Catholic leaders in Ohio have joined the chorus of church officials urging parishioners to protest and pray about the federal government's recent decision to require many church-affiliated institutions to cover free birth control for employees.
Bishop George V. Murry of the Diocese of Youngstown shared his opposition in a letter that was distributed or read to parishioners this weekend, saying the decision "casts aside the First Amendment, denying to Catholics our nation's first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty."
"We cannot - we will not - comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second-class citizens," Murry wrote.
Under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law, most employers and insurance plans will have to cover birth control free of charge as preventive care for women.
That rule, however, exempted houses of worship and their employees, as well as other institutions whose primary purpose is to promote religious belief. Churches, synagogues, mosques and other places would not be required to cover contraceptives, it specified. Neither would religious organizations whose purpose is to promote belief and that primarily employ and serve people of the same creed.
As such, the wave of protest that followed has clearly taken the White House by surprise. Catholic and Protestant evangelical leaders criticized the decision as infringing on freedom of religion.
At St. Mary's Church in Warren, the Rev. Bernard Schmalzried said the policy is asking churches to take opposite approaches from long-standing teachings.
''This is asking the church to go away from what its basic religious beliefs are,'' Schmalzried said Saturday.
He said he does not oppose people seeking this sort of coverage on their own, but to force their employers if they work for an institution that opposes it to offer it to them is wrong.
''The church has been railing against this for years - in some cases centuries,'' Schmalzried said.
Ohio bishops say they won't comply with a requirement for health coverage of services such as contraception, abortion-inducing drugs or sterilization.
The bishops are urging parishioners to pray or fast and to consider contacting Congress to push for legislation reversing the requirement.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has said she believes the proposal balances religious freedom with increased access to preventive care.
For religious-affiliated employers, the requirement will take effect Aug. 1, 2013, and their workers in most cases will have access to coverage starting Jan. 1, 2014. Women working for secular enterprises, from profit-making companies to government, will have access to the new coverage starting Jan. 1, 2013, in most cases.
Employers that fail to provide health insurance coverage under the federal law could be fined $2,000 per employee per year. The bishops' domestic anti-poverty agency, Catholic Charities, says it employs 70,000 people nationwide. The fine for the University of Notre Dame, the most prominent Catholic school in the country, could be in the millions of dollars.
There is no mandate to cover abortions. But that is little comfort to Catholic leaders, since the regulation violates other church teachings.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday that the administration will not reconsider the decision.
