My syndicated column discusses the underreported news that President Obama called the Catholic bishops of the U.S. (among others) liars when he insisted that those who say proposed health-care legislation would lead to federally funded abortions are “bearing false witness.”

It was a disturbing comment, albeit not uncharacteristic of Obama, who made similar accusations earlier this summer against the National Right to Life Committee on the topic of his legislative record and infanticide. The substance of this debate should not be obscured by Cardinal McCarrick’s partial reading of a Vatican correspondence initiated by Senator Kennedy in his final weeks — which was presented in such a way that a casual viewer could easily have concluded that the Vatican endorsed Kennedy’s health-care plans — or the president’s presence on the altar of a Catholic Church this weekend.

As Cardinal O’Malley put it in his statement last week on the passing of Senator Kennedy: “For nearly half a century, Senator Kennedy was often a champion for the poor, the less fortunate, and those seeking a better life.”

But some aspects of the health-care bills that Kennedy’s name is being invoked to pass would represent crimes against the dignity of the human person. Kennedy often advocated for legal abortion and opposed even the most reasonable of restrictions, such as a ban on partial-birth abortion. For Catholics, while other matters are subject to prudential debates, innocent human lives are not.

This debate isn’t about one or another of these bishops siding with a political party. In fact, earlier this month, during a television interview, the archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, said, “I’m praying with and for the president” and expressed his gratitude that Obama was tackling health-care reform and seeking to reach a “constructive” consensus. But Dolan cautioned against the rush to pass legislation: “I would think it much more prudential to wait and see. I don’t think we ought to say, ‘Hey, we’re not for this at all, even in principle’ — no,we’re open, we’re cooperative, and we want to see something philosophically done, some type of reform. But once again, boy, we gotta be so circumspect about the how of it, the details. I hate to say it, the devil’s always in the details.”

Specifically, Dolan warned: “Health care is at the service of life. Human life is not at the service of some plan, or some system, right? So everything we do should be, in a civil society, to promote, and to enhance, and to protect the dignity of human life. If ever human life begins to be looked upon as a means to an end, or a commodity, or some type of mechanical thing, then we’re in trouble.”

We’re in deep trouble if the president refuses to be honest about what’s going on and instead derides those who raise questions. Be vigilant.