Atlanta bishops support Dominican sisters in religious liberty fight against New York ‘gender identity’ law
The bishops said the case is “at its heart” a religious liberty question and warned that New York has placed an “intolerable burden” on the Church’s ministry to serve the dying poor.
Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer and the auxiliary bishops of the Archdiocese of Atlanta issued a July 1 statement standing behind the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne as the order fights a New York “gender identity” mandate they say would force them to choose between their Catholic beliefs and their state license to serve dying cancer patients.
In the statement, published by The Georgia Bulletin, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, the bishops said the case raises a fundamental religious liberty question for Catholic institutions that serve the vulnerable.
“This is, at its heart, a question of religious liberty,” the bishops wrote. “A government that compels religious women to choose between their faith and their license to serve the dying has transgressed the fundamental rights guaranteed by the First Amendment and has placed an intolerable burden upon the Church’s ministry to the most vulnerable.”
They added that serving in accordance with Church teaching “is not a privilege to be granted by the State, but a right that belongs to every person and every religious community.”
The Hawthorne Dominicans operate Rosary Hill, a 42-bed palliative care facility in Hawthorne, New York, for patients with incurable cancer. The sisters provide care free of charge and do not accept government funding or insurance, as Zeale News previously reported.
At issue is a New York law that took effect in 2024 and requires long-term care facilities to use residents’ preferred pronouns, assign rooms and allow restroom access based on “gender identity,” and conduct “cultural competency” training to make care settings more “welcoming to residents with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities.”
The sisters argue that complying with the law would force them and their lay employees to violate Catholic teachings on the human person, sexuality, and the body. They filed suit April 6 after receiving multiple state health department letters between March 2024 and January 2025 warning them of the law’s requirements, and after their March 2026 request for a religious exemption went unanswered, Zeale News reported.
The Department of Justice notified the court June 18 that it intended to intervene in the case, saying New York’s law violates constitutional protections for religious groups.
The Atlanta bishops also emphasized the sisters’ long history of service. The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne were founded by Venerable Servant of God Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, the daughter of author Nathaniel Hawthorne, who became known in religious life as Mother Mary Alphonsa, according to the statement.
“Moved by compassion for the poorest of the dying, Mother Mary Alphonsa, OP, as she came to be known, gave her life to the care of those suffering from incurable cancer who had no means to pay for their treatment,” the bishops wrote. “In so doing, she embodied the Dominican charism in its most tender expression: to contemplate the truth of the Gospel and to share its fruits with those in greatest need.”
The bishops noted that the sisters have had a presence in the Archdiocese of Atlanta since 1939, when they founded Our Lady of Perpetual Help Home to care for the dying poor.
“For nearly nine decades, they have served women and men of all backgrounds and beliefs, seeing in each patient the face of Christ,” the bishops wrote. “The home stands today as a witness to what the Church teaches and what the culture often forgets: that every human life, however diminished by illness or poverty, is of infinite worth.”
The bishops called on Catholics to pray for the sisters and stand in solidarity with them “as they continue — as they have for well over a century — to see the face of Christ in the dying poor and to honor the sacred dignity of every human person.”
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