Catholic bishops on Sunday issued a response to ObamaCare's mandates on providing contraception in violation of conscience and religious freedom. The message was simple: We will not comply.

It was hardly a profile in courage when the Obama administration, hoping to kick the issue down the road past the November election, announced last Friday that Catholic hospitals and other religious institutions will have an extra year to comply with a new requirement that most health plans provide contraceptive benefits at no cost to their members.

On Sunday, America's Catholic bishops in an open letter to their parishioners and their government said they would not comply.

Champions of the separation of church and state have let the crickets chirp on this matter.

Not silent are those such as Bishop Richard Lennon of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese. They let it be known they'll fight this assault on the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion.

"Unless this rule is overturned, Catholics will be compelled either to violate our consciences or to drop health care coverage for our employees ... ," Lennon wrote in his letter read by priests throughout the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland during weekend Masses.

The Obama administration is "denying to Catholics our nation's first and most fundamental freedom — that of religious liberty. We cannot — we will not — comply with this unjust law."