Cardinal Dolan believes that the Obama administration is trying to divide the Catholic church over the issue of contraception, even noting their shrewdness in picking a very unpopular issue within the Catholic church. But he says they must be vigorous in making this issue what it is really about, religious freedom:
Our opponents are very shrewd because they have chosen an issue that they know we are not very popular on and that is why, Bill, we have to be vigorous in insisting that this is not about contraception, it’s about religious freedom.
And I don’t want to judge people, but I think there would be a drift in the administration that this is a good issue and if we can divide the Catholic community — because it’s already divided — and if one can caricature the bishops as being hopelessly out of touch, these bullies who are trying to achieve judicially and legislatively what they’ve been unable to achieve because their moral integrity was compromised recently. There is that force out there trying to caricature us, all right? But we can’t back down from this fight because it’s about religion freedom, it’s close to the very heart of what the democratic enterprise that we know and love is the United States of America is all about.
Here’s the full interview: