(USA Today) Editorial: Obama's contraception retreat is not enough

[PSPS]

4. "government meddling in church affairs"

Most American women — including most Catholic women — disagree with the 1968 encyclical in which Pope Paul VI held that contraception contravenes God's will. But church doctrine isn't set by opinion poll, or even by lay members of the faith, and the Constitution draws a bright line against government meddling in church affairs.

Yes, and there is also a bright line against the church meddling in governmental affairs. At least there used to be. If the hospitals and other institutions controlled by the catholic church want to eschew the billions of taxpayer dollars they receive every year, then they are free to impose their nefarious and, frankly, somewhat hypocritical "moral codes" on their employees along with its apparently requisite substandard health care coverage (applies to women only, naturally. They are the ones with that scary vagina, after all.)

But we are living in a de-facto theocracy now. The catholic bishops are our veto-wielding mullahs and our politicians are required to be "believers."