Catholics' battle with Obama intensifies over contraception exemption

The verbal war between the Obama administration and the Catholic Church advanced to an actual military front this week, as the Army tried to suppress a letter Archbishop Timothy Broglio had asked Catholic chaplains to read to soldiers during church services.

Catholics across the nation have mobilized. “Never before, unprecedented in American history, for the federal government to line up against the Roman Catholic Church,” Catholic League head Bill Donohue said in report by CBSNewYork.

In a highly controversial decision, the Obama administration has stood by a rule derived from the new federal health care law that requires Catholic schools, hospitals and other institutions to pay for sterilization and contraception, including abortifacients, substances that induce abortion.

The Department of Health and Human services carved out an exemption for churches and church employees, but not for affiliated institutions like church-run hospitals or universities. The administration announced a week ago that it would give religious organizations one year to comply with regarded to their affiliated institutions.

"In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences," said New York Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, a Catholic Cardinal-designate and president of the U.S. bishops' conference.

On Monday, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sibelius doubled down in USA Today, arguing the exemption she offered to institutions that primarily serve people of their own faith is adequate. She also observes that 28 states currently require contraception in insurance and eight have no religious exemption at all.

The exemption Sibelius offers does little for Catholics, however, as their missions often reach to the larger community beyond their own coreligionists.

The archbishop’s letter to soldiers painted the conflict in bold colors: “It is a blow to a freedom that you have fought to defend and for which you have seen your buddies fall in battle,” Broglio wrote, adding, “We cannot — we will not — comply with this unjust law.”

The other military branches approved the letter, but the Army first attempted to silence the chaplains. The Catholic Church fought back, calling it a matter of First Amendment rights. The Army has now reversed its position, acknowledging it was out of line, the Washington Examiner reported .