In a Protestant country, despite claims that religion does not matter, it's still a tough cultural road for Catholics.  Almost no conversation can be had that won't end quickly with Galileo or some pederast priest. Being anti-Catholic is ingrained in history.

The Church is too conservative, say left wing people who would never be Catholic anyway.  Well, that is not necessarily true.  The liberalization of the Church is what led to the pederast problem.  Instead of being thrown out, like in the more conservative days, society decided that they had a disease and a forgiving church was supposed to rehabilitate people, not excommunicate them. So they tried that and it got them what they deserve for trying to do the progressive thing instead of the right thing.

Those critics still exist and say the Church would be better if they'd just be forced to pay for birth control.  Indeed, they would be better - to those people - because they would no longer be Catholics. 

A. Barton Hinkle calls out the hyporcrisy at Reason. 
ThinkProgress, the website of the liberal Center for American Progress and the id of the conventional left. During the contraception debate ThinkProgress cranked out scores of pieces explaining why the Catholic Church was wrong to "impose its values on fellow citizens," as an April 13 post put it. Yet by August, ThinkProgress had discovered the virtues of religion's participation in politics: "Catholic Nuns Send Letter to Romney Challenging His 'Woeful lack of Knowledge' About the Poor," it bugled a few days ago.
It's no surprise that ThinkProgress loves them or hates them based on their position du jour.  They exist to promote some liberal policies and, at least when it comes to science, a whole lot of progressive crackpot ones. 

It isn't just a fringe site like ThinkProgress that is inconsistent and contradictory.  Hinkle also takes down the Wall Street Journal for doing the same thing, finding that the Church is a pawn of the left or the right depending on the world view of the columnist doing the writing.

Give it a read: Catholic Church: Right-Wing Pawn or Left-Wing Front Group? by A. Barton Hinkle, Reason.com