News
Bishop Burbidge Calls for a Day of Individual Prayer for Religious Liberty
The Most Reverend Michael F. Burbidge is inviting the faithful in the Diocese of Raleigh on March 30, 2012, to participate in the traditional required Friday Lenten practices of prayer and abstinence, along with the additional practice of fasting, to be observed as an offering for the cause of liberty. Bishop Burbidge will celebrate the 12:10 pm daily Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral for this intention.
The request is being made following the recent mandate issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, directing most employers and all insurers to make available to their employees contraception, sterilization and abortifacients, Bishop Burbidge has called the mandate a serious threat to our Constitutional rights of religious freedom and freedom of conscience.
“Through our prayers and observances of these Lenten disciplines,” Bishop Burbidge said, “may Our Lord watch over and protect the freedom and human dignity He has afforded to all people, and guide us always to be effective witnesses to Our Lord in all we do.