Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore is leading Catholic bishops in a national campaign to — as they see it — protect religious liberty, a lobbying effort that is largely a response to a measure in the 2010 Health Care Reform Act that would require all health care plans to cover birth control. At a convention in Atlanta on Wednesday, he called on bishops to refrain from partisanship in their efforts, and to instead focus on principles.
So you probably won’t hear Catholic bishops refer to the 2010 Health Care Reform Act as “Obamacare” anymore due to its partisan overtones. But don’t be surprised if you still hear one or two of them compare the president to Hitler or Stalin for his “unbelievable and egregious” assault on religious freedom.
But a “united front” might be impossible, at least one that includes American women religious, many of whom have been butting heads with Church leadership on social and political issues. Sister Simone Campbell, of the social justice lobbying group NETWORK, for example, criticized the bishops for leaving “no room for dialogue.”
