A rough week for America’s Roman Catholic bishops

Each week, The Times’ editorial and opinion pages receive a few thousand emails sent to letters@latimes.com, most of which are spam, messages sent as part of letter-writing campaigns and more. After deleting those messages, I’m usually left with 500 to 1,000 usable letters to the editor to consider for six weekly pages. Between 60 and 70 letters end up running in the paper during any given week.

Here is a snapshot of this week’s mailbag.

598

The number of usable letters to the editor submitted between 10 a.m. Friday, June 8, and 10 a.m. this past Friday.

31

Readers weighed in on the L.A. Unified School District, the week’s most-discussed topic.

30

Readers discussed the U.S. bishops’ fight against President Obama’s contraception mandate, the runner-up topic.

2

Of those letters sided with the bishops.

Three letters on the fight between the White House and American Roman Catholic bishops over the Obama administration’s requirement that all health insurers cover contraception at no extra charge will run on Sunday’s page (you can find them at latimes.com/letters). They’ll reflect the mix of submissions we received: All three letters object to the church’s actions.

Several weeks ago, I covered almost exactly this topic in a Postscript column, the only difference being the issue then was the dust-up between the Holy See and what it deemed a theologically wayward group of American nuns. My conclusion then applies now:

“Whether a letter agrees with a columnist or editorial doesn’t affect its chances of being published, and what runs on the page is generally a good reflection of the mix of opinions sent to letters@latimes.com. On some issues, those opinions will tilt decisively in one direction.”

ALSO:

Another DWP water grab

Chasing Lance Armstrong

Cable TV’s antitrust issue