Tip O'Neill loved Jack Kennedy stories. He especially liked the one about the president flying to New York to address the Catholic Youth Organization.

After the speech, Kennedy's aides told him that a group of bishops and a group of nuns each wanted to see him. Pressed for time, the president flashed his famous smile and announced, "The bishops are all Republicans, no votes for me there. I'll go see the nuns. They're good Democrats."

We thought about that story as the House voted on health-care reform -- with the bishops weighing in against the bill and nuns -- including the head of the Catholic Health Association, representing 1,200 Catholic health systems, and the superiors of several religious orders -- declaring their support. We admit, even after all these years in Washington, we were surprised.

We simply didn't believe that in the end, the Catholic hierarchy would oppose legislation providing health coverage to more than 30 million uninsured people, 45,000 of whom are estimated to die annually from lack of insurance.

As the Catholic Church fathers stated, "For decades, the United States Catholic bishops have supported universal health care. The Catholic Church teaches that health care is a basic human right, essential for human life and dignity."

Despite the prelates' protestations that "We are bishops, not politicians, policy experts or legislative tacticians," we assumed they were threatening opposition as a negotiating tactic to get the strongest possible language barring federal funding for abortion.

But when we (or at least one of us) went to church on the day of the House vote and the priest read a letter from the local bishop encouraging congregants "to contact your representative and urge him/her to vote 'no' on health-care reform," we knew negotiations had ended. The bishops had irrevocably sided with activists outside the Capitol shouting, "Kill the bill."

Even so, anti-abortion Democrats extracted one more concession from the White House. In the final hours of debate, the president promised to sign an executive order reaffirming the current "restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion." That promise incensed pro-choice activists, but it still didn't do it for the bishops who remained steadfast in their opposition.

"I just don't understand it," longtime anti-abortion Democrat Bob Casey told us the day after the House vote. He had worked with other pro-life senators to ensure no federal dollars would pay for abortions under the new insurance exchanges and to beef up provisions allowing doctors, hospitals and caregivers to follow their consciences regarding abortions.

Casey also inserted incentives to keep women from choosing to abort. In addition to increased tax credits for adoption, the bill, for the first time, provides $250 million to support at-risk pregnant women and struggling mothers.

"I thought we got it right," Casey said of the abortion language, "and we added to it a number of other elements that will have the effect of reducing or at least not increasing the number of abortions."

That's what many nuns thought as well. "We have witnessed firsthand the impact of our national health-care crisis, particularly its impact on women, children and people who are poor," the religious testified in their letter supporting the health-care bill. "This is the REAL pro-life stance, and we as Catholics are all for it."

It was a gutsy move for the nuns to challenge the hierarchy, but they were determined to push health-care coverage over the congressional finish line. The nuns know they lack the bishops' clout, but they purposely provided political cover to pro-life Catholic House members. They put their thumbs on the scale to help Democrats, just as Jack Kennedy would have expected them to.

And those Democrats are going to need all the cover they can get. After the health-care bill finally passed, Republicans moved to send it back to committee to include more stringent anti-abortion language. It was what's called a scorecard vote. Everyone knew it wouldn't succeed, but various pressure groups could use it to send out bulletins rating candidates on their issues.

Members were warned that one group scoring the vote would be the Catholic bishops conference -- and that members who voted for it would get a positive score, those who voted against it a negative one.

With only 19 Democrats supporting the procedural measure, the bishops, with their powerful lobbying operation, had put much more than thumbs on the scale for Republicans.

Do we see someone up above flashing that famous smile, saying a celestial "I told you so"?

COKIE and STEVE ROBERTS are syndicated columnists (stevecokie@gmail.com).