OBAMA HEALTH BILL: HOW LIBERAL NUNS
UNDERMINED US BISHOPS’ OPPOSITION
Babette Francis, May 2010
The debate over President Obama’s Health Bill has
been the most hotlycontested issue in the US this past year. Virtually
on the eve of the vote in the House of Representatives, “Network”,
an organisation claiming to represent 59,000 nuns, wrote expressing support
for Obama’s Bill.
This public split between US Catholic bishops, who had consistently opposed
the Bill, and liberal nuns over government funding for abortion in the
Bill, undermined the hierarchy’s influence on the debate and gave
so-called “pro-life” Democrats the political cover they needed
to vote for the Bill. The Bill passed the House in late March.
Cardinal Francis George, President of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops
(USCCB), warned that some forces used the rift to push the legislation
through Congress. “I think what is going on here is the kind of a
political tactic that has been used elsewhere, where you divide the potential
enemies in such a way that people who can’t be brought over to your
way of thinking are isolated,” he told Associated Press.
The disagreement among Catholics was over whether the Bill allowed abortion
funding. The USCCB believes it does and said they “regretfully”
opposed the Bill even though they had lobbied for health care reform for
four decades.
The Catholic Health Association, which represents 600 hospitals, and 60
nuns from various orders and groups, disagreed and urged Congress
to pass the Bill. That break with the hierarchy influenced several anti-abortion
House Democrats. “You’ve had Catholic hospitals ... a group
of Catholic nuns ... I am almost there on supporting the Senate Bill’s
provision on abortion”, Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas said. Cuellar,
a Catholic, had voted for an earlier House Bill with abortion funding
prohibitions which the bishops had backed.
Rep. Tim Ryan, an anti-abortion Democrat from Ohio, said he too was siding
with the nuns and hospitals and voted for the Bill. He took issue
with arguments Republicans have used: “You say this is pro-abortion
and yet you have 59,000 Catholic nuns. 600 Catholic hospitals, 1,400
Catholic nursing homes endorsing this bill.”
The bishops said the nuns supporting the bill speak only for themselves
and are “grossly overstating” their claim of representing 59,000
women — essentially every nun in the country.
The rift has escalated a debate over who speaks for the Church on matters
of public policy. “Bishops no longer have a monopoly in public issue
discussions in Catholicism,” said John Allen Jr., columnist with
the National Catholic Reporter. “There are a lot more points of reference
to bring a Catholic perspective and it’s impossible for anyone, including
bishops, to control.”
Cardinal George made it clear where the bishops stand on the issue: “The
bishops speak for the Catholic faith as such. Others will speak for
themselves.” Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput complained that Network
and the Catholic Health Association “have done a grave disservice
to the American Catholic community by undermining the leadership of the
nation’s Catholic bishops, sowing confusion among faithful Catholics,
and misleading legislators through their support of the Senate bill.”
Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, defended the organisation,
saying: “We are not pretending to speak for the Church.
We're speaking from our lived experience of caring for people who do not
have access to health care”.
Divisions exist among American nuns: the Council of Major Superiors of
Women Religious, representing 103 communities and 10,000 members, issued
a statement siding with the bishops against the Bill. “I feel badly
that others who are responsible for this faith ... have not taken the
leadership of the bishops as seriously as they should,” Council President
Mother Mary Quentin Sheridan said.
Investigation of the Catholic supporters of Obama’s pro-abortion
Bill have revealed:
• Kevin Lofton, CEO of Catholic Health Initiatives, the hospital
conglomerate that chairs Catholic Health Association, is a regular contributor
to Rep. Diana Degette, Democrat cochair of the Congressional Pro-Choice
Caucus.
• Catholic Health Association’s chief policy advocate, Michael
Rodgers, repeatedly gives campaign money to the pro-abortion Rep. Judy
Feder.
• The Catholic Health Association has advocated aborting children
with anencephaly.
• The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) has never taken
a position on legalised abortion or supported pro-life efforts. The only
abortion reference on their website is to support a nun who signed a proabortion
newspaper ad.
• Network Lobby has never taken a position on legalised abortion
or supported pro-life efforts. After a career of ignoring 40+ million
abortions,
Network head Sister Simone Campbell claims to be more knowledgeable than
the USCCB and their pro-life staff.
Even prior to the nuns’ sabotage of the USCCB on the Health Bill,
the Vatican had launched a “doctrinal investigation” of the
LCWR. The National Catholic Reporter indicated the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) had expressed concerns for several years about
the LCWR’s attitudes toward Church teachings on issues such as homosexuality,
the necessity of Christ’s Church for salvation, and the impossibility
of ordaining women.
In a 20 February 2009 letter to LCWR leaders, announcing plans for the
inquiry, Cardinal William Levada, CDF Prefect, said that the Vatican’s
concerns had been renewed by “both the tenor and the doctrinal content
of various addresses” given at LCWR meetings.
The bishops themselves may be responsible for what Allen says is their
failure to control the “Catholic perspective”. When they declined
to
excommunicate the late Senator Ted Kennedy and current Speaker, Nancy
Pelosi, who are most ardent abortion supporters, they can hardly be surprised
if a flock of dissident nuns flies the coop.
Babette Francis, National & Overseas Coordinator of Endeavour Forum
Inc., was in the USA during the last week of the debate on President Obama’s
Health Care Bill.
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