Michael Paulson has a collection of responses on the Caritas situation

Mixed Reaction to Caritas Abortion Decision

A few excerpts:

The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts called Caritas's withdrawal from the joint venture a "partial victory,'' saying that "any continued participation by Caritas Christi in Commonwealth Care would obligate Caritas, directly or indirectly, to make abortion referrals." The statement continued:

"Caritas Christi has indicated that a woman seeking an abortion at a Caritas hospital will be sent back to her insurer. For Commonwealth Care members that insurer will be CeltiCare, which will not only procure the abortion but will provide transportation to the abortion facility. Instead of offering compassionate alternatives to abortion, Caritas Christi will still be engaged in a two-step abortion referral. Troubling questions also remain about whether Caritas has already benefited financially from this contract, and whether it continues to have an ongoing relationship with the Centene Corporation."

And Carol McKinley, a cyberactivist who has been quite critical of the archdiocese, blogged:

"Because the Cardinal and Caritas deliberately misrepresented what was happening in the arrangement until they actually got caught on the CeltiCare website with links to the abortionists they hired and their spokesperson admitted to NARAL being the Advisory Board for CeltiCare and that they had hired phone operators to answer the calls when they referred the women back to themselves to carry out and pay for the abortions, the overall consensus is disgust and a complete lack of trust that they are being forthright now about a situation they have been lying about all along."

What would these activists have Caritas do? The Lady in the Pew (Kelly Thatcher) blogs that if a woman named Judy calls and asks for an abortion:

"What I'm supposed to do is (a) help Judy find an alternative to abortion or (b) refer her to one of the many people and/or organizations who are very good at doing just that. Duh! One good thing, though. Until this whole issue came up, I never realized that so-called Catholic hospitals in the Archdiocese of Boston did the old Pontius Pilate number with abortion/contraception seekers. Now I do."

Harsh language, but Thatcher is not alone. Here is Diogenes, blogging for Catholic World News:

"So it appears that Caritas Christi, the health-care agency of the Boston archdiocese, won't be involved in the abortion business after all. Thank God for that. The announcement was obviously timed (after business hours on a Friday afternoon) for minimal media exposure, and offered no details about the new arrangement. A few questions linger. Among those questions: How did a Catholic agency get involved with this proposal in the first place? Do the people at the helm of Caritas Christi understand the purpose of health-care system with a Catholic identity? A spokeswoman for Caritas Christi told the Boston Globe: 'This is the right way to move the distraction of the debate of ownership and allow us to be a provider.' The distraction. A debate over involvement in killing unborn babies is a 'distraction' from the business of saving lives. A debate over mutilating people to make them infertile is a 'distraction' from the distinctive mission of Catholic health care."

I'm not sure it should be surprising that Catholics would consider the sole response to a woman with an unexpected pregnancy to give her a referral to pregnancy support apostolates.

Would you expect Catholics to say we don't have prostitution services here but if you call Centene they'll give you the number of Madame Fluzy's Brothel?

We don't distribute marijuana here but here's a complimentary crack pipe with CeltiCare's phone number on it?

You don't start out with a moral imperative and then end the sentence with a paradoxical shift.

Thou shalt not kill, here's the number of somebody who does.

If there ever was proof John Paul II knew how to kick this thing in the teeth - here it is:

Meanwhile, a postscript from Caritas, which is arguing that it could benefit from the withdrawal because it will make reimbursements for patient treatment easier, especially since the state decided to slow enrollment in the program. An e-mail from Caritas spokeswoman Teresa Prego:

"The dramatic reduction of new potential enrollees in the Connector plan due to the sudden elimination of auto-enrollments presented a substantial financial risk due to our involvement in the insurance partnership. We faced additional risk based on the fact we had made investments in physicians and support staff to handle the additional patients from the Connector. Our decision to withdraw from the insurance partnership allows us to mitigate our risk."

It's money you're after, is it? Well, the fix is in.

How edifying.

As we all learned years ago, one doesn't bother wasting one's time in the fruitless exercise of appealing to their consciences. When it comes to the welfare of children, you better a bag full of other tricks.