A presidential executive order forbidding federal contractors and subcontractors from discriminating "on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity" has been slammed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for going against the teachings of their Church, CNS News reported.
Enforced by the Department of Labor, the order would force Catholics to violate the Church's teachings, the bishops said in a statement, making their opposition to "unjust discrimination" against gays clear.
The regulations pose "a serious threat to freedom of conscience and religious liberty," according to the statement, signed by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, New York, and Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami.
Although similar mandates had repeatedly been rejected by the Congress in the past, President Obama went ahead and signed an executive order in July forbidding the discrimination and firing of employees based on sexual orientation and gender identity by any agency that accepts taxpayer dollars, Catholic Review reported.
But critics have argued that not only does the order make it extremely difficult for a Catholic institution to terminate a gay employee who might use their position to advocate for a homosexual lifestyle, but it would also require Catholic adoption agencies to place a foster child with a sex-same couple.
Characterizing "gender identity" as a "false ideology," the bishops claim that prohibiting the Church from disapproving of same-sex sexual conduct "creates a serious threat to freedom of conscience and religious liberty," according to Newsmax.
Additionally, church agencies are being excluded unjustly by the Obama administration from federal contract work "because they have religious or moral convictions about human sexuality and sexual conduct that differ from the views of the current governmental authorities," the bishops said.
Meanwhile, a strictly Orthodox Jewish group, Agudath Israel of America, has also lobbied against the order, Baltimore Jewish Life reported.
