Senator Sam Brownback is taking a lot of heat lately for endorsing pro-abortion Kathleen Sebelius to be HHS head. Human Life International president, Fr. Tom Euteneuer, recently called him a "turncoat" for his actions. But there's a figure closer to home who wears a miter and carries a crosier and whose betrayal is much more serious, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston. On March 6th the Cardinal approved a decision by Caritas Christi Health Care, the agency managing Catholic hospitals in his archdiocese, to bid for a contract that offers low-income citizens of Massachusetts health-care insurance. The hefty government contract requires that all services mandated by state law be provided including contraception and abortion. Caritas will partner with Centene Corporation, a third party, to do the dirty work. According to Phil Lawler of Catholic World News "if the contract is approved, there would be no hospital in the Boston area that was not involved, directly or indirectly, with the abortion business...this wretched situation would occur not because the government forced Caritas Christi into a morally untenable position, but because the Catholic health-care agency deliberately sought to be involved."
Like the pharisees who scrupulously followed the ritual laws, Caritas, supported by the bishop, engages in ethical doubletalk claiming they will be true to Catholic principles even as they rationalize how to get around them. They will pass the bloody abortion duty to their secular partner to maintain the charade of uninvolvement. (Why does this remind me of an accessory in murder who drives the getaway car?) Cardinal O'Malley's statement says, "Caritas Christi Health Care has assured me that it will not be engaged in any procedures nor draw any benefits from any relationship which violate the Church's moral teaching as found in the Ethical and Religious Directives." No doubt they will srupulously follow the letter of the law including the ritual washing of hands as the innocent are sacrificed.
One has to question, however, why Caritas wants the contract if there is no "benefit" to them. One can only conclude that they will, despite their words, "benefit" from the relationship with the abortion provider. The partnership enables Caritas to take the government money while maintaining that they are innocent of involvement in child-killing. It's a travesty and pro-lifers in Boston aren't buying it. Catholic hospitals in this country are neck deep in the culture of death. This is just one more example of it.
Cardinal O'Malley's support for the Caritas betrayal is unconscionable. As Lawler says, "the Boston archdiocese...[should] deliver an emphatic message that the Catholic Church does not want, and will not seek, any connection, however remote, with the culture of death."
Congress may have its turncoats, but they do less damage than those who hold episcopal office. Please pray for Cardinal O'Malley and all the bishops of the United States.
Cardinal O’Malley releases statement
Boston cardinal backs Catholic agency's bid for contract involving abortion coverage
I think the bishops should all be lined up and defrocked. It's no wonder there was a Reformation. The shepherds need to develop a little commitment. I can't see this bunch being able to say like St. Paul that they'd suffered anything, much less whipping, shipwrecks, and ultimately beheading. They gave their heads away long ago.
ReplyDeleteGreat post and thanks for your back up.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you followed the Cardinal's nuances using the word "referral" but you should take a good look at the deceptions being manifested because it is a clear indication of the trustworthyness of the source.
It is a requirement of the contract to provide abortions, Caritas has publicly admitted they will provide them by referring the patient to another source to get them.
Yet, the Cardinal is saying women who come to Caritas wanting an abortion will be refused a referral.
Those two things cannot coexist.