WASHINGTON (CNS) – A directive from the U.S. Army chief of chaplains that a letter opposing the Obama administration’s contraceptive mandate not be read from the pulpit by Catholic military chaplains violated First Amendment rights of free speech and free exercise of religion, according to the head of the Archdiocese for the Military Services.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio spoke with Secretary of the Army John McHugh about the chief of chaplains’ response to the archbishop’s Jan. 26 letter and the two “agreed that it was a mistake to stop the reading of the archbishop’s letter,” according to a statement released by the military archdiocese Feb. 6.

The two also agreed to McHugh’s suggestion that one line, which read “We cannot – we will not – comply with this unjust law,” be removed from the letter because of “the concern that it could potentially be misunderstood as a call to civil disobedience,” the statement added.