Contact: Jeff Field, Director of Communications, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 212-371-3191, cl@catholicleague.org

NEW YORK, Feb. 27, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a new video by President Barack Obama that was cut to launch his "African Americans for Obama" campaign:

It is hardly newsworthy for President Obama to beckon African Americans to support his presidential campaign, but his clarion call to black churches to get on board represents a break with presidential politics: it is a deliberate challenge to the IRS stricture governing the role of religion in politics.

In the video [click here], President Obama explicitly calls on African Americans to go "to your faith community" to get the word out about his campaign. He even goes so far as to say that "congregation captains" should be organized to accomplish this goal.

This is good news. It means that the IRS harness on the clergy is officially off. Priests can now appoint "congregation captains" who will inform the faithful about attempts by the Obama administration to deny Catholics their First Amendment rights. By formally appealing to their parishioners to mobilize against the Obamacare legislation, priests will be faithfully implementing the president's new initiative.

Bishops, of course, will be able to seize on this ground-breaking proposal by asking priests, nuns, brothers, school teachers--lay leaders of every cause--to get the word out about the draconian Health and Human Services edict.

In other words, by undoing the IRS muzzle on black ministers, Obama has also made it possible for bishops and priests to organize against his war on Catholics with impunity. The timing is auspicious.