Members of the "Gang of 18" don't like being held accountable to the Faith they supposedly hold. Some Catholic members of Congress were highly critical of the Pope's remarks regarding Catholic politicians putting themselves at risk for excommunication based on their activities in office (most notably enabling and promoting abortion).
For two responses to this little temper tantrum:
First we have Father Euteneuer, of Human Life International, basically telling them to get with the program or hit the road : http://www.hli.org/press_releases_gang_of_18_leave_church.html .
Then you have the Gang of Bureaucrats at the USCCB, who couldn't get out of the way of a speeding train without forming a committee, offering a "statement" :
While we should throw a parade for them not taking 2 years to put the statement out, it stills shows that "committee-speak" is never a good substitute for being clear and unambiguous. Guess they didn't want to offend all their "friends".
