Outraged by a just-finalized Obama administration ruling requiring employer health care plans to offer contraceptive and sterilization services, the bishop of Harrisburg penned a strongly worded message that's being read in Catholic pulpits this weekend throughout the diocese.

In a letter to the churches, Bishop Joseph P. McFadden called the ruling an "alarming and serious matter that poses the greatest threat to religious liberty in our lifetimes."

"On Jan. 20, just days before the 39th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that almost all employers, including Catholic employers, will be forced to offer their employees health coverage that includes abortion-inducing drugs and contraception.

(Click here to read the letter in its entirety.)

The health care rule was announced earlier, but the administration's decision nine days ago was a rejection of Catholic bishops' efforts to secure a conscience exemption, said the Rev. Allan F. Wolfe, pastor of San Juan Bautista Catholic Church in Lancaster.

The exemption as it currently stands "is too narrowly written," he said.

The day of the announcement, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called the rule "literally unconscionable."

The purpose of the bishop's message is two-fold, Wolfe said: to raise awareness among Catholics in the diocese on an issue that's largely flown under the radar, and to "mobilize them."

Wolfe, who is a Sunday News columnist, also said it was "a real insult" to announce the final decision just days before the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. It's like the administration was asserting, "We'll show who's boss," he said.

Institutions have a year to comply with the rule, which pushes any additional battle past the November election, he said.

Obama's "looking to delay the fight," Wolfe said.

Bishop McFadden also wrote:

"This is an edict directing every citizen to pay for these morally abhorrent services with their tax dollars while ordering the Church, through her institutions, to distribute contraception and provide sterilization."

The letter urges parishioners to contact Congress "in support of legislation that would reverse the administration's decision."

Wolfe believes the rule violates the First Amendment to the Constitution because the free exercise of religion means being able to live out what you believe daily, not just having the ability to worship every week.

The administration's decision is both constitutionally and morally illegal, said the Rev. Paul J. Theisz, parochial vicar of St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Manheim Township.

Unless the ruling is overturned, McFadden wrote that "Catholics will be compelled to either violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees (and suffer the penalties for doing so).

"... We cannot — we will not — comply with this unjust law."

Wolfe said the rule is short-sighted because many Catholic institutions serve numerous non-Catholics, who will be affected, too.

So the "common good," he said, is being ignored.

Contact Sunday News staff writer Paula Wolf at pwolf@lnpnews.com.