When the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, Catholic bishops had already decided to play it down, despite the obvious monstrous effects the ruling was sure to have. The reason for this is more cultural and political than religious. Its not like the bishops approved of abortion, rather, they had culturally precluded themselves from making a united stand on such an important moral issue. To wit, since FDR's New Deal, Catholics, with their preferential option for the poor, have been, quietly at the least, supporting government solutions to problems. The American populace, mostly the Catholic ones, have gotten used to the bishops' silence. It could be argued that the bishops' silence is somewhat to blame for the eroded confidence their flock has in them; therefore, when the bishops, and I mean ALL Catholic bishops in the United States, condemned the HHS mandate concerning contraception, there are not a few Catholics who disagree with the bishops approach.
To summarize, the bishops are attacking this as an infringement on religious liberty, and rightly so. Some Catholics are arguing that the bishops should be making this about contraception and its negative impacts, as they see this as the central issue (and religious freedom as the secondary issue). Based on the previous actions of this administration, those criticizing the bishops' approach need to carefully reconsider their argument. To be sure, the nation needs a wake-up call when it comes to the contraceptive mentality that is literally killing our nation, and this event may just be the event that can spark that conversation. However, this issue is first and foremost about religious freedom, when we consider what this administration has done.
First, Obama campaigned on a promise to his secular base of getting rid of GW Bush's faith-based charity initiatives, through which certain faith-based charities received funding to carry out tasks the federal government had done. Obama nearly immediately did that. When Obama appointed a director or leader of his faith-based initiative, it was a militant secularist with no love for any religion whatsoever, particularly Catholicism.
Second, there was the Georgetown debacle, in which the president, prior to giving a speech at the university, requested that the Holy Name of Jesus be covered up, on the chance that people see it when they see the president...indeed, he wanted all religious imagery (at a Catholic school) to be blocked out in some way, shape, or form.
Then, you had the lawsuit against Belmont Abbey College, in North Carolina. To summarize that case, a female employee brought a complaint against the college to the local branch of some overseeing Federal agency because Belmont Abbey, a Catholic college, didn't cover chemical contraception in its health insurance plan, in keeping with Catholic teaching. The local branch dismissed the case, and essentially dropped it...until the actual Federal agency stepped in brought a suit against the College.
Fourth, there was the Hosanna-Tabor case, in which the EEOC (a branch of the Executive branch) attempted to force the church to ordain someone they didn't want to.
Then came this current brouhaha over the HHS ruling that mandates that all health insurance plans cover contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortifacient drugs.
Included in that was the US Army's directive that Catholic Chaplains NOT read a letter by their superior (that would be the Archbishop Broglio, ordinary of Archdiocese of the Military) because it contained words that were derogatory towards the commander-in-chief.
Further, I found this out today: a new rule in the Public Student Loan Forgiveness plan, which used to forgive the debts of individuals who were engaged in public service, which included ministry as a public service, removes the benefit from individuals whose "job duties are related to religious instruction, worship services, or any form of proselytizing. (here)”
If one wants to take an isolated view that this whole HHS this is about contraception, they are limiting their scope. The fact of the matter is, the HHS specifically discussed limiting the religion exemption to only churches and their employees, neglecting religious affiliated organizations and private companies who align themselves with Church teaching. This was done in light of all things that have gone on since President Obama's inauguration in 2009. This is first and foremost an issue of religious freedom.
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