„Right-wing bishops aren’t helping the cause of compromise with their incessant charges that the Obama team harbors an anti-Catholic animus. This view gained ground when the administration ended a grant to the bishops for a program assisting the victims of human trafficking because it did not provide contraception and abortion referrals. Stopping that funding was a mistake, but the White House has reason to bridle at allegations of anti-Catholicism, given how much it has actually increased financing for many leading Catholic groups.
Administration calculations show, for example, that federal funding for Catholic Relief Services went from roughly $198 million in 2007 to $362 million in 2010. Catholic Charities affiliates have seen an increase in federal help of more than $100 million since 2008. The polemical overkill on the right end of the bishops’ conference is not justified and only feeds a belief among Democrats that compromise with the church is pointless because the most conservative bishops will continue their attacks no matter what Obama does.