WASHINGTON – The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops are calling for a national campaign in defense of religious liberty, and urged resistance to laws that church officials consider unjust.
In a new 12-page document that quotes the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the bishops said priests, laypeople, public figures and others must be involved in the effort to change recent state and federal laws that church leaders believe violate religious freedom.
“We address an urgent summons to our fellow Catholics and fellow Americans to be on guard, for religious liberty is under attack, both at home and abroad,” the bishops wrote on Thursday.
The highest-profile clash has been over the mandate in the Obama administration’s health care overhaul that most employers cover birth control costs for workers.
The White House has offered a compromise for church-affiliated groups such as hospitals and universities, but bishops said the changes haven’t gone far enough.
Critics within and outside the church have accused the bishops of pressing the issue to remove President Barack Obama from office. But the bishops wrote, “this ought not to be a partisan issue.”
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