Mostly, the problems are sins of omission: The faith-based office in the White House has a reputation for failing to return calls and e-mails.

That’s why some at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops were irate even before the Jan. 20 decision on the mandate.

“There’s no one there to pick up the bat phone,” one religious leader said. And “there’s a sense the brain-trust in Chicago still doesn’t get it,’’ — the “it” being “what they need to do to bring back the people they’ve systematically alienated over the last three years.”

The Obama campaign hasn’t hired anyone to run religious outreach yet. When the first two people offered the posts of director and assistant director turned them down, it was seen as a worrisome sign that the president’s team hadn’t sold these as serious jobs.