Catron: 43 Catholic Organizations Launch Legal Challenge

If the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services "thought the outrage voiced by various cardinals, bishops, and countless lay Catholics over the anti-conscience mandate was mere bluster, they got a wake-up call yesterday," writes David Catron at the American Spectator.

On Monday, 43 high-profile Catholic organizations, including the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. and the University of Notre Dame, filed suit against the Obama administration. In an open letter, the Archbishop of Washington summed up the collective position of the plaintiffs by explaining that the mandate "fundamentally redefines the nation's long-standing definition of religious ministry… HHS's conception of what constitutes the practice of religion is so narrow that even Mother Teresa would not have qualified."

Saddle-broken and Snake Bitten

The contraception mandate must have come as a shock to the many Catholics who chose to view the Obamacare promises through the church's rosy-colored 'social justice' lens. As conservative columnist George Will succinctly explains in a 54-second clip of ABC's This Week (video here), the Catholic Bishops should have known better:

Three points. As Paul Ryan said to you, this is an accounting gimmick that they've done that in no way ends the complicity of Catholic institutions and individuals in delivering services they consider morally abhorrent.

Second. You asked the question, 'How did this come about?' George, this is what liberalism looks like. This is what the progressive state does. It tries to break all the institutions of civil society, all the institutions that mediate between the individual and the state. They have to break them to the saddle of the state.

Third. The Catholic Bishops, it serves them right. They're the ones who were really hot for Obamacare, with a few exceptions. But they were all in favor of this. And this is what it looks like when the government decides it's going to make your healthcare choices for you.

Cue Al Wilson's "The Snake."

NRO: What Would Reagan Do?

The Catholic backlash over government's new "mandate to force Catholics to offer and purchase health-insurance plans that violate their consciences" is the focus of NRO online editor-at-large Kathryn Jean Lopez's insightful interview with Paul Kengor, professor of political science at Grove City College and author of two books on President Reagan. The two explore what Reagan would do (and did do) with this controversial matter, and how his wisdom might inform modern-day conservatives engaged in the battle.