Letter
Bishops' Letter to U.S. Representative Mike Kelly on the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act (2014)
Letter to U.S. Representative Mike Kelly on the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act, signed by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, Archbishop William Lori, and Archbishop Thomas Wenski, July 31, 2014
"As the respective chairmen of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, and Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, we write in strong support of your bill, H.R. 5285, the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act of 2014.
As you know, our first and most cherished freedom, religious liberty, is to be enjoyed by all Americans, including child welfare providers who serve the needs of our most vulnerable – children. Rightly, the Inclusion Act protects the religious liberties and moral convictions of all child welfare providers. No providers are excluded by the Act.
Specifically, the Inclusion Act prohibits discrimination by the federal government and state governments (and their subdivisions) against child welfare providers on the bases of their religious beliefs and moral convictions. Thus, the Act would prohibit federal and state officials in the administration of federally funded child welfare services from excluding child welfare providers simply because of the providers’ religious beliefs or moral convictions."