Archbishop Timothy Dolan took aim at the Obama administration Tuesday, arguing that the president’s contraception policies are “strangling” the Catholic Church.
“They tell us if you’re really going be considered a church, if you’re going to be really exempt from these demands of the government, well, you have to propagate your Catholic faith and everything you do, you can serve only Catholics and employ only Catholics,” Dolan said during an interview on CBS Tuesday. “We’re like, wait a minute, when did the government get in the business of defining for us the extent of our ministry?”
The remarks from the outspoken and influential American bishop come nearly a week after Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius gave a commencement address at Georgetown University amid protests from various Catholic groups. Dolan criticized Georgetown, a Jesuit school, for inviting Sebelius, who had a significant role in developing the administration’s policies on contraception coverage.
“Well, I do think that’s a problem,” Dolan said. “Georgetown is the oldest Catholic university in the country. Part of Catholic identity is to be in union with the bishops.”
