The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne have filed a lawsuit against the State of New York, claiming that new gender identity requirements for nursing homes violate their constitutional rights and would force them to act against their Catholic faith.
In a statement, Mother Marie Edward, the congregation’s superior general, said: “We Sisters have taken care of patients from all walks of life, ideologies and faiths. We treat each patient with dignity and Christian charity. We have never had complaints. We cannot implement New York’s mandate without violating our Catholic faith.”
The lawsuit argues that the law compels the sisters to “act against central, unchangeable and architectural teachings of the Catholic faith”. It adds, “The implications are so much greater than whether to utter the words ‘he’ or ‘she’. Indeed, to demand that a Catholic deny another’s sex is to require him or her to affirm another religious worldview.”
The sisters also argue that the law is applied unevenly. The complaint notes that facilities operated by the Church of Christ, Congregationalist, Scientist are exempt, as the statute does not apply to those “whose teachings include reliance on spiritual means through prayer alone for healing”. This, the sisters contend, amounts to unconstitutional discrimination between religious groups.
Full article at https://thecatholicherald.com/article/new-york-sisters-sue-state-over-preferred-pronouns-mandate (behind paywall and not on archive.ph)