CHA head disagrees with bishops
The president of the Catholic Health Association continued her public disagreement with the U.S. bishops over whether the national health care overhaul will allow federal funding of abortion.
The U.S. bishops say the new law will fund abortion, while CHA President Sister Carol Keehan maintains that it does not include abortion and is a “good” but “not necessarily a perfect” law.
Sister Carol, a Daughter of Charity whose association represents 620 Catholic hospitals, spoke at an event in her honor sponsored by the University of San Francisco Nov. 23.
The association’s decision to support the health care overhaul was key in swaying the votes of some members of Congress who had opposed the legislation over the abortion issue. President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 into law in March.
“As far as I was concerned, if I knew in my heart that it did not fund abortion, I could not do anything but stand up for the passage of that bill for the 32 million” people who do not have health insurance, Sister Carol told about 200 women religious, students and others gathered at St. Ignatius Church for the second annual Stand 4 Conference sponsored by USF’s University Ministry.
The conference invites religious and spiritual leaders “whose actions symbolize a life of courage, commitment, and advocacy,” according to an announcement. Sister Carol was invited “to speak on the Catholic tradition that views health care as a basic human right.”
In her 30-minute presentation, Sister Carol cited Pope Benedict XVI, Pope John Paul II, and Pope John XXIII on social justice, the right of all to health care and the right to life from conception to natural death.
“We are the only industrialized country that does not provide health care to all,” Sister Carol said. Nine million children are among those without health insurance, she said.
“What excuse justifies a child not having access to health care?” Sister Carol asked.
Sister Carol did not address details of the bill regarding abortion funding beyond saying that she had read the act meticulously and engaged in “18 months of almost non-stop meeting with everyone involved,” including President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, members of Congress, the bishops, and others.
“We believe at CHA that we have stood for life,” Sister Carol said. “We will continue to implement this for the good of life and the good of the American people.”
The speech was in opposition to the position of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on health reform. Outgoing USCCB President Cardinal Francis George reaffirmed the bishops’ position on Nov. 15 when he said the health care law will fund abortion. In the same speech, Cardinal George said the disagreement created “a wound to the Church’s unity.”
An Archdiocese of San Francisco official reiterated the position of the bishops.
“I agree with Cardinal George that Sister Carol Keehan and the Catholic Health Association’s actions were a serious ‘wound to Church unity.’ This was not a minor nor benign disagreement,” George Wesolek, director of the archdiocesan Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns, said in a statement Nov. 29.
“The bishops of the United States had a solid analysis of the proposed bill and determined that it was not sufficient to keep abortion out of the health care bill. They have been proven correct,” Wesolek said. “If there had been unity, I believe that we would have a health care bill but one with a firewall against abortion and provisions for conscience protections.”
The U.S. bishops opposed the health reform bill despite decades of support for universal health care because they said it did not provide for undocumented immigrants, did not protect conscience rights and did not include an explicit ban on federal funding of abortion in the language of the Hyde Amendment.
Since 1976, the Hyde Amendment has been attached annually to appropriations bills for the Department of Health and Human Services because, following the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, a series of court decisions have defined abortion as medical care unless it is explicitly excluded, according to the USCCB legal analysis.
The Catholic Health Association, and many orders of women religious said the final bill and an executive order signed by President Obama would exclude any possibility of federal money going to pay for abortions.
By the nature of their office, the bishops are entrusted by God with moral authority and therefore they are the ones who speak with the authority of the Church – and their judgment in matters of faith and morality takes precedence, Cardinal George said.
In his Nov. 15 speech to the bishops’ conference at its semi-annual meeting in Baltimore, Cardinal George said: “The bishops in apostolic communion and in union with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome, speak for the Church in matters of faith and in moral issues and the laws surrounding them. All the rest is opinion, often well-considered and important opinion that deserves a careful and respectful hearing, but still opinion.”
By Valerie Schmalz
From December 3, 2010 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
