He summarizes:
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."As before, they are (properly) objecting to government mandates requiring them to provide contraceptive coverage to their employees.
I'm glad that the Catholic organizations are (belatedly) speaking up for their freedom.
However, David Harsanyi made the following related observation in his column, "Church of the Holy Contraception":
Perhaps the Catholic Church, which often seems to back economic "fairness" rather than market freedom, will be more sensitive to the intrusions of the state in economic choice. This episode exhibits how economic freedom is intricately tied to all other liberties. When the state creates virtual monopolies through regulatory regimes, it also gets to decide what is moral and necessary and compels everyone to act accordingly.The Catholic organizations might not have had to file this recent lawsuit if they had previously taken a principled stance against ObamaCare before it became law.
