President Barack Obama declared today he’s found a solution to a birth-control uproar that will protect religious liberty but also ensure that women have access to free contraception, as he rushed to defuse an election-year issue that threatened to overtake his administration. Capping weeks of growing controversy, Obama announced he was backing off a newly announced requirement for religious employers to provide free birth control coverage even if it runs counter to their religious beliefs. Instead, workers at such institutions will be able to get free contraception directly from health insurance companies/Associated Press. More here. (AP photo: President Barack Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius leaving press conference this morning)

Question: What do you make of the move to satisfy Catholics and other religious groups by President Obama?

• Monday Poll: 92 of 175 respondents (52.57%) said Catholic universities, hospitals, and charities should be forced under new Obama health care rules to provide insurance for workers covering birth control. 79 of 175 respondents (45.14%) said Catholic institutions shouldn't be forced to go against church doctrine to complay with federal mandates. 4 were undecided.
• Today's Question: Do you agree with the decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals outlawing a ban on gay marriage?

A majority of Catholics believe their employers should be required to provide coverage for contraception and birth control, according to a poll released Tuesday from the non-profit research organization Public Religion Research Institute. The poll found that a solid majority of Catholics, 58 percent, say contraception and birth control should be a required, no-cost benefit under their company’s health care plans.  The president has been hammered in recent days by leaders in the Catholic Church, as well as his Republican rivals, for the administration’s decision to force employers, including religious institutions, to provide health insurance coverage for contraception/Jonathan Easley, The Hill. More here.

Question: Does your insurance provide contraception coverage?

Now the whole, awful pattern seems to be playing out again in Ireland and Germany and beyond. The Pope’s handling of the mess, and his handlers handling of the mess, prompted a well-known parish priest in Idaho, who is also a canon lawyer, to go public with a call for Pope Benedict to resign. Father Tom Faucher in Boise suggested in an Op-Ed in the Idaho Statesman that some of the problem is generational. Benedict is 82. But, there is nothing generational about failing to aggressively, sensitively and completely address this cancer on the Church. We’re talking about the safety and well being of children, after all. Even a bunch of old men must know the importance of doing that/Marc Johnson, The Johnson Post. More here. And: A stronger, younger pope is needed in time of crisis/Rev. W. Thomas Faucher, Statesman

Sisyphus: There’s an op-ed in today’s Statesman by Bishop Driscoll condemning Father Faucher’s request for Pope Benedict XVI to resign and defending the pope.