Wikipedia’s current citation on Fortnight for Freedom

Fortnight for Freedom

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The Blessed Virgin Mary, under the Marian title of the Immaculate Conception is honored as the patroness of the event.

Saint Thomas More is invoked as the special patron of the campaign due to his political rejection of King Henry VIII of England and the Act of Supremacy.

The Fortnight for Freedom (Fort-night, 2-weeks, variant. June 21─July 4th, 2012) refers to a fourteen-day event campaign initiated by the Roman Catholic American bishops in the United States, calling upon a pledge to religious liberty and an appeal to include a conscience clause for religious institutitions and religious faithful to practice according to the moral tenets of one's religious faith^[1].

The event campaign was initiated with a Holy Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore, Maryland, with consecutive Masses held in other metropolitan churches with its conclusion at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C., United States on July 4th, on the United States Declaration of Independence.

The Baltimore Basilica was particularly chosen by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops due to being the first Metropolitan See in the United States founded by Archbishop John Carroll in 1792. The patrons invoked by the Catholic American bishops for the 14-day event is the Saint Thomas More along with the Blessed Virgin Mary under the Marian title of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the United States of America.

The campaign event was particularly inspired by a papal speech given by Pope Benedict XVI to the American bishops Ad Limina visit in January 19, 2012^[2]. In the speech, the pontiff particularly highlighted a need for the American government to respect the religious "freedom of worship" and "freedom of conscience" amidst "radical secularism"^[3].

 

Development and Purpose

The Roman Catholic American Bishops initiated the campaign due to a perceived attack on personal and public religious liberty, particularly the "Health and Human Services Mandate" by President Barack Obama, a law (to be effective in 2013) which requires religious and charitable organizations for religious employers to fund Abortion, Sterilization, Contraception and other health practices which contradict the moral teachings of the Roman Catholic Church^[4].

Furthermore, the event was particularly created as a call to defend a perceived attack on religious liberty in opposition to lawsuits which claim to interfere with religious institutions by rejecting to rent or loan their personal land or property to homosexuals who publicly reject or are incompatible with the Catholic Churches moral teachings and lifestyles of faith.

Criticism

Some Atheists and LGBT groups have criticized the event as discriminatory by the use of religious liberty against their perceived constitutional rights, as exhibited by the Roman Catholic Church and various other Protestant Christian and Jewish denominations. In addition, liberal and progressive critics of the event reject it as a form of religious liberty which infringes on Gay and Lesbian civil rights^[5].

Proponents of the event maintain that religious liberty is a constitutional right afforded by the U.S. Constitution, and cannot be eradicated in the United States along with its Judeo-Christian heritage. Furthermore, the American bishops and Catholic faithful reject what they perceive as the American government as dictating what is an exact definition of a "religious institution", per se, and who is protected among the faithful's religious beliefs and conscience.

Some Islamic clerics also make similar claims in refusing to permit homosexuals and abortionists to loan or possibly rent their religious land, upon the penalty of their Sharia Islamic law and public court lawsuits, citing religious teachings based on the Hadith and the Qu'ran in which some Islamic Imams also support the Fortnight event.