Saturday, April 10, 2010

US Catholic Bishops Disagree with Catholic Hosptal Association

OSF-SFMC in Peoria created a policy in the mid-1990's that allowed OSF physicians to write for oral oontraceptives. They still have the blessing of the Catholic Diocese of Peoria in this practice which is obviously against the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Simply, Bishop Jenky does not have the courage to take on the very rich OSF in Peoria. He fears their power in the Peoria business community.

However, just recently the United States Council of Catholic Bishops disagreed with the President Obama overhall of national health care specifically because of abortion funding.

Not surprisingly the Catholic Hospital Association disagreed with the Catholic Bishops. Catholic hospitals want to make money even if it needs sacrificing Catholic teaching. Just like OSF in Peoria.

Below are the last couple of paragraphs in this weeks New England Journa of Medicine regarding this schism in the Church over abortion.



There is no politics like abortion politics, and there are political winners and losers in the abortion-funding sideshow. President Obama is the big winner: he got a bill passed when passage seemed impossible, and he remained constant in his pledge that under his plan, “no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions.” Stupak’s political future will be decided in this fall’s election,3 but in the eyes of many, including me, he has gained stature by agreeing to support health care reform without his amendment. Political losers include Pitts and the fundamentalist Christian political leadership group known as the Family or the Fellowship, as well as the Catholic bishops, all of whom insisted that health care reform should not be passed without the inclusion of the Stupak–Pitts amendment.

Perhaps the most conspicuous winners are the Catholic Health Association of the United States and the Catholic women’s religious orders, whose members deliver health care in 1200 facilities and organizations nationwide.4 In mid-March, shortly before the final vote, both groups came out very strongly in favor of the Senate bill without the Stupak–Pitts amendment; the nuns noted that the bill “will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions. It will uphold longstanding conscience protections, and it will make historic new investments . . . in support of pregnant women. This is the REAL pro-life stance, and we as Catholics are all for it.”5 Amen.