Obama and Catholics

Colleen Carroll Campbell:

'Among Catholics, the most egregious example of Obama's broken promise of religious tolerance is the one dominating diocesan headlines now: His administration's push for a mandate that would require Catholic institutions to violate the teachings of their church by covering contraceptives in their health care plans — including sterilization and drugs that induce abortions.

'The mandate would be controversial even if accompanied by the standard religious exemption that allows faith-based organizations to opt out of government regulations that violate their religious beliefs. But the Obama administration has gone a step further, by crafting a religious exemption for the mandate so narrow that it excludes nearly all Catholic hospitals, elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities and charitable organizations — virtually everyone, it seems, except Catholic parishes and religious orders. The upshot: Catholic colleges that teach abortion is evil must pay for abortifacient drugs for their students and Catholic hospitals that refuse to sterilize patients must subsidize sterilization for their employees.'

This is a militantly secular administration that uses federal regulatory agencies to legislate policies that simply would have no traction in Congress.
Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/colleen-carroll-campbell/article_364e32fb-45fc-536f-bfc6-f7a703a3b77a.html#ixzz1arP1ngmS