Shhh! Pope Francis Visits with Nuns Battling Obamacare Contraception Mandate

After he celebrated mass Wednesday at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., Pope Francis popped across the street to meet with the Little Sisters of the Poor — nuns who have been in a long battle over the contraception mandate part of Obamacare.

Not surprisingly, you didn't see it anywhere on TV and certainly, with the exception of The Washington Post, it was scantily covered in the mainstream press.

The pope’s visit to the Little Sisters was a sign of support for them in their legal battle, Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman said.

The Little Sisters of the Poor, which operates homes for the elderly in cities across the country, has been in a battle with the Obama administration over the law’s requirement that they allow their insurers to offer free contraception coverage to employees. 

The Post reported Mark Rienzi, lead attorney for the Little Sisters, who spoke with one of the nuns after the meeting, said the pope was at their home for about 15 minutes and shook hands and spoke with each one of them in their chapel.

The pope visited the White House on Wednesday morning calling for strong protections for religious liberty. 

The Little Sisters first filed a lawsuit in 2013. In July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruled that the nuns must comply with the contraception requirement. In August, the same circuit granted them a stay to protect them from fines while they petition their case to the Supreme Court, which is expected in October or November to decide whether to take their case.

The federal government’s requirement that women receive contraceptive coverage without co-payment has sparked dozens of lawsuits, including in the case of Hobby Lobby, which won its case in front of the Supreme Court. Religious nonprofits, which do not have the same exemption as houses of worship (which do not have to cover contraception), have seen mixed legal results when challenging the mandate.

An “accommodation” in the mandate would let the sisters sign a paper that stated their religious objections to the mandate and allow insurers to take over. However, the Little Sisters argued that a letter would still violate their conscience because it would enable something they see as wrong to take place. Catholic Church teaching forbids the use of artificial contraception, and many religious nonprofits want to be entirely exempted from the mandate, as churches are.