Fifty-nine Thousand Nuns Oppose the Bishops on Health Care

By Deal W. Hudson, Ph.D.
3/18/2010
Inside Catholic (www.insidecatholic.com)

Catholics in the pews are being made more and more aware that something has gone wrong in many of our venerable Catholic institutions and religious orders.

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WASHINGTON, DC (Inside Catholic) - "Don�t mess with the nuns!" is a comment I�ve heard over the years from cradle Catholics who were taught by them. The question now arises whether the undecided Catholic members of the House will be influenced by the 60 nuns, each a leader of their religious order � who signed a letter to members of Congress urging passage of the Senate health care bill now before the House.

These 60 leaders claim to represent 59,000 nuns, and they make it perfectly clear they support the embattled president of the Catholic Health Association, Sr. Carol Keehan, who announced her support of the bill a few days ago.

The letter calls the Senate bill "imperfect" but simultaneously claims it is "the REAL pro-life stance, and we as Catholics are all for it." The sisters call the bill "pro-life" in spite of the fact that thousands of the unborn will be aborted with the 7 billion dollars of federal money being given to community health centers, if the bill becomes law.

What the sisters extol is medical coverage for the uninsured; the end to denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions; support of pregnant women; as well as investment in preventative care and "community health centers that largely serve poor women and children." These are the same health centers that the bishops insist will spend federal money on abortion.

These 60 sisters not only reject the bishops� concerns about the Senate bill but also call them "false claims . . . the Senate bill will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions."

The 60 sisters, and presumably the orders they represent, thus join organizations like the Catholic Health Association, NETWORK, Catholics United, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, Catholics for Choice, Catholic Democrats, and publications likeCommonweal, America, and the National Catholic Reporter in dismissing the Catholic bishops� publicly stated position that federal funding for abortion is contained in the Senate health care bill.

Like the sisters in their letter, and Sr. Keehan in her statement, most of these groups fail to mention explicitly that they reject the bishops� analysis of the health care bill. Is that a sign of respect or merely a refusal to deal with the bishops� one-page fact sheet directly? Commonweal should be credited for offering a comprehensive, if tortured, refutation to the bishops� position, but the sisters don�t reveal whose analysis they are relying upon.

A few days ago, I described Sr. Keehan�s betrayal of the bishops as an example of the failure of the USCCB�s qualified support for the health care bill. But the spectacle of 60 leaders of women�s religious orders points to the corrosive effect of the "seamless garment" approach to social ethics and public policy.

You can make all the arguments you want about the original intent of Cardinal Bernardin�s now-famous 1983 speech announcing a "consistent ethic of life," but in practical political terms the seamless garment became nothing more than a convenient excuse for Catholic politicians to ignore the slaughter of the unborn and all its attendant effects on cultural and family life.

There are thousands of women religious at this very moment who are deeply embarrassed and troubled by the publication of this letter. These sisters can be found at places like theDominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor, MI or the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville, TN.

I can tell you with certainty that none of the sisters from NETWORK called Mother Assumpta Long (Ann Arbor) or Mother Anne Marie (Nashville) to ask either of them to sign that letter.

The dividing lines in the Church are, sadly, all too clear, and the effort of women religious, Catholic academics, Catholic journalists, and Catholics representing the medical profession to pass a health care bill with abortion funding will be, for lay Catholics, a wake-up call, a d�j� vu moment of Obama being honored by Notre Dame.

Catholics in the pews are being made more and more aware that something has gone wrong in many of our venerable Catholic institutions and religious orders.

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1 - 10 of 29 Comments

Elaine
3 years ago
We must be ever vigilent that these Nuns who defied Catholic Bishops are not teaching our children heresy.
Following is the web site of all the Nuns organizations listed.
http://www.networklobby.org/press/3-17-10HealthcareSistersLetter.htm
Ask your Bishop to keep them from doing any advertising for their Order in any Catholic Church publication, or Church video.
Meg
3 years ago
Who are our heroes this morning? The 59,000 Catholic sisters and the Catholic Health Care facilities, or the politicians to stayed the course to the end fighting for our developing children? The laity and non-Catholics have shown us what the religious sisters didn't have the courage or wisdom to stand up for - the sacredness of all human life, for all of God's children. Once again the Catholic Church is disgraced by the actions of our religious.
LizaBklyn
3 years ago
Really? The "seamless cloth of life" is now "nothing more than a convenient excuse for Catholic politicians to ignore the slaughter of the unborn and all its attendant effects on cultural and family life"? Or is it just more convenient and easier to focus all your attention and effort on the single issue of abortion than to also concern yourself with the policies and practices that affect, injure and impede the lives of the walking and talking?

Right to Life is not just a slogan for the unborn. Those who believe the right to life begins and ends in the womb are those that will stop at nothing to see that the working poor, the immigrant and the sick don't stand a chance in this country.

I grew up singing a song in church called "They Will Know We are Christians by our Love." Haven't heard that one in a long time.

Unlike the bishops, nuns don't live in ivory towers and have people launder their clothes and cook their meals. They minister to the poor and the sick and have personal contact with the challenges ordinary people face. That is why they support this bill.
Dai Yoshida
3 years ago
Thank the Lord these so-called religious orders are dying out. These poor misguided women needs our prayers desperately.
Joan
3 years ago
These nuns, for a few pieces of US silver, have betrayed their Lord. They have shown that they have no faith that by obeying His commandment not to kill that He would have found a way for them to continue their corporal works of mercy. They have replaced God with the craven image of the US government. They have blood on their hands. The unborn are not the only ones who are slated for death in the Senate bill, so are the elderly.
Angelo Russo
3 years ago
THANK YOU, SISTERS!! Thank you for having the courage to stand up to obstinate men stuck in a medieval mindset! Why are the bishops so out of touch? Why to they adhere so tenaciously to arguments founded upon misrepresentation and malicious fabrication?

I now wonder if there is any one single bishop who has an independent mind. I wonder if they are scared to voice their real opinions fearing retribution from an aging pope.

To stubbornly deny the language against federally funded abortion serves no purpose but to make the bishops seem out of touch. These are supposed to be educated men.....not fanatics.
Chris
3 years ago
It's tragic but comes as no surprise since many so called "Catholic" religious women left the Church years ago!
Cyril
3 years ago
Thank God for the brave Nuns who are leading the charge to help pass a Health Care Bill that will eventually help millions of Americans to get the medical help they need. The Senate Health bill does not fund abortion with federal monies that has been clearly supported by many Health Law researchers and people who have read the legislation. According to T. R. Reid, a Catholic author and researcher into the universal health care systems around the world, has indicated in an article which appeared in the "Washington Post," universal health care tend to cut the abortion rates in those countries who have health care for all of their citizens. God Bless those who are for health care for all Americans.
BronxLady
3 years ago
I must say the religious sisters have much more influence on my thinking than do our bishops. The first thing I checked on the letter was to see if the order who taught me in grade school were signatories; (they were). Don't mess with the sisters is right!
Michael
3 years ago
These nuns should be ashamed of themselves. They have openly betrayed the bishops and Catholics all around America. As a young Catholic religious, this health care bill stance on abortion is pure intrinsic evil.

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