Bishop Robert Barron and Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone spoke out against the U.S. government’s past targeting of pro-life Catholics in health care at the U.S. Religious Liberty Commission’s fifth hearing.
Cordileone, who serves on the commission’s Advisory Board of Religious Leaders, highlighted the ongoing legal battle being fought by the Little Sisters of the Poor over government contraceptive mandates during his remarks at the March 16 hearing.
“These are women who deserve our utmost respect and esteem, and I can vouch for this from personal experience,” Cordileone said. “Why then would these humble, holy, and self-giving women have to find themselves in a multiyear, burdensome litigation with the federal government over a contraception insurance mandate that was part of the Affordable Care Act?”
The prolonged court battle of the Little Sisters of the Poor dates to 2011 when the Obama administration required employers to provide cost-free coverage for contraceptives, sterilizations, and “emergency birth control” in employee health plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Although the Supreme Court decided in the sisters’ favor in 2020, a federal court ruled against them in August 2025 when the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled in favor of both New Jersey and Pennsylvania in finding that the federal government had not followed protocol when issuing exemptions to contraceptive requirements, including for the Little Sisters. They appealed the decision in December 2025.
“The courage of this poor religious community to take on the federal government with its endless resources cannot be overstated,” the San Francisco archbishop said.
Cordileone further highlighted California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s lawsuit against Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka for refusing to perform abortions and a lawsuit against a Catholic hospital in Sacramento that refused to perform a hysterectomy for the purposes of gender transition.
Cordileone warned that if the courts rule against the Catholic hospitals in either case, that “all Catholic hospitals in California will be threatened.”
“Every year there are bills introduced into our state Legislature to expand private insurance coverage for sterilization, IVF, abortion, surrogacy, gender-affirming care, and so forth,” he said. “If these bills include a religious exemption, the exemption usually only covers organizations that fit a very narrow definition: employs people of their same faith, serves people of their same faith, and has the primary purpose of inculcating religious values. So here we have the secular government defining for religious communities what it means to be religious.”
“If we lose this fight, we will have lost the soul of our country,” he said.
Barron, who serves as a commissioner on the religious liberty panel, echoed Cordileone and said Catholics are increasingly being pushed out of health care and social services.
“I think they want us out of health care,” he said. “They want us out of education….”
From EWTN News
Here it is 15 years later, despite the Supreme Court. Thanks for absolutely nothing 0bama, you ruined this country with your Leftist agenda!
It’s Democrats and democratic activist judges who are against freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Thank God for Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and Bishop Robert Barron for speaking up against this outrage! Why do the people of California keep electing members who are against freedom of religion and freedom of speech? Let’s all pray that what goes on in California doesn’t spread throughout the country. California is so lost it needs lots of prayers. Our Lady of Fatima pray for California and the Little Sisters of the Poor.
These two bishops are the type of bishops who should be in leadership, including “promotions” to the cardinalate, electing popes. They are not left or right, liberal or conservative. They are Catholic. They simply understand, accept, have clarity and are willing to speak the truth about morality and faith. May God bless and protect them and others like them. And, may others stand beside them.
Cesar Chavez was a Catholic icon.
The Catholic Church backed Cesar Chavez hook, line and sinker. Up until a day ago, Bishops Cordileone and Barron were touting him as a champion of Catholic ideals.
Do you think Catholic bishops are supposed to have special knowledge of a person’s crimes and sins that virtually no one in the world knew about until recently? Even the Apostles thought Judas was a good guy, until they found out he wasn’t. They’re bishops, not mind readers or private investigators. Did you and those you know denounce Chavez years ago? How about your mother? There are many things about people that we simply do not know. Trust in the Lord. Leaders too often disappoint and scandalize us with their sins.