Cardinal Dolan criticizes Obama contraception policy as ‘radical intrusion'

By Russell Berman - 04/08/12 11:26 AM ET

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, said Sunday the Obama administration’s policy on contraception was “a dramatic radical intrusion of government bureaucracy in the internal life” of the Catholic Church, and vowed to continue to fight the ruling.

In an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Dolan reiterated that he remained unsatisfied with the administration’s policy requiring that employees of religious organizations, including Catholic groups, have access to contraception. Dolan had led the church’s effort against the regulation, which resulted in what the administration thought was an accommodation to concerns that it was unduly burdening religious groups opposed to birth control.

“We still find ourselves in a tough spot,” he said.

“We didn’t ask for the fight, but we’re not going to back away from it,” Dolan added.

The regulation, issued as part of the implementation of the 2010 healthcare law, does not require religious organizations to provide or pay for contraception coverage, but it mandates that insurance companies cover contraception if the group claims an exemption.

Dolan also weighed in on the candidacy of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, a Mormon who will likely be the Republican presidential nominee. The cardinal said that he could not foresee that “Catholics would have any problem voting for a Mormon at all.”