St. Katharine Drexel

The Feast Day of Saint Katharine Drexel, patron saint of racial justice and philanthropy, is March third, just this last Saturday. St. Katharine was an heiress who became a nun and spent her considerable fortune founding institutions serving the Native American and African American populations, when neither the Federal Government nor State Governments had any interest in them. Now, the Federal Government is insisting that if these institutions want to continue serving these populations, they must provide birth control and sterilization services to their employees. Why should it be required that you provide birth control when all you want to do is provide education and health services to the poor? Do we really want to discourage religious people like Katharine Drexel from helping people, just because they don't wish to be complicit in their employee's use of birth control?