It’s Sisters of the Poor all over again.
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne run the Rosary Hill Home, located about 34 miles north of New York City.
The nuns take in terminally ill patients who have no one to care for them.
According to EWTN News, the state’s public health agency sent the nuns three letters, accusing them of not complying with a 2023 New York law for “refusing to assign a room to a resident other than in accordance with the resident’s gender identity,” “prohibiting a resident from using a restroom available to other persons of the same gender identity,” and “willfully and repeatedly failing to use a resident’s preferred name or pronouns after being clearly informed of the preferred name or pronouns.”
The New York Legislature passed “The Long-Term Care Facility Residents’ Bill of Rights for LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers and People Living with HIV” in 2023.
The nuns filed a complaint on April 6, claiming the law violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
We all know Catholic teachings:
But complying with the state’s rules is not an option for them, since the directives contradict their Catholic faith, the sisters told the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News.The Catholic Church teaches that sex can’t be changed or separated from gender, although it also says people identifying as transgender must be treated with respect and compassion.“I think the most important thing is that we are adamant in keeping our Catholic identity. Without that, there’s no purpose for us to do what we’re doing,” Mother Marie Edward, OP, the superior of the religious congregation, told the Register.
Rosary Hill Home does what any sane place would do. They separate patients by sex, meaning only males room with males. Each floor is also dedicated to a single sex.
The agency’s website shows no complaints against Rosary Hill Home. In fact, the home has not received a single complaint in five years.
“Over the same time period, New York has received more than 55,000 complaints against other nursing homes and has issued an average of 23 citations to each nursing home in the state,” the nuns wrote in the complaint.
But hey! Let’s target Catholics, especially nuns who provide an exceptional service.
The nuns claim New York’s mandate:
The big one, though? The mandate exempts some religious organizations, but not Catholics.
Yup:
While the Mandate includes no general religious organization exemption, it does include a religious exemption narrowly tailored to protect the Church of Christ, Scientist and its affiliates. The exemption states: “The provisions of this article shall not apply to a facility or institution engaged principally in providing services by or under the supervision of the bona fide members and adherents of a recognized religious organization whose teachings include reliance on spiritual means through prayer alone for healing in the practice of the religion of such organization and where services are provided in accordance with those teachings.” N.Y. Pub. Health Law § 2801(1).This exception shields LTCFs operated by the Church of Christ, Scientist from the requirements of Section 2803-c-2. The Mandate provides no exemption for Catholic facilities or staff members.
Governments cannot narrowly tailor a law to protect one religion. The exemption must apply to all religions.
The First Amendment applies to all.
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