Birth control letter

February 13, 2012

I see two major flaws in the logic of Colleen Connell's Voice of the People letter ("Birth control, Feb. 12). First she tries to separate the Catholic Church from Catholic institutions like Catholic run hospitals or universities. She alludes to a distinction that does not exist! Because they reach out their services to people of all faiths, as Jesus and the apostles did, it makes them no less Catholic! Second, in her final sentence she asserts that religious freedom does not give religious groups the right to impose their beliefs on others. On the contrary, what the health-care mandate does is require religious institutions to abandon their own long held beliefs on contraception and abortion. To add insult to injury, it requires those religious groups to pay for those abhorrent practices.

--Pat Mullin, Orland Park