Prof. Mary Ann Glendon is the Learned Hand Professor at Harvard University Law School. In the following article from the current America Magazine, Professor Glendon examines ongoing and unprecedented government assaults on religious liberty. At the federal level, these include the NLRB’s recent, unsuccessful challenge to the right of the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran congregation to choose its own ministers that was recently blocked by the Supreme Court and, now, the HHS health insurance mandate that would allow federal regulations to co-opt both the First Amendment and an employer’s freedom of conscience. In analyzing how the government threatens religion’s traditionally robust contribution to public dialogue, Glendon warns that these attempts not only pose a fundamental threat to religious liberty but to the unique vitality of American democracy itself.
The following links comes from catholiceducation.org:
First of Freedoms?
MARY ANN GLENDON
How religious liberty could become a second-class right.
Until recently the status of religious liberty as one of the most fundamental rights of Americans has seldom been seriously challenged. Despite lively controversy about its precise scope and limits, citizens of all faiths have long taken for granted the unique model of religious freedom that has enabled this nation’s diverse religions to flourish and to coexist in relative harmony. continue here: http://catholiceducation.org/articles/persecution/pch0298.htm
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About Ray Noble
Deus et Patria -- A Website for Americans Who Enjoy Being Catholic ... and Vice Versa.
ABOUT ME:
Retired lawyer-law professor-author. Raised in NJ, now living in Florida.
Widower and Father.
EDUCATION ACHIEVEMENTS: Summa Cum Laude, Undergrad debating scholarship, Fulbright scholarship, Campion Scholar at Oxford University, Presidential Scholar at Boston College Law School, law review editor.
DIVERSE PROFESSIONAL LIFE: Corporate lawyer, state (NJ) Deputy Atty General for Civil Rights, Law school associate professor (St. John's University), legal writer, author of guide for women at the request of the New Jersey League of Women Voters, state judiciary's chief of long range planning, state bar association's chief counsel, USIA law reform rep in Gaza and the West Bank, co-founder and overseer of 9/11 Mass Disaster relief program for World Trade Center victims.
In 2001, after 33 years of marriage and 8 children (6 living daughters), Alice, the love of my life (my high school sweetheart), died when she was only 55 years old. I still miss her deeply and always will.
But in 2002, an unexpected, new chapter began when I left the practice of law and became a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal for 3 blessed years. I served in the Hispanic apostolate and the pro-life ministry, counseling outside abortion mills in Manhattan and the Bronx. I loved the CFRs' radical commitment to poverty. I also treasured the abundant daily prayer that included Mass, the Divine Office, daily Eucharistic adoration and rosary, and both communal and private contemplative prayer.
But in 2005, while I was still in temporary vows, one of my daughters was hospitalized, with long term needs. It became clear to others and to me that my 3 years as a friar.was to become a prelude to other things.
Retiring to central Florida, I continue to see my daughter's needs as my first commitment. I also work to combat human trafficking. In my parish ministries and in my life as a single senior citizen, I try to continue the life I knew as a friar as much as I can. This website is a recent development. I hope you find it helpful and, at least occasionally, fun. I do.
Mary Ann Glendon, a former U S Ambassador to the Holy See, is Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and currently serves as the first female President of the Roman Catholic Church’s official Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. Her expertise is in the fields of bioethics, comparative constitutional rights and human rights in international law. Her many books include: Traditions in Turmoil, A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, A Nation Under Lawyers: How the Crisis in the Legal Profession is Transforming American Society, Rights Talk: The Impoverishment of Political Discourse, and (edited with David Blankenhorn) Seedbeds of Virtue: Sources of Competence, Character, and Citizenship in American Society.
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