Erie Bishop Lawrence T.
Persico said he was disappointed a federal judge dismissed the diocese's
case against the federal contraceptive mandate as premature but also
said he found encouragement in the decision. "I was obviously hoping that the court would find our case ripe for adjudication," Bishop Persico said in a Jan. 22 statement about the ruling issued the same day by Judge Sean J. McLaughlin of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
"I am, however, heartened by the court's statement that the preventive services mandate as it exists today will never be enforced against the diocesan entities that brought this suit," the bishop added.
In his ruling, McLaughlin said the diocese's case was not ripe for judicial review because the government said it has not issued a final rule on the mandate but plans to do so before August 2013.
McLaughlin said diocesan officials' "assumption that they will be subjected to the mandate in a manner that violates their sincerely held religious beliefs is, at most, a contingency which may well never come to pass."
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandate requires employers, including most religious employers, to include coverage for contraceptives, sterilization and some abortion-inducing drugs free of charge, even if the employer is morally opposed to such services.