At their annual meeting in Baltimore, U.S. Catholic bishops reaffirmed their opposition to the Obama administration's birth control insurance mandate, framing the issue as an unprecedented infringement of religious freedom.
Several bishops threatened to shutter the church's hospitals, charitable ministries, schools and universities rather than accept a policy that they say would force Catholic employers to provide health insurance that covers sterilization and perhaps abortion-inducing drugs as well as contraception.
A growing number of bishops is pushing back, arguing that such hard-line rhetoric has put them in an untenable position. The Obama administration has modified the original policy to such an extent that a number of bishops publicly said they could find ways to live with it without closing ministries, and that the church's teaching that access to good, affordable health care is a basic right should outweigh remaining reservations.
The statement in Baltimore is carefully worded to acknowledge that each bishop can make his own arrangements on health insurance, and it begins to provide cover for the hierarchy as the prelates try to find an exit strategy.
The limited scope of the bishops' purview points to what is perhaps the biggest obstacle for hard-liners: Bishops don't in fact control the vast majority of the institutions they say they would shut down.
For example, of the 630 Catholic hospitals in the U.S., just 33 are controlled or sponsored by a bishop, and the Catholic Health Association, which represents all of those hospitals, has said it would accept the White House accommodation. Similarly, just 10 of the nearly 200 Catholic colleges and universities in the U.S. fall under diocesan auspices, and local Catholic Charities are often separately incorporated entities.
None of this means that the bishops are poised to drop their objections to the birth control mandate itself. Most still think it is problematic, and they are joined in that view by Catholics across the spectrum who say that at the very least it was a ham-handed policy solution and poorly executed by the White House. They expect sporadic confrontations as some church-affiliated groups or Catholic-owned businesses protest the mandate by refusing to pay fines or by dismissing employees or dropping health insurance.
The Supreme Court could make this all moot by ruling for the bishops. The justices on Tuesday are expected to decide which of the challenges to the mandate they will take up, with the rulings expected in June.
If the verdicts go against the bishops, they may well have few tools — and little desire — to take the battle much further.
Gibson writes for Religion News Service.