I don’t think that the White House expected all of the bishops to come out in unison like they have. Nothing like this has happened in decades. In fact, not since the 60s. Obama has a lot of “catholic” advisors and I think they thought they might be able to fracture the official church and make bishop bicker with bishop like they did when John Kerry ran a few years ago.
And I think they made the same mistake that our own far-left dissidents have made for 20 years or more: Dissidents have stubbornly believed that if Catholics take birth control, even silently, that they will automatically side against the Church in a fight. That’s simply not true and there’s a lot of evidence to show it. Catholics have a soft spot for the Church even when violate her moral laws, and even if they disagree with the Church on some things. For example, Michael Sean Winters, who writes for the ultra-liberal National Catholic Reporter, has been writing about the mandate. He disagrees with the official church on just about everything, but he also says that he opposes the mandate in very forceful terms, and he says that Obama has lost his respect and his vote in November as a result of this mandate. Here’s the deal:
Even if Mr. Winters disagrees with Church leaders, he cares what happens to the Church, and that’s absolutely huge.
Michael Sean Winters was interviewed by CBS News, and the most memorable line was emphatic and said at the beginning of the short interview: “Don’t be meddling in my Church.” Video (scroll down to bottom of page):
newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2012/02/12/cbs-highlights-catholic-democrat-alienated-obama-contraception-mandat
In this same vein, many bishops are quite liberal but they all have come out against the mandate. Progressives whine but many of them work for these liberal bishops and they will almost always follow the lead of their bishop. Strange but true. Part of it is that they do really believe but practice in a very modern way; part of it is that they fear for their jobs if they act up in public. Many liberals work for the church and it tends to suppress some kinds of bad behavior, particularly behavior that gets the bishop’s negative attention.
Catholic conservatives have whined about this “nest of liberals at the chancery” effect for decades. Well, here it’s helping all of us, “liberals at the chancery” and all. We are all Catholics.