The author is correct on this: the Church should say unequivocally that running charities and hospitals they way the Church wants to run them is a part of being Catholic and is a constitutionally protected activity.
This trumps ANY statutory provisions the government might have in the secular sector such as equal protection of gays, statutory legality of contraception or statutory legality of abortion.
The Church should not threaten to close down the hospitals or other organization affiliated with the Church. The threat instead should be to enforce strict Catholic moral discipline in them, — for example, fire dissenting nuns, nurses etc. The Church should state that she does not intend to obey anti-life laws and mobilize the Knights of Columbus to thwart any use of physical force by the government against Catholic institutions.
The window of opportunity for the defense of religious freedom is closing. Any cave-in on the part of the government should be taken as a matter of course, and more assertive Catholic policy should follow, till a political climate in which no intervention by the government in the internal affairs of the Church is thinkable, prevails.
You've got to be kidding. The Knights are an old man's organization. I would guess the average age in my Council is over 50. Most of us are well over the hill.