And so we enter this year of delay.

Enforcement of the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate requiring insurance coverage for all FDA-approved prescription contraceptive drugs and devices, surgical sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs is just months away for religious institutions unless they are granted a religious exemption.

From the Stand Up for Religious Freedom website: “Religious employers are exempt only if their purpose is to inculcate religious doctrine, they hire and serve exclusively people of their own faith, and they qualify as a church or religious order according to a very narrow definition in the tax code.”

There’s concern that parish schools, for example, might not qualify for an exemption because they teach subjects besides “religion,” because they often welcome non-Catholic students and employ non-Catholic teachers, and also because they might not meet the definition of a church or religious order. But perhaps we are jumping to those conclusions because we know what the mandate is trying to accomplish, so we are reading it in that spirit.

What if we change our manner of approach?

Starting from the belief that God can bring good out of evil, perhaps a creative approach to the mandate exemption could lead to wonderful things. Perhaps we might consider using the approach of some of our creative politicians, particularly those who look at laws from a negative and literal sense, operating from the stance that if a law doesn’t specifically exclude or forbid something, well, then, that something is okay(!), no matter the original spirit of the law.

I know of a parish school that works to teach the Catholic faith all through its curriculum. Students learn how to write by researching and writing about religious topics, as one obvious example. Might other Catholic schools do a bit of creative reworking of lesson plans? Combined with abundant Catholic statuary and posted quotes from the saints, it should be abundantly clear to the courts that such a school’s purpose is to inculcate Catholic doctrine.

As far as the school building … might it be, in fact, a church? If Mass is offered there once a week, wouldn’t that define it as such for the courts? Aren’t weekly services the core thing that churches of all denominations provide? Isn’t that what makes churches (which come in all sizes and shapes) different from other buildings?

As far as serving and employing exclusively people of their own faith … my understanding is that the Catholic Church considers someone to be a Catholic if she or he is baptized and buried in the Catholic Church. However, the Church recognizes the baptisms of numerous Protestant churches, so there’s some wiggle room on that end. And, until people die, the Church doesn’t usually judge their membership status.

Doesn’t the government itself accept census statistics based on self-identified Catholics who never attend church? And no parish refuses to serve Catholics who are not registered at that parish, who don’t give any monetary gifts to that parish, who don’t attend Mass regularly, or who don’t volunteer.
Another thought is that for centuries Catholic religious orders have welcomed people into their religious communities who aspire to those orders. Surely schools can welcome those students and staffers who aspire to Catholicism. I think the Catholicism series by Father Robert Barron would make a lovely once-a-month class for those aspirants. After that first year, aspiring-Catholic staffers and students could choose to participate in an RCIA program even if it takes several years to complete, since, after all, the Church would need to accommodate their schedules. They wouldn’t have to make any decisions about sacraments until that program was complete — and there would have to be options to extend that important decision until aspiring students and teachers are certain they are adequately informed, believe and are ready for full communion with the Church.

Gosh, if the families and teachers who register as aspiring Catholics watch a Catholic video each month, give $1 a year and volunteer a couple hours at the parish, well, they will be more active members than at least half of the parish’s otherwise-registered members!

At any rate, it might be wise to have all Catholic school students register with their area public schools this summer so the public school system can prepare to accommodate those extra students beginning in the second half of the 2013-2014 school year, just in case.

But hopefully, with God’s help and some creative approaches to the exemption, the courts would decide that redefining thousands of Catholic school students as public school students won’t be necessary.