ST. LOUIS • In a pastoral letter sent to the archdiocesan curia, or staff, Wednesday, St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson said a decision last month by President Barack Obama's administration to require most health plans to provide free contraceptive benefits to their members constitutes "a direct attack on our religious freedom."

Carlson said he has asked that the letter be read in every parish in the archdiocese this weekend and next.

The U.S. government, Carlson wrote, "has just dealt a heavy blow" to American Catholics "and to the millions more who are served by the Catholic faithful." He asks Catholics to call their representatives in Washington "in support of legislation that would reverse the Administration's decision."

Belleville Bishop Edward Braxton has asked each parish in his diocese to include a two-page question-and-answer sheet about the mandate — called "An Attack on Rights of Conscience" and written by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops — in their parish bulletin this Sunday.

On Jan. 20, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it will give Catholic hospitals and other religious institutions an extra year to comply with the new requirement. But, it said, most health plans eventually must offer contraception at no extra cost.

Religious leaders whose traditions oppose contraception on moral, doctrinal and theological grounds had worked to exempt religiously affiliated organizations, like hospitals and universities, from the mandate. Houses of worship were already exempt.

In a separate "pastoral message" issued last week on the archdiocese's website, Carlson said Catholics "are facing grave and unprecedented threats to our religious freedom." The mandate, he said, "is unacceptable to Americans who cherish the principles on which our nation was founded."

In the pastoral letter to be read in parishes this weekend, Carlson said that unless the mandate is overturned, "we Catholics will be compelled either to violate our consciences or drop health coverage for our employees."