The Minnesota Catholic Conference (MCC) is urging Catholics to sign a petition encouraging legislators to restore religious exemption protections in the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA).
The St. Paul-based MCC, which represents the public policy interests of Minnesota’s bishops, issued an action alert on the topic March 27. The petition and list of signers will be shared with legislative leaders. The petition also will be filtered down by signers in each legislative district and shared with individual lawmakers so they can see constituents who have signed it, an MCC official said.
The petition follows House floor proceedings on March 25, during which legislators ultimately voted to table a motion to restore religious exemption protections.
Archbishop Bernard Hebda was there, observing the proceedings. In a video the MCC published with its action alert, the archbishop expressed his perspective on restoring the protections.
“I was happy to be with religious leaders from a whole spectrum of representatives of the faith community, to show our support for how important it is that there be exemptions for the way in which we’re able to really be faithful to the tenets of our faith, especially in terms of how it is that we manage our own churches and schools,” the archbishop said in the video.
Archbishop Hebda highlighted the importance of reaching out to legislators on the matter.
“I think it’s really important for us as Catholics to make our opinions known on this,” Archbishop Hebda said in the video. “I encourage all of you who are Catholic to make sure that we’re sharing with our representatives why and what is so important to us in this matter.”
The MCC pointed out in its action alert that the religious exemption pertains to employment, membership, admissions and governance practices within religious congregations and schools. Read MCC’s recent “Inside the Capitol” column regarding religious exemption protections.
MCC suggests the following ways to take action:
Sign the petition to legislators and share it with family, friends and fellow parishioners.
Send a direct message to state legislators, urging them to support the restoration of religious exemption protections.
