The battle between the Obama administration and some prominent Catholic institutions intensified Monday when 43 Catholic groups, including the archdioceses of Washington, D.C., and New York, and Notre Dame and Catholic universities, filed suit across the country challenging a federal mandate requiring them to provide contraception to their employees.
The organizations say the administration’s contraceptive requirement would compel them to violate church teaching. Some employers are exempt from the federal mandate ”“ but many are not, including schools, hospitals and charities that offer their services widely.
I think Notre Dame tossing its hat in the ring is going to be a game changer for media representations of this issue. It is hard to argue that the university that gave the president an honorary doctorate and had him give the commencement address (and got flack within Catholicism for doing so) is simply anti-Obama. Nor, given what seems at this distance, to be its standing in liberal society in the U.S., is it as easy to dismiss its concerns about religious freedom the way the press has managed to dismiss the arguments from the bishops (and evangelicals and others in support).
The university has too much credibility among liberals to simply brush its concerns aside without even airing them, and isn’t anti-Obama. This might (but given the U.S. media’s behaviour in an election year, no guarantees) force the media to present the side of this debate the administration really doesn’t want given airplay – that this mandate infringes on religious freedom.