Let the California Supreme Court's 6-1 ruling requiring Catholic Charities and other church entities to pay for contraceptives in employee health insurance be a wake-up call.

Catholics shouldn't think the culture will always warmly welcome the Church. Some of our beliefs aren't just controversial — they could become illegal.

There are already moves by judges to define the expression of basic Christian beliefs about the sinfulness of homosexual acts as a hate crime. Now, the Catholic teaching about contraception has been dismissed as irrelevant by a California court.

The decision is a reminder that Catholic identity is vitally important, not just to preserve the integrity of the faith but to preserve the Church's strength as an institution.

The California Supreme Court's act is inexcusable. It has no right to define what is and isn't a tenet of the Catholic Church. But, because so few Catholics are willing to teach, proclaim and defend the Church's teaching on contraception, we have left ourselves vulnerable.

If we don't have the courage to proclaim Catholic teaching, we might find we're denied the right to live it.