By now we are all sick and tired of talking about the federal attempt to restrict our religious freedom by a kind of "end run" around the Constitution, particularly since the pathetic attempt at an accommodation failed utterly. That accommodation was a change without a difference.

So now what are we to think?

First: As I have said before, we should not be deceived by the lame-stream media into thinking this is about contraception or birth control. It is not. It is about religious freedom which is spoken in the very first of the Amendments to the Constitution, the First Article of the Bill of Rights. Vexing as it is, we have to fight and win this battle or it will be but the first of many attempts to impose restrictions of liberty not only on us as Catholics, but on citizens of the United States generally. Either the whole Constitution with its amendments is the law of the land or none of it is. That is the choice the federal executive has to make.

Second: It is remarkable that this attempt at coercion has united Catholics of every stripe and persuasion, a feat I did not think possible given our sorry national leadership over the decades.

Third: I hope that you have come away from this as I have with renewed respect for the Protestant denominations, the Lutherans, Baptists, Orthodox Christians, Jewish people and many others, who have been very quick to see in this threat to our liberty, a threat to their own.

Fourth: It is really important that each one of us who practice the Catholic faith and receive Holy Communion fruitfully do something in the public forum to indicate our support for religious freedom and our rejection of these impositions by the federal executive. It goes without saying that we should pray for the outcome we seek, but it is also necessary to write a congressman or a senator or someone in the government to make him/her aware of our deep discomfiture over this sally by the Federal Government against our cherished freedoms.

Fifth: It is important to stress that this has nothing to do with the image or actual practice of contraception by Catholics or others. Jesus, the Son of God, told the Apostles: "He who hears you, hears me; and he who hears me, hears Him who sent me" (Lk 10:16). The body of bishops, successors to the body of the Apostles, did not seek this affirmation from Christ; it was rather thrust upon them and it is not an easy one to bear. It is the teaching of the Church: (1) that the practice of artificial contraception is gravely, morally wrong; and (2) that because every Catholic is involved with free will, he/she has the freedom to choose grave sin knowing that there must be at the end some accounting. Just as the teaching of the Church that murder, adultery, theft and perjury are wrong does not prevent us from having within the Catholic community murderers, adulterers, thieves and perjurers. This whole discussion requires adult thought and reasoning.

Sixth: Over the course of this discussion, huge attempts will be made to explain this controversy in excruciating and madding detail so that we will all tire of it and wish to forget it. This we cannot do. It is a serious matter. Our leadership has failed in the past to react properly to Catholics particularly in politics or the press in support of abortion, contraception and genetic manipulation. This was and is a grave error and one for which we should have to answer as bishops to God.

Seventh: It becomes clear to all who can read the signs of the time that abortion, buggery, contraception, divorce, euthanasia, radical feminism and genetic manipulation are sacred to the political party of death among us. We can see all around us the ruins of hundreds of thousands, indeed millions of lives wrecked because our society is not proof against these evils. But we have the assurance that our faith can seek for us from God protection against these things and we should redouble our efforts to seek that protection particularly through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, Queen of Apostles, Queen of Martyrs, Queen of Confessors and Queen of all Saints.

Eighth: For some macabre entertainment, we can speculate who will play Irma Grese to Kommandant Obama, thrilling to the silent screams of these slaughtered innocents whose angels look upon the Father's face. Will it be Ms. Sebelius, Ms. Jarrett, Ms. Pelosi?