US Bishops press Religious-Freedom fight with Government

June 15, 2012: The Catholic bishops of the United States on Wednesday promised steadfast opposition to President Barack Obama's mandate that birth control be covered by health insurance, saying it is one of many threats to religious freedom in government. Bishops insisted repeatedly that they had no partisan agenda. They said they were forced into action by state and federal policies that they say would require them to violate their beliefs in order to maintain the vast public-service network the church has built over a century or longer. ``It is not about parties, candidates or elections as others have suggested,'' said Baltimore Archbishop William Lori, chairman of the bishops' religious-liberty committee. ``The government chose to pick a fight with us,'' he said. Apostolic Nuncio to the US Archbishop Carlo Viganò told the bishops that their advocacy effort had his “full support.”

The meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Atlanta is its first since dioceses, universities and Catholic charities filed a dozen federal lawsuits over Obama's rule that employers provide health insurance covering birth control. Still, Obama has offered to soften the rule for religious employers by requiring insurance companies to cover the cost instead of faith groups, but bishops have said that the changes proposed so far do not put enough moral distance between the church and artificial contraception. The bishops are organizing a ``Fortnight for Freedom,'' two weeks of rallies and prayer services on religious freedom leading up to July 4^th US Independence Day.