Do read this excellent expose of Cardinal O'Malley's intellectual dishonesty.
“Among the written assurances are a pledge that medical staff operating under the Centene-Caritas insurance plan, known as Commonwealth Family Health Plan, will inform women of their healthcare options, including abortion. The insurers will also provide a toll-free customer service line, available around the clock, to inform women about where they can get contraception, sterilization, and other family planning services not offered in the immediate setting. In an emergency, a service representative will arrange transportation to the nearest appropriate facility, officials said.”
On March 5 Cardinal O’Malley sent out the following statement once the details became apparent to the public (emphasis mine):
“To be perfectly clear, Caritas Christi will never do anything to promote abortions, to direct any patients to providers of abortion or in any way to participate in actions that are contrary to Catholic moral teaching and anyone who suggest otherwise is doing a great disservice to the Catholic Church. We are committed to the Gospel of Life and no arrangement will be entered into unless it is completely in accord with Church teaching.”
There’s a disconnect between these two statements. The following example will illustrate this point:
***UPDATE
I wanted to post the assurances Caritas officials gave to the Commonwealth:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/03/13/mass_regulators_ok_joint_caritas_centene_healthcare_venture/
The Connector Authority board, which oversees the Commonwealth Care program, voted unanimously in favor of the joint venture proposed by Centene Corp., a St. Louis-based health organization, and Caritas Christi Health Care Network.The vote followed several closed-door sessions in which officials from Centene and Caritas, the minority partner in the joint venture, assured regulators that women will have "ready access" to family planning and reproductive services, an issue that sparked concerns from abortion foes and reproductive rights activists.Among the written assurances are a pledge that medical staff operating under the Centene-Caritas insurance plan, known as Commonwealth Family Health Plan, will inform women of their healthcare options, including abortion. The insurers will also provide a toll-free customer service line, available around the clock, to inform women about where they can get contraception, sterilization, and other family planning services not offered in the immediate setting. In an emergency, a service representative will arrange transportation to the nearest appropriate facility, officials said.The regulators promised to watch closely. "We will certainly monitor their performance," said Jon Kingsdale, the authority's executive director. "We will not allow them to start up or continue if they are not in compliance."As a measure of the underlying tensions, four board members emphasized the need for oversight."I remain somewhat concerned about implementation," said Nonnie Burnes, state commissioner of insurance and a former Planned Parenthood board member. "I am willing to support this as long as we have some way to monitor this" in doctor's offices and other healthcare facilities.
We cannot provide ready access to mercy killings by providing the people of Commonwealth the number for Jack Kevorkian. We could not provide Nazi's with referrals to where they can find the Jews who show up trusting our commitments to the value and integrity of human life.
Any assertion by any Bishop, Cardinal or lay mission, that we can do it with the unborn is ludicrous.
Any assertion that the Cardinal is not culpable for the spiritual carnage involved in all the levels of these massacres, is just not Catholic Credo.
It hands over the doctor, the nurses, the distraught woman, the employees of "centene", the doctor who commits the abortion and nurses who assist, the Board of Directors of Caritas - to evil. From the Cardinals hand.
6 comments:
Carol,
Thank you for picking up the link. PewSitter.com has contacted me and will be linking to the story. This will allow for a wider audience to read the article.
Thank you for your concern, and for putting this information out there for the public to read. We all need to understand more about what the government, the hospitals and what ordinary people are doing to promote abortion. We as Catholics need to let "everyone" know the seriousness of this terrible epidemic of "abortions and and how it is morally wrong. Thank you Carol, for your input and I will saend this to all in my address book and I will print it and post it everywhere....
Carol, this is a better link in that it is a direct one to this particular article...
http://the-american-catholic.com/2009/03/20/cardinal-omalleys-disconnect/
If you look at the two statements carefully you see that this new Commonwealth Care plan is a partnership between Centene and Caritas. The Bishop only claims to speak for Caritas. My guess (without knowing all the inside machinations) is that Centene is brought in as a partner to handle the things that the Bishop says Caritas won't do. If that's the case, and if it is possible to draw a line like that, then the Bishop's statement is not dishonest at all. But this is a moral dilemma that all health care providers must face in Massachusetts. How does one provide the services that the Church says are morally acceptable without becoming tainted in some way with the health care industry's involvement in abortion?
Paul,
I think you may want to do more reading. The Cardinal is asserting that Catholic physicians and the medical staff at Caritas "will inform the patients" about all family planning services, including abortions. Even if one who could throw the uneducated employees of Centene under the bus - the Cardinal is compelling Catholics at Caritas to change their ethics. I've updated the post with the link - I urge you to read it.
Among the written assurances are a pledge that medical staff operating under the Centene-Caritas insurance plan, known as Commonwealth Family Health Plan, will inform women of their healthcare options, including abortion. The insurers will also provide a toll-free customer service line, available around the clock, to inform women about where they can get contraception, sterilization, and other family planning services not offered in the immediate setting. In an emergency, a service representative will arrange transportation to the nearest appropriate facility, officials said.
The regulators promised to watch closely. "We will certainly monitor their performance," said Jon Kingsdale, the authority's executive director. "We will not allow them to start up or continue if they are not in compliance."
The Cardinal is saying you may now, as a Catholic, counsel women in a positive manner about abortion.
If you could work at Caritas Hospital and when a Catholic woman or any other woman comes in distraught about her pregnancy and seeking to end it - - and if you could say "Well, abortion is an option for you" "They would do a saline abortion because you are 16 weeks" "here is the number you can call" - if you can do that and sleep at night, you can join the Cardinal.
There are many of us who would have to quit our jobs before we would ever do such a thing to a woman who is distraught, to Centene employees who will pick up the phone, to the doctor whom we will send the woman on her way to to get the abortion.
This is not anymore Catholic than saying "We don't have hookers in this building, but you can find them at the corner of columbus and tremont. If you're in a hurry, we'd be happy to call you a taxi"
It's ludicrous.
God Bless!
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