On June 17, Obama held a slight edge over Mitt Romney among Catholics (49-47 percent). Since then, Obama has surged ahead, and now leads 54-39 percent, according to a Pew poll conducted on Sept. 16.

The poll showed that among all registered voters, Obama leads Romney 51-42 percent.

A report by Religion News Service (RNS) said Obama and Romney are essentially tied among white Catholics, which some pollsters call the ultimate swing group.

Romney on Monday unveiled his Catholics for Romney Coalition. The Obama campaign also has a Catholic coalition.

During the last week of June to July 4, US Catholic bishops held what they dubbed as a "Fortnight for Freedom," with Masses, prayer groups and presentations in dioceses nationwide. The campaign was aimed against an Obama administration mandate that requires some religious institutions to provide cost-free contraception coverage to employees.

The RNS report quoted John C. Green, an expert on religion and politics at the University of Akron in Ohio, as saying that Obama's surge among Catholic voters does not mean the bishops' campaign was ineffective.

"It's not the issue that most middle-of-the-road Catholics are responding to," Green said. He said religious freedom is not the most salient issue for Catholics during an election dominated by economic concerns.

The margin of error for the September survey of Catholic voters is plus or minus 5.1 percentage points, according to Pew.

Sources

• RNS
• Huffington Post
• The Washington Post
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: AP/Center for American Progress

When the U.S. bishops came out so strongly against the new government rules regarding contraceptives and health insurance, they said the issue was one of religious freedom.

And I believed them.

When the bishops argued that it was not the administration's place to decide whether Catholic hospitals or colleges fit the "faith mission" exception to the insurance rule, it made sense to me.

And I believed them.

I thought the bishops were trying to make an argument apart from the politics of the moment, separate from the polarizing stances they have so often taken in the last few years, stances that had placed them in league with odd allies from the far right.

I feel like an idiot.

After the Obama administration announced adjustments to the contraception rule that would remove the church from directly having to pay for contraceptive coverage in health plans, many Catholics responded with relief, including Catholic Charities and the Catholic Health Association. The bishops' objections seemed understood, and the public at large was not denied access.

But the bishops were not to be denied a wedge issue. After initially sounding open to the compromise, they soon came down firmly against something that was just not good enough. The bishops now say they will throw their support behind a Republican-sponsored bill in Congress that would exempt any individual insurance provider or purchaser from any mandate that doesn't mesh with their religious beliefs. It is yet another not-so-subtle attempt to essentially gut the health care reform law.

And now the story has entered into absurdity, a land often explored when the bishops find themselves all puffed up on matters of sexuality and gender. Read more

Sources

• Joe Ferullo in the National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Reuters