National Catholic Register urges New York to uphold nation’s religious liberty principles in Dominican sisters case

The National Catholic Register is demanding New York officials end what it describes as a "campaign of harassment" against the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne by upholding the religious liberty ideals of the Declaration of Independence.

In a July 2 editorial anticipating the nation’s 250th anniversary, the Register's editorial board called on Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Catholic, and state lawmakers to reflect on the principles of the nation's founding document and “stop treading” on the sisters’ ministry. 

As Zeale News previously reported, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne filed a federal lawsuit in April challenging New York's 2023 long-term care law, saying it forces them to choose between complying with the state's “gender identity” requirements and remaining faithful to Catholic teaching. The sisters operate Rosary Hill Home, where they have provided palliative care to terminally ill cancer patients for more than 125 years.

The Register said the case shows that growing public resistance to "woke fever” has not yet reached "progressive-minded governments that act as the legal enforcers of ‘gender agendas.’"

The editorial also said Catholic women's religious orders have too often become targets in disputes involving the sanctity of human life.

“The odious mentality in play here appears to be, ‘Ah well, you can’t make a progressive political omelet without breaking a few nuns,’” the editors added. 

The Register also cited the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) recent intervention in the lawsuit as further evidence that the dispute should be resolved in the sisters' favor. As Zeale News previously reported, the DOJ said New York's law discriminates on the basis of religion by allowing certain secular exceptions while denying comparable religious accommodations.

The editors concluded that the dispute should not require court intervention and urged Hochul to act. 

“Gov. Hochul, who is Catholic herself, should immediately instruct her state’s healthcare bureaucrats to stop treading on the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne — and instead allow them,” the editors concluded, “as faithfully Catholic American citizens, to continue their loving Christian care of the terminally ill without any further unjustified interference.”

The Register’s is the second major editorial board to back the sisters' position. As Zeale News previously reported, a June 28 editorial from the Washington Post editorial board also urged New York to allow the sisters to continue their ministry without state interference.