We are now into the month of August. As we know, the first day of this month was an important but sad day. That date signaled the moment that the contraceptive mandate from the Department of Health and Human Services took effect.

As you probably know, that mandate requires that employers who offer group health insurance in a business of any size must furnish a full range of FDA approved contraceptive methods in health plans. That means that as of Aug. 1, contraceptive medicines, including some that potentially bring about an abortion, as well as surgical sterilizations, must be included in group health plans.

For Catholics, this results in a mandate of the federal government to furnish and pay for inclusion in health care policies of elements that are in contradiction to Church teaching. In effect, we are being ordered by the government to violate our consciences.

The Department of Health and Human Services has granted a grace period of one year, until Aug. 1, 2013, before religious employers who did not offer this coverage to their employees since Feb. 10, 2012, need to comply.

The only exception given for the mandate applies to a religious employer who primarily employs and serves people who share its religious convictions. This exception is very narrow and has the effect of limiting the freedom of conscience for religious institutions that serve the needy of any and all faiths.

It also has the effect of allowing the government to define what is a religious institution; another avenue of government intrusion on the freedom of religion.

Our Catholic institutions serve as Christ did. We serve the needy without asking if they profess the Catholic faith. For that reason, many of our Catholic institutions fall under the mandate to violate Catholic teaching.

For faithful Catholics who run their own business, there is the refuge of neither the exemption nor of the one year hiatus.

Currently a number of lawsuits have been filed by Catholic and some non-Catholic institutions, arguing that the government has violated the First Amendment by this mandate. The First Amendment to the Constitution says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Many of those lawsuits are awaiting rulings from the courts with which they have been filed. Two have already been denied at a preliminary stage while one has been given a favorable judgment. But the path to judicial resolution will be long and uncertain.

Despite numerous promises on the part of government officials that a satisfactory solution to this problem will be found so that consciences can be protected, we have now gone past the date for the implementation of the mandate. Sadly, there is no evidence that any change is forthcoming in the near future.

Much of this information has already been shared time and again, in the press and in our parishes. But it is important that the issue of religious freedom not slip from our view or our consciousness.

We do indeed render unto Caesar what is rightfully his. But we even more fervently render unto God what belongs to Him. Our hearts, our faith and our consciences belong to God.

Our American Constitution has always protected our right to the free practice of our faith. We cannot compromise on that right, nor can we barter it away.

We remain positive and we remain vigilant. But we are also resolved.

As Cardinal Francis George, OMI, has written, “We cannot — we will not — comply with this unjust law.”