The Vatican Monday warned of threats of "unprecedented gravity" to the Catholic Church in the United States, in the latest such censure in the lead-up to the US presidential elections."Concerted efforts are being made to redefine and restrict the exercise of the right to religious freedom," Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone said in a new charge seen by observers as targeting the Obama administration for allegedly denying Catholics the right to conscientious objection.
Pope Benedict XVI has told American bishops repeatedly over the last eight months that the compulsory provision for contraception in employees' health insurance included in President Barack Obama's health-care plan threatens religious freedom.
Bertone's warning came in a message to the US-based Knights of Columbus, in an apparent bid to get the world's largest Catholic fraternal group to keep the Church's key issues at the forefront of the election scene.
Cardinal Bertone spoke of the "urgent need" to counter "a reductive secularism which would delegitimize the Church's participation in public debate about the issues which are determining the future of American society."
He called on the influential Knights to continue working "tirelessly to help the Catholic community recognize and respond to the unprecedented gravity of these new threats to the Church's liberty and public moral witness."
US Catholic leaders are split between an ultra-conservative wing, which has slammed Obama's health reforms, and others who have taken more liberal stances on homosexuality and other issues.
The Vatican has slammed the rebels repeatedly in recent months.
The pope has been receiving groups of US bishops for regular work sessions, and has insisted that they stand firm against issues such as abortion and euthanasia.
The Holy See has also become embroiled in a row with a US association of Catholic clergy women, which it has criticised as having feminist and liberal stances on contraception, homosexuality and female priests.
In June, the Vatican slammed a "sexual morality" book by an American nun which justifies homosexuality, divorce and masturbation.
Attempts to force wayward US Catholics back into line have increased in the run up to the presidential elections in November.
The Knights organisation, which boasts 1.8 million members worldwide, has publicly opposed Obama's health care package and is a key ally in the Church's move to form a united Catholic front and tackle secularism in US politics.
Bertone urged US Catholics to remember "the great biblical ideals of freedom and justice which shaped the founding of the US," as well as the responsibility of each new generation "to preserve, defend and advance those great ideals."
"The challenges of the present moment are in fact yet another reminder of the decisive importance of the Catholic laity for the advancement of the Church's mission in today's rapidly changing social context," he said.