraceptives, including drugs considered to be abortifacients, are protected from the requirement of the Affordable Care Act. The opinion essentially held that for-profit companies may hold protected religious views. But the court also said that government requirements do not necessarily lose if they conflict with an employer's religious beliefs. The court noted that cases challenging the mandate for nonprofit entities, such as Catholic colleges and faith-based employers, are pending and that the June 30 ruling doesn't consider them. The decision also did not delve into whethe...

In societies that have largely forgotten or abandoned Christianity, Catholic schools are often seen as vital tools for reintroducing faith to the wider culture. Principal Jim Bailey of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School can testify to this. He was in the process of entering the Catholic Church when he became the principal of the South Anchorage elementary school in 2008. “Being principal strengthened my desire to join the church,” Bailey told the Catholic Anchor. He credits the Catholic school experience and its immersion in faith with influencing him. It is a phenomena he sees occur with many parents who send their children to Catholic school. This year, Bailey said the school has at least three parents going through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults — the process by which adults are introduced to the Roman Catholic Church. “And that’s fairly typical,” Bailey said of parents who come to the faith through their contact with the school. Evangelization, he said, is the natural outgr...