In what might be an unprecedented campaign against President Obama and his HHS mandate, the Catholic Church is taking on the issue head-on and says it will not compromise on the issues.
   According to the Pew Forum, in the 2008 election Catholics supported Obama over McCain by a nine-point margin (54% vs. 45%). By contrast, four years ago, Catholics favored Republican incumbent George W. Bush over Kerry (who is Catholic) by a five-point margin (52% to 47%).
    “The HHS Mandate is a direct attack on our first liberty and an assault on all people of faith. We MUST stand together to defeat it. Get involved today at www.catholicvote.org ,” is the message accompanying the video.
    One priest explains the HHS Mandate and what it means.
   “This is not about contraception or abortion or sterilization. It’s about religious freedom. You may think abortion and contraception and sterilization are okay. You can think that, but we don’t think they’re okay, and we claim the religious freedom to believe what we think is right and act on it, and we think it’s wrong for the government to force us to do otherwise.
   “Let’s say a report comes out saying that bacon sandwiches are the best thing for you. Everyone should eat one once a day. Everyone agrees that bacon sandwiches are just the thing to cure all ills. So the government says everyone should have the choice to eat a bacon sandwich every day. That’s okay. They can say everyone can have that choice. Even Jews can have that choice. But what if they say that Jewish schools and hospitals have to pay for everybody’s bacon sandwich? Not good. Jews should be allowed to decline eating bacon and decline paying for other people to eat bacon.
   “That religious freedom is far more important than the issue of eating pork. That’s what we’re protesting about.”