Wuerl in the (political) news

Former Pittsburgh Bishop Donald Wuerl has been all over the political news lately.

More than 40 Catholic groups filed lawsuits today challenging the Obama administration's requirement that employers offer contraception coverage, and Wuerl is the main quote in Politico's story:

“The government’s new definition of religious institutions suggests that some of the very institutions that put our faith into practice — schools, hospitals and social service organizations — are not ‘religious enough,’” said Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington. “Catholic institutions of the Archdiocese of Washington, including its schools and social service ministries, do not qualify as religious and the mandate forces them to provide coverage for drugs and procedures that we believe are morally wrong.”

He also has a small turn in Maureen Dowd's latest NYT column taking the church to task on the same issue, and calls by conservatives to keep Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary, from speaking at Georgetown's graduation:

The Society for Truth and Justice, a fringe Christian anti-abortion group, compared Ms. Sebelius to Himmler, and protesters showed up on campus to yell at her for being, as one screamed, "a murderer."

"Remember, Georgetown has no neo-Nazi clubs or skinhead clubs on campus, nor should they," Bill Donohue, the Catholic League president, said on Fox News. "But they have two -- two! -- pro-abortion clubs at Georgetown University. Now they're bringing in Kathleen Sebelius. They wouldn't bring in an anti-Semite, nor should they. They wouldn't bring in a racist, nor should they. But they're bringing in a pro-abortion champion, and they shouldn't."

Washington's Cardinal Donald Wuerl called the invitation "shocking" and upbraided the Georgetown president, John DeGioia. But Mr. DeGioia, who so elegantly defended the Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke against Rush Limbaugh's nasty epithets, stood fast against dogmatic censorship.