Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Caritas Christi Abortion Referral Update of March 31



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Carol McKinley
Date: Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 11:21 PM
Subject: Fwd: Caritas Christi Abortion Referral March 31st Update
To: tdonilon@vzw.blackberry.net, Beirne_Lovely@rcab.org, "Donilon, Terrence"








+
IHS

Gentlemen:

I hope that my update on Hehirogate meets with your satisfaction. As I said yesterday, if you get more information, please do send it along.

In Christ, with Christ and through Christ,
Carol McKinley

n.b. I keep refreshing the Cardinal's blog site to verify that he has corrected the misinformation. I keep getting the below post. Should I clean out my cache?


"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 suggests otherwise is doing a great disservice to the Catholic Church."

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Carol McKinley
Date: Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 10:57 PM
Subject: Caritas Christi Abortion Referral March 31st Update
To: catholic.conscience.protections@gmail.com


March 31, 2009

+
IHS

Dear Prolife Friends,

I wanted to update you on the Caritas situation and suggest an action item, if you are so inclined.

As some of you already know, Cardinal O'Malley handed over control of Catholic Hospitals to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in March of 2008. In the "restructure", the Boston Cathedra maintains the power to ensure Catholic doctrinal integrity is not violated. The Rev. Bryan Hehir was appointed by Cardinal O'Malley as the diocescan official to assist in the restructuring of the Catholic Hospitals and the Board of Directors and to guide the mission to be faithful to the Holy See and the Deposit of Faith and to uphold ethical standards that do not violate the conscience protections which faithful Catholic medical staff are entitled.

Since that time, the newly elected Board has refused to identify itself. The identity of the Board is being kept secretive through refusing to file their 2008 Annual Report (the public record at the Secretary of States Office which identifies Board members for all entities doing business in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts). Additionally, they refuse to answer questions from Catholics and from the media about the identity of Board members. All Six Caritas Christi Hospitals are dropping "Caritas Christi" from their names. A new image and logo has been rolled out, with the Cross removed and in its place is an image oddly reminiscent of a communist fist and a power to the people message placed under the fist.

A month ago, when details of a contract commandeered by the new Board of Directors with the assistance, oversight and direction of Fr. Bryan Hehir came to light, Caritas released a statement saying Catholic Hospitals "will contract with providers, both in and out of the Caritas network, to ensure access to all services required by the authority, including confidential family planning services."

The Cardinal, the diocesan and Caritas spokespersons refused to answer questions about the arrangement.

When Commonwealth Care (awarded the contract to Caritas) publicly stated that abortion referrals would be required of the medical staff at Caritas, thousands of faithful Catholics called the Cardinal, other Chancery and Caritas officials with questions and concerns. We were met with silence. Members of the press asked questions of the Cardinal, other Chancery and Caritas officials. Those quesions were met with silence.

The Cardinal did however circulate and post the following to his blog:

* "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 suggests otherwise is doing a great disservice to the Catholic Church."


Subsequently, both Caritas and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have contradicted the Cardinal. Stating, that not only will Catholic medical staff be compelled to talk about abortion in ways that contradict our religion, they are working out the details of how the conversations of Catholics will be monitored for enforcement, including in the possibility of being monitored in the privacy of examination rooms:



* From the Globe:


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.


* From the National Catholic Register:

If Caritas-Centene proceeds with its plan, state regulators and abortion advocates will be watching. “How compliance will be monitored is just being worked out now,” Massachusetts health authority spokesman Powers said March 16.

Andrea Miller, executive director of NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) Pro-Choice Massachusetts, said her abortion advocacy group “vows to monitor” the Catholic hospitals to ensure that people have access to services to “protect them from pregnancy and disease …” In the past, NARAL operatives have made covert calls to hospitals, including Catholic ones, to see if personnel complied with a law to offer the abortifacient “morning after” pill.


To fulfill the abortion referral requirements of the contract with Commonwealth Care, Caritas has hired abortion provider subcontractors. Theologically, Fr. Bryan Hehir, the Cardinal and the Caritas Board of Directors is asserting that it is morally ethical and doctrinally faithful for Catholics and Catholic Hospitals to subcontract killing if you create a pass-through entity, hire people to man phone lines and give distraught pregnant women the phone number of the individuals who will arrange the murders. This construct to hire subcontractors to wash their hands of the commission of the abortions, implies a Cathedra and the role of a Cardinal of the Catholic Church is one that is no longer interested in the salvation of humanity at large. In other words, Catholics can now hire people to commit sins we won't/cannot commit ourselves. Gone are any concerns about the souls we are baiting into evil by offering them money to perform acts we are forbidden to perform as Catholics. A month has gone by since the Cardinal sought the services of the National Catholic Bioethics Center to "assure him" that these arrangements are morally ethical and doctrinally faithful. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking and Caritas is moving forward. Taking on more than two hundred thousand patients takes a great deal of preparation and time. This contract is supposed to start on July 1st.

Finally, on Monday, March 30th, several Boston Catholics had contacted me earlier in the day to tell me that Fr. Tom DiLorenzo, who has been outspoken critic of the Caritas Abortion venture has been summoned to the Chancery on Thursday to be disciplined and silenced. Fr. Tom has been publicly motivating people to call the Chancery and Fr. Hehir to complain. A few weeks ago, he made a phone call to a person who identified himself as Fr. Hehir, a conversation took place that was recorded. The individual who identified himself as Fr. Hehir said "You people care about abortions, do you?" "You're supposed to take care of people" "Why don't you mind your own business" "Stay out of politics" and a few other vulgar choice words. I was circulating the youtube of the incident with the transcription of the incident. This past month, the diocese has refused to respond to thousands of us who have concerns. I finally heard from the Cardinal's spokesperson Terry Donilon. He sent an email stating the individual who answered the phone and identified himself as Fr. Hehir was not Fr. Hehir and to stop circulating the youtube and correct the record. He cc'd the diocescan attorney as a threatening gesture. Other than this communication, if you hear of anyone who has received a substantive response addressing questions and concerns about the abortion referrals required by the Commonwealth Care contract, I would be interested in that information.

Please vigorously oppose this situation by continuing to call the Chancery at 617-254-0100. Ask for the Cardinal's office and express your opposition. There is no time to waste.

Please find below an article that is in this week's National Catholic Register and a press release from the Catholic Action League.

In Christ,
Carol McKinley



Did Catholic Hospital System Compromise Ethics?

By GAIL BESSE

REGISTER CORRESPONDENT

BOSTON — If a joint venture between Catholic and non-religious health-care systems goes through, doctors in Boston’s Catholic hospitals may have to point patients toward abortion after July 1.

Indeed, state officials and abortion advocates would check to make sure they do.

This development did not arise from President Obama’s proposal to jettison conscience rights for medical personnel. Rather, the six-hospital Caritas Christi Health Care system, in conjunction with the St. Louis-based health network Centene Corp., recently sought and won a lucrative state insurance contract that requires the joint venture, the Commonwealth Family Health Plan, to make available all “reproductive services.”

After state regulators accepted the Caritas-Centene bid March 12, Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley issued a statement saying that the deal, set to begin July 1, can’t be considered final until the National Catholic Bioethics Center can assure him it’s faithful to Catholic principles. He had requested an opinion from the bioethics center March 5. It had not been made public as of press time.

According to Dick Powers, spokesman for the Massachusetts Health Connector Authority Board, which awards the contracts for state-subsidized insurance for low-income residents, the board unanimously accepted the Caritas-Centene bid after regulators received written assurances that medical staff will inform people of all options, including abortion.

Powers said that if a Caritas hospital didn’t provide a service, the patient would be referred back to Commonwealth Family Health Plan, which would then refer the person to another facility. Commonwealth Family Health Plan would also provide a 24-hour toll-free phone line to inform women about where they can get contraception, sterilization, and other family-planning services. A service representative will arrange transportation to the nearest appropriate facility “in an emergency.”

The cardinal in a March 5 statement said, “As archbishop I have the responsibility to insure that Caritas Christi Health Care adheres to the ‘Ethical and Religious Directives’ established by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.”

At issue is whether the initiative involves cooperation in actions that are intrinsically immoral.

“Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 2272). “The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. ‘A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae,’ ‘by the very commission of the offense,’ and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law.”

The hospital chain is run by an independent board of governors, but the archdiocese retains authority on issues of its Catholic identity, mission and ethics. Father J. Bryan Hehir, Cardinal O’Malley’s secretary of health and social services, is archdiocesan liaison on the board.

Caritas spokeswoman Teresa Prego declined comment to Register questions, as did the president, Ralph de la Torre, and James Karam, chairman of the board of governors. According to Federal Election Commission records, both officials have given generously to politicians who support abortion: Last year, de la Torre gave $2,300 to Barack Obama; from 2007-08, Karam gave $6,900 to Hillary Clinton for president and $2,000 to Sen. John Kerry.

‘Nobody More Attentive’

At first, Cardinal O’Malley defended the hospital chain’s proposal on his blog, CardinalSeansBlog.org March 6: “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.”

The cardinal was in Rome over St. Patrick’s Day, and didn’t comment further.

Spokesmen for the National Catholic Bioethics Center — ethicist Father Alfred Cioffi and education director Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk — said their consultations must be kept confidential.

If Caritas-Centene proceeds with its plan, state regulators and abortion advocates will be watching. “How compliance will be monitored is just being worked out now,” Massachusetts health authority spokesman Powers said March 16.

Andrea Miller, executive director of NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) Pro-Choice Massachusetts, said her abortion advocacy group “vows to monitor” the Catholic hospitals to ensure that people have access to services to “protect them from pregnancy and disease …” In the past, NARAL operatives have made covert calls to hospitals, including Catholic ones, to see if personnel complied with a law to offer the abortifacient “morning after” pill.

Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association, told The Boston Globe March 11: “Nobody is more attentive to life issues than the cardinal-archbishop of Boston.” Sister Carol said that she had reviewed key provisions of the Caritas-Centene deal and that “Caritas has done more than one would usually see” to avoid being involved with abortion and other services opposed by the Catholic Church.

“As I look at the way Caritas Christi has structured this arrangement,” she said, “it allows them to be participants with the state in the care of the poor and the most vulnerable citizens of the state of Massachusetts in a way that brings the richness of their system and the caring nature of that system to the poor, without in any way violating any of the religious directives or the moral imperatives of our faith.”

But pro-lifers were worried. “We are now facing the end, in Massachusetts at least, of Catholic medical resistance to abortion and contraception,” said C.J. Doyle, who as director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts has headed opposition to the plan. “This will drive Catholics out of the medical profession.”

William Cotter, head of Boston’s Operation Rescue, believes the archdiocese was taken off guard by the Caritas move. “But,” he said, “there’s been a terrible loss of credibility for the archdiocese. It must forgo the potential financial gain and refuse this pact with the devil.”


NEWS RELEASE



THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE

(781) 251-9739



CATHOLIC ACTION LEAGUE DENOUNCES CARITAS CHRISTI DEAL WITH COMMONWEALTH CARE



The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts today criticized the Archdiocesan hospital network, Caritas Christi, for accepting a state contract, in conjunction with the Centene Corporation, to provide Commonwealth Care health insurance, which includes abortion coverage. The Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority Board awarded the contract this morning after Caritas/Centene assured the panel that women will have “ready access” to timely family planning services such as abortion, sterilization and contraception.



The Catholic Action League called the contract “a significant defeat for the pro-life movement, inflicted not by secular society, but by the Catholic Church in Boston.”



Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J. Doyle stated: “What remains of the Catholic character of Caritas Christi has now been fatally compromised. The partnership in which Caritas Christi is one of the two principals will provide ‘ready access’ to abortion, which the Catholic religion condemns as ‘an abominable crime’. ”



“It is now clear that the Archdiocese of Boston has spent the last week cynically misdirecting Catholics and the general public with empty assurances that Caritas Christi would not collaborate in abortion. If a woman with a Commonwealth Care card walks into a Caritas Christi hospital seeking an abortion, she will be directed back to her health plan -- the Caritas/Centene partnership -- which will not only arrange for the procedure, but if necessary will provide transportation to the facility which performs it.”



“With Caritas Christi now thoroughly embedded in the culture of death, we are now facing the end, in Massachusetts at least, of Catholic medical resistance to abortion and contraception. This tragic state of affairs is the personal responsibility of the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, who not only failed to stop this contract, but who endorsed it while making unsupportable assertions implausibly denying what everyone else knew -- that the contract required participation in the deliberate killing of innocent unborn children.”

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Bryan Hehir on the Caritas Abortion Referrals: "You Freeken People"

Bryan Hehir has some Peace and Justice thoughts on the Caritas Christi Abortion Referral Contract with Commonwealth Care.

Go to about 9 minutes into this first youtube when Hehir starts..spreading the love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMkyfz0bFkM


"You people care about Abortion????"
"Why don't you people mind your own business"
"You're supposed to take care of the people"
"Stay out of politics"


In the second youtube posted, listen carefully at the beginning, he says
"You freeken people......." something.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6osfjM67K8Q

You freeken people what?


Is it me, or has this sent Bryan over the edge?

These the conversations going on at the Braintree Pastoral Center?


The articles on Cardinal Sean's Blog and the Pilot must be editing out pastoral potty mouths?

Father J. Bryan Hehir who is the Secretary for Health and Social Services has co-written a letter with Vicar General Father Richard Erikson to all the Pastors and Principals of the Archdiocese of Boston regarding pastoral responses to the economic crisis.


Pastoral Thoughts from the Pastoral Center and Pastoral Letters and Pastoral Abortions.

They're so Pastoral. There's no abortion referrals. And, your children are safe from predators. You can count on their honesty.

***UPDATE

A threat and a mysterious thug at St. John's Rectory in Wellesley has materialized.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Carol McKinley
Date: Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 11:14 PM
Subject: Re: Bryan Hehir on Caritas Abortion Referrals: 'You Freeken People"
To: "Donilon, Terrence" , Beirne_Lovely@rcab.org, archbishopsean@rcab.org, Vicar_General@rcab.org


+
IHS

Mr. Lovely,

Below please find my response to Terry Donilon's email this afternoon. I will of course correct the record if you can provide me with the clarification of who answered the call and whose voice it is. The disturbing conduct demonstrated in the youtube conversation against prolifers is further complicated by an allegation that it wasn't Fr. Hehir who answered the call but somebody impersonating him. Very confidential things are conveyed to a priest. Who would pick up a call for Fr. Hehir and impersonate him? A priest at St. John's Rectory? A friend of Fr. Hehir's?

There's nobody to blame but the Cardinal himself for this heightened atmosphere of confrontation about the Caritas situation.
The Cardinal has insisted that no abortions will be fostered or promoted, no women will be referred for an abortion, he has avoided answering questions, circulated misinformation - and when the Boston Globe published material facts that contradicted his assertions, he has stonewalled opposition for a month by claiming he needed an ethicist to tell him what is plainly obvious to anyone who knows their faith. Even at the lowest common denominator, a Catholic Hospital cannot subcontract the services of people who kill other people because they cannot do it themselves. The Cardinal is responsible for the spiritual welfare of the Caritas Board of Directors who thinks they can subcontract killing people, the employees of Centene and other facilities who will collaborate in the debauchery we have subcontracted them for. The Caritas Board has refused to identify itself, even though they are required to by Massachusetts law. Everyone involved has refused to answer our questions. The deception is breathtaking.

Boston is sede vacante. Bryan Hehir has been given the full authority to run the diocese. I'll spare you the list of grievances as a result of this arrangement. Suffice it to say, Bryan Hehir ushering in FOCA has ended our inertia. He had a good run though. His victories are numerous.

Finally, speaking of ceasing to distribute hurtful and untrue information and making whatever clarifications to those who have received such a message,

"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 suggests otherwise is doing a great disservice to the Catholic Church." Cardinal O'Malley


The Cardinal, Mr. Doninlon and other diocesecan employees circulated misinformation and character assassinations via email, through the Boston Globe, the Cardinal's blog. Please cease from distributing misinformation and please make the following clarifications to those who received the Cardinal's message:

Abortion referrals are a requirement of the contract. Caritas has promised, in writing, that women will get family planning services IN and out of Caritas facilities, including abortions. Caritas has pleged, in writing, that the medical staff at Caritas will provide the women with planned parenthood pamphlets, including information and instructions and phone numbers to obtain an abortions. The people who originally circulated these facts are not "people who do a great disservice to the Church".

Personally, I don' mind the slander to my reputation and my character. I am deeply concerned that stalling opposition and stonewalling until it's too late to extricate Caritas from this contract will result in decades of lost medical vocations and hundreds of thousands of lives and souls.

In Christ, through Christ,

Carol McKinley

p.s. A word to the wise from somebody tapped into the prolife grassroots - demonizing Fr. DiLorenzo in this scenario is not going to be helpful.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Carol McKinley
Date: Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 6:11 PM
Subject: Re: Bryan Hehir on Caritas Abortion Referrals: 'You Freeken People"
To: "Donilon, Terrence"


Mr. Donilon,

I and others have been writing for weeks requesting that the diocese answer our questions regarding the misinformation the Cardinal and others are giving out, and nobody at the diocese has responded. Now, you send this communication with a threatening gesture of cc'ing a diocescan attorney?

Good evening Mr. Lovely, I'm pleased to meet your aquaintence.

As you may or may not know, the Cardinal has scandalized reputations by posting to his blog that I and others were lying and doing a "great disservice to the Church" by correcting the Cardinal's assertions that distraught pregnant women would not be getting information about abortion and the phone numbers to proceed with those abortions by anyone working at a Caritas facility. As you can see from the citations from articles below, the Cardinal's assertions are in spite of the fact that Caritas has given written assurances the Catholics would indeed be compelled to describe abortion as a viable option to distraught pregnant women and will indeede refer them to the people who will help her arrange that abortion and that Caritas is working on how to monitor the conversations of Catholic heatlhcare employees at Caritas to ensure they are complying with this contractual obligation.


While we're waiting for the Cardinal to obtain an opinion on whether Catholics can hire people to kill other people and pass out the phone numbers, since I (and others) have the civil and canonical right to my reputation, I would appreciate advising your client to correct his errors publicly at his earliest convenience.


Terry, With respect to the youtube - I'm sorry but, I'm a little puzzled by some ambiguity in your communication.

Your use of the word "apparently", without identifying the name of the individual who answered Fr. Hehir's number, identified himself as Fr. Hehir, responded to Fr. Tom by saying "You people care about abortions" "Why don't you mind your own busineess" "Stay out of politics" "You freeken people....", etc., will, I'm afraid,, require some more details.

Unfortuantely, due to the history of errors, misinformation and history of unjustly undermining the credibility of people who are exposing corrutpion of Chancery employees, I'm afraid you'll have to do a little better than this.

If it isn't Fr. Hehir, who is it?

Please furnish the name of the person and the contact information of the individual who answered Fr. Hehir's phone number, so that I can verify what you are saying is true.

In Christ,

Carol McKinley















On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 4:58 PM, Donilon, Terrence wrote:

Ms. McKinley -

Please be advised that Fr. Bryan Hehir is not the person identified in the YouTube clip you are circulating. The phone call Fr. Tom DeLorenzo apparently made was not answered by Fr. Hehir, nor is the response you hear that of Fr Hehir. Your suggestion otherwise is not true and is hurtful. Please cease distributing this misinformation (including your transcription of the phone call) and make whatever clarification you can to those who have already received your message.

Thank you,
Terry

cc: F. Beirne Lovely, General Counsel


**********************************************
Terrence C. Donilon
Secretary for Communications
Archdiocese of Boston
Email: tdonilon@rcab.org
Work: 617-746-5775
Cell: 401-480-0171

Pastoral Center
66 Brooks Dr
Braintree, MA 02184


From: Carol McKinley
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:16:51 -0400
To:
Subject: Bryan Hehir on Caritas Abortion Referrals: 'You Freeken People"

Below, please find Bryan Hehir's conversation with Fr. DiLorenzo relative to the Caritas situation. He claims we "freeken" people should "mind our own business" and "stay out of politics".

*
Bryan Hehir has some Peace and Justice thoughts on the Caritas Christi Abortion Referral Contract with Commonwealth Care.


Go to about 9 minutes into this first youtube when Hehir starts..spreading the love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMkyfz0bFkM


"You people care about Abortion????"
"Why don't you people mind your own business"
"You're supposed to take care of the people"
"Stay out of politics"


In the second youtube posted, listen carefully at the beginning, he says
"You freeken people......." something.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6osfjM67K8Q

You freeken people what?

Doing a disservice to the Church?

Story from the National Catholic Register about the situation.



Thanks in advance,
Carol McKinley


From the Globe:


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 "rea dy 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.

From the National Catholic Register:
If Caritas-Centene proceeds with its plan, state regulators and abortion advocates will be watching. How compliance will be monitored is just being worked out now, Massachusetts health authority spokesman Powers said March 16.
Andrea Miller, executive director of NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) Pro-Choice Massachusetts, said her abortion advocacy group vows to monitor the Catholic hospitals to ensure that people have access to services to protect them from pregnancy and disease In the past, NARAL operatives have made covert calls to hospitals, including Catholic ones, to see if personnel complied with a law to offer the abortifacient morning after pill.




Bryan Hehir has some Peace and Justice thoughts on the Caritas Christi Abortion Referral Contract with Commonwealth Care.

Go to about 9 minutes into this first youtube when Hehir starts..spreading the love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMkyfz0bFkM


"You people care about Abortion????"
"Why don't you people mind your own business"
"You're supposed to take care of the people"
"Stay out of politics"


In the second youtube posted, listen carefully at the beginning, he says
"You freeken people......." something.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6osfjM67K8Q

You freeken people what?





Did Catholic Hospital System Compromise Ethics?

By GAIL BESSE

REGISTER CORRESPONDENT

BOSTON If a joint venture between Catholic and non-religious health-care systems goes through, doctors in Bostons Catholic hospitals may have to point patients toward abortion after July 1.

Indeed, state officials and abortion advocates would check to make sure they do.

This development did not arise from President Obamas proposal to jettison conscience rights for medical personnel. Rather, the six-hospital Caritas Christi Health Care system, in conjunction with the St. Louis-based health network Centene Corp., recently sought and won a lucrative state insurance contract that requires the joint venture, the Commonwealth Family Health Plan, to make available all reproductive services.

After state regulators accepted the Caritas-Centene bid March 12, Boston Cardinal Sean OMalley issued a statement saying that the deal, set to begin July 1, cant be considered final until the National Catholic Bioethics Center can assure him its faithful to Catholic principles. He had requested an opinion from the bioethics center March 5. It had not been made public as of press time.

According to Dick Powers, spokesman for the Massachusetts Health Connector Authority Board, which awards the contracts for state-subsidized insurance for low-income residents, the board unanimously accepted the Caritas-Centene bid after regulators received written assurances that medical staff will inform people of all options, including abortion.

Powers said that if a Caritas hospital didnt provide a service, the patient would be referred back to Commonwealth Family Health Plan, which would then refer the person to another facility. Commonwealth Family Health Plan would also provide a 24-hour toll-free phone line to inform women about where they can get contraception, sterilization, and other family-planning services. A service representative will arrange transportation to the nearest appropriate facility in an emergency.

The cardinal in a March 5 statement said, As archbishop I have the responsibility to insure that Caritas Christi Health Care adheres to the Ethical and Religious Directives established by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

At issue is whether the initiative involves cooperation in actions that are intrinsically immoral.

Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense, says the Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 2272). The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae, by the very commission of the offense, and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law.

The hospital chain is run by an independent board of governors, but the archdiocese retains authority on issues of its Catholic identity, mission and ethics. Father J. Bryan Hehir, Cardinal OMalleys secretary of health and social services, is archdiocesan liaison on the board.

Caritas spokeswoman Teresa Prego declined comment to Register questions, as did the president, Ralph de la Torre, and James Karam, chairman of the board of governors. According to Federal Election Commission records, both officials have given generously to politicians who support abortion: Last year, de la Torre gave $2,300 to Barack Obama; from 2007-08, Karam gave $6,900 to Hillary Clinton for president and $2,000 to Sen. John Kerry.

Nobody More Attentive

At first, Cardinal OMalley defended the hospital chains proposal on his blog, CardinalSeansBlog.org March 6: 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.

The cardinal was in Rome over St. Patricks Day, and didnt comment further.

Spokesmen for the National Catholic Bioethics Center ethicist Father Alfred Cioffi and education director Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk said their consultations must be kept confidential.

If Caritas-Centene proceeds with its plan, state regulators and abortion advocates will be watching. How compliance will be monitored is just being worked out now, Massachusetts health authority spokesman Powers said March 16.

Andrea Miller, executive director of NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) Pro-Choice Massachusetts, said her abortion advocacy group vows to monitor the Catholic hospitals to ensure that people have access to services to protect them from pregnancy and disease In the past, NARAL operatives have made covert calls to hospitals, including Catholic ones, to see if personnel complied with a law to offer the abortifacient morning after pill.

Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association, told The Boston Globe March 11: Nobody is more attentive to life issues than the cardinal-archbishop of Boston. Sister Carol said that she had reviewed key provisions of the Caritas-Centene deal and that Caritas has done more than one would usually see to avoid being involved with abortion and other services opposed by the Catholic Church.

As I look at the way Caritas Christi has structured this arrangement, she said, it allows them to be participants with the state in the care of the poor and the most vulnerable citizens of the state of Massachusetts in a way that brings the richness of their system and the caring nature of that system to the poor, without in any way violating any of the religious directives or the moral imperatives of our faith.

But pro-lifers were worried. We are now facing the end, in Massachusetts at least, of Catholic medical resistance to abortion and contraception, said C.J. Doyle, who as director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts has headed opposition to the plan. This will drive Catholics out of the medical profession.

William Cotter, head of Bostons Operation Rescue, believes the archdiocese was taken off guard by the Caritas move. But, he said, theres been a terrible loss of credibility for the archdiocese. It must forgo the potential financial gain and refuse this pact with the devil.

A Concord Pastor Comments

Periodically, some poor, upset soul who has wandered unsuspectingly upon Rev. Austin Fleming's blog or parish will send me links or homilies where he's leading people into darkness on the teachings of the Church on the sanctity of life and sexuality.

It's the customary promiscuity and killing meme, "orientations".

We have orientations towards pornography.
We have orientations towards sexuality outside of the Sacrament of Marriage.
We have orientations towards adultery.
We have orientations towards group sex.
We have orientations towards coveting thy neighbors goods, pride, lust, anger, greed.
We have orientations towards killing the child in our womb.
We have orientations towards drunkeness, rape, murder.

This fellow had orientations to kill his sisters.

Austin Fleming either skipped theology classes on concupiscence and what to do with wild urges, or he's deliberately playing word games with his flock that lead them into their temptations.


Grab your orientations and sit in his pews if you're looking to enjoy the fruit of fostering them. The only orientation you won't see promoted at his digs is the orientation towards penance and Confession.

***UPDATE

Of Note is "A Concord Pastor Comments" recent posting here on today's Readings.

Christ, rather than be unfaithful to God, suffers such a hideous beating that every drop of Blood was drained from His Body. He gives witness to what lengths we must go to in order to avoid our orientations.

If your right hand is causing you to sin, cut it off.

Lose your desires, your wants, your needs, lose your life if necessary.

Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat.
But if it dies,
it produces much fruit.



Fleming's meme makes fidelity, and in fact Christ's Sacrifice itself, unnecessary. You don't have to be faithful to Christ, random acts of kindness to your neighbor offsets infidelity to God.

He posts an index of admirable social justice acts and summarizes:

If we keep our lives for ourselves, we will lose them.
If we lose our lives in love and service of others,
we will preserve them for eternal life.

The choice is ours.


Lizzie Borden(who was kind to animals and did not litter) and Charles Manson (fed and clothed the girls, gave them free love, weed and happy pills) are wheat that fell to the ground to lose their lives in love and service of others.

The choice was theirs.

They made it.

Preserved for eternal life.

On your way to your booty calls, stop by the soup kitchen.

The other passion of the Christ.

You've got to go a long way to cut faithfulness to God out of Scripture and Salvation. The Boston Presbyterate is what it is, with a handful of exceptions to the farce of a religion they try to tout as Catholic.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

New York Hotel Manager Ordered Bell Captain to Wipe Off Ashes

According to the New York Daily News, on Feb. 25 the hotel’s managing director Niklaus Leuenberger told bell captain Mike Murray “Wipe that f-----g s--t off your face,” referring to the ashes Murray had received at an Ash Wednesday service.

The 893-room five-star hotel is 55 stories tall and is on Madison Avenue across the street from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The hotel leases its land from the Catholic Church.



Luckily, the bell captain declined.

Christopher Cowdray, head of the London-based Dorchester Collection which owns the hotel, flew to New York City to personally end Leuenberger’s employment.

“We take the well-being of our employees extremely seriously and that is why our CEO, Mr. Cowdray, went to New York in person to deal with this matter,” the company said.

Bell captain Murray said the general manager wanted the ashes off, “and he knows he was wrong.”

Hillary Meets Our Lady of Guadalupe

Hillary made an unexpected stop to Our Lady of Guadalupe to leave flowers "on behalf of the American people".

Mrs. Clinton was received on Thursday at 8:15 a.m. by the rector of the Basilica, Msgr. Diego Monroy.

Msgr. Monroy took Mrs. Clinton to the famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which had been previously lowered from its usual altar for the occasion.

After observing it for a while, Mrs. Clinton asked “who painted it?” to which Msgr. Monroy responded “God!”

Clinton then told Msgr. Monroy that she had previously visited the old Basilica in 1979, when the new one was still under construction.

After placing a bouquet of white flowers by the image, Mrs. Clinton went to the quemador –the open air area at the Basilica where the faithful light candles- and lit a green candle.

Leaving the basilica half an hour later, Mrs. Clinton told some of the Mexicans gathered outside to greet her, “you have a marvelous virgin!”


Look out Lady! She's watching you!!

Feel anything like a foot on your head?

Friday, March 27, 2009

Easter Sunday Latin Mass (1941) Narrated by Bishop Fulton Sheen

Bishop Sheen, pray for us.


Human Life International Decries Lack of Support from Vatican

It is no secret that pro-lifers over the years have been greatly burdened by the general lack of support by many of the members of our clergy on life issues, but until now, we have been able to rely on the various Vatican offices for a clear, consistent and correct defense of life.

Until now we could.

The more I think about Archbishop Burke's statement, the more I think it signals the gravity of the spiritual situation we have on our hands.

Archbishop Burke's job is to head the court of judicial court for the Canons. His 180 degree turn is another benchmark in the Mystical Body of Christ which travels along the same path of Christ Himself.

It wasn't that long ago we were in Gethsemene. We've moved along to the Last Supper and Judas and Peter are denying Christ. The rapid defections, at the most surprising levels, I think indicate we are quickly approaching the crucifixion of the Mystical Body of Christ.

We aren't there yet.


Two good, kind, loving women and guardian of souls sent me a couple of things I want to share:

Here's one:

"St. Paul teaches that it is God’s will that all should be saved. Heaven, then, is doing everything possible in this late hour to arrange the opportunity for the salvation of the greatest number of souls, as much as freedom permits within the paths that mankind has chosen."

Grab a hold of a good priest, a good Bishop, a good Cardinal and tether him to the Cross.

When you do, you'll get your own cross. And, from the people you least expected it from. Embrace it. Surrender everything it asks to do the right thing.

Have courage. Be outspoken, Pray, Fast.

If you can't turn the events around, warn the faithful in the public square...or get somebody else to do it if you don't have this kind of a fiat.

Grab a relative, a friend, a coworker, a neighbor, an acquaintance. Look for the opportunities to be a witness. You'll cross paths with the opportunities. Recognize them when you see them and cast the net. Subtly. Boldly, whatever the situation calls for.

It's up to you.

Yes YOU. Reading this.

Here's the other:

Be the squeaky wheel.

I used every excuse in the book to say no. I had no desire for a fight, and that is what there would be when Sr. T. passed on her amalgam of neo-Modernism, New Age, and universalism. She stopped asking, and I became complacent. Let someone else handle catechesis.

However, Sr. T. was becoming increasingly aggressive in her battle for the hearts and minds of the parishioners. Shortly before the beginning of the school year, I received the usual outline for Adult Formation. I almost tossed it into the round file unopened, but didn't. There was quite a surprise inside. For the Sunday after Easter, Sr. T. had invited the former priest, now the former paramour of the divorced wife of a parishioner, to be the guest formator for the whole parish. You read it correctly: This poor man left the priesthood to cohabit with the mother of two young children who sought counseling after her divorce, and he accepted an invitation to return to our parish as a guest. No more was needed to shock me out of my complacence: I was fully electrified.

I kept hoping that someone would pass a petition to change the program, or raise heck at the Parish Council meeting, or speak to Sr. T., or do something -- anything. I prayed for peace, I prayed for patience, I prayed for poor ex-Father. Occasionally, I managed to pray the Instant Gratification Prayer, the four little words that immediately obtain what we ask for: "Thy will be done." Even as I contemplated the damage that this man could do to consciences in this parish, I prayed for the restraint to stay out of the fray, as I am sharp of tongue, with combat in my blood. If I were to enter battle, there would be victory -- or death.

Ahem.

No. I didn't write that article.

There's a lot more where I came from.

A nun passing out condoms instead of Rosary Beads?

A priest with a pastoral promiscuity pride group?

A Cardinal hiring people to kill other people and telling Catholics it's ok to give pregnant women that phone number and your best wishes?

The Good Lord plants us down into the soil. Like Chia pets in a pot of water, thoughts start coming out or our heads until it's no longer possible to hold them inside.

No, this is not the time for cowardice, or political politeness.

Rise.

"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat;
but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
Whoever loves his life loses it,
and whoever hates his life in this world
will preserve it for eternal life.
Whoever serves me must follow me,
and where I am, there also will my servant be.
The Father will honor whoever serves me. "I am troubled now. Yet what should I say?
'Father, save me from this hour'?
But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.
Father, glorify your name."
Then a voice came from heaven,
"I have glorified it and will glorify it again."
The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder;
but others said, "An angel has spoken to him."
Jesus answered and said,


Thursday, March 26, 2009

"Obedience" - Last Refuge for the Wicked

How True This Has Turned Out To Be...



The Christmas season has kept me from updating this blog but the time has come to say something on the subject of obedience. After the example of the Nazi war trials I find it hard to believe how people can still think that obeying orders excuses from any sin or obviates any need to over proof the orders given. Things have come to the point that you could almost call obedience ‘the last refuge of the wicked’ – to paraphrase Dr. Johnson. Obedience has always held paramount importance in religious life for its ascetical value, the emptying of self that it requires, but that ascetical importance has always to yield to the demands of truth and faith - and charity. However, for now, rather than attempt any theoretical discussion of the subject I would like to let St. Bernard speak for me.

"For when God said, Do not despise one of those little ones who believe in Me, He did not add also, Unless with permission; nor when He said, Take care not to give scandal to one of these little ones, did He limit it by adding, Without licence!…Wonderful precaution, marvellous prudence! They had already devised evil in their heart, but they were cautious not to carry it out in action except with permission. They conceived in sorrow, but they did not bring forth iniquity until the Pope had afforded his consent to that unrighteous birth…Is it likely that either an evil will cease to be or even be rendered less because the Pope has consented to it?...Such obedience is worse than any revolt; such moderation passes all bounds…But what is this to me? you say…The disciple is not above his master; and it was to be taught, not to teach, that I attached myself to him. As a hearer it became me to follow, not to go before, my preceptor. O, simple one, the Paulus of these times! If only he had shown himself another Anthony, so that you had no occasion to discuss the least word that fell from his lips, but only to obey it without hesitation! What exemplary obedience! The least word, an iota, which drops from the lips of his superiors finds him obedient! He does not examine what is enjoined, he is content because it is enjoined! And this is obedience without delay. If this is a right view of duty, then without cause do we read in the Church: Prove all things, hold fast that which is good. If this is a right view, let us blot out of the book of the Gospel Be ye wise as serpents, for the words following would suffice, and harmless as doves. I do not say that inferiors are to make themselves judges of the orders of those set over them, in which it may be taken for granted that nothing is ordered contrary to the Divine laws, but I assert that prudence also is necessary to notice if anything does so contradict, and freedom firmly to pronounce against these. But you reply, I have nothing to do with examining what he orders; it is his duty to do that before ordering. Tell me, I pray you, if a sword were put into your hand and he bade you turn it against his throat, would you obey? Or if he ordered you to fling yourself headlong into the fire or into the water, would you do it? If you did not even hinder him from such acts as these to the best of your ability, would you not be held guilty of the crime of homicide? Come, then, see that you have done nothing but co-operate in his crime under the pretext of obedience…Why then did you help him to make a scandal? For you did so in following and obeying him…What then? You that were so obedient a disciple, who could not bear that he, your father and master, should be separated from you for a single instant, for a foot breadth (as it is said), you have not hesitated to fall into the ditch behind him with your eyes wide open like another Balaam? Did you think that you were labouring for his happiness when you showed him an obedience more hurtful for him than any death? O odious perversity! The virtue of obedience which always wars on behalf of truth, is arrayed against truth. Happy the disobedience of brother Henry…The fruits of disobedience are sweeter and to be preferred [to this]…Whose disobedience of slackness and omission, if the choice were given me, I would even prefer, with his sense of penitence, than the punctilious obedience of such as these, with scandal… "
Posted by Father Clement at 12:14 PM

Mike Huckabee in 2012

Mike Huckabee likens abortion to slavery

I hope the blood money Republicans can stay out of the way in 2012. Huckabee has great potential.

Live and Let Die

Family of the largest national abortion chain died in Montana plane crash.

But what the news sources fail to mention is that the Catholic Holy Cross Cemetery owned by Resurrection Cemetery Association in Butte - contains a memorial for local residents to pray the rosary, at the 'Tomb of the Unborn'. This memorial, located a short distance west of the church, was erected as a dedication to all babies who have died because of abortion.

What else is the mainstream news not telling you? The family who died in the crash near the location of the abortion victim's memorial, is the family of Irving 'Bud' Feldkamp, owner of the largest for-profit abortion chain in the nation.

Family Planning Associates was purchased four years ago by Irving Moore "Bud" Feldkamp III, owner of Allcare and Hospitality Dental Associates and CEO of Glen Helen Raceway Park in San Bernardino. The 17 California Family Planning clinics perform more abortions in the state than any other abortion provider - Planned Parenthood included - and they perform abortions through the first five months of pregnancy.

Although Feldkamp is not an abortionist, he reaps profits of blood money from the tens of thousands of babies that are killed through abortions performed every year at the clinics he owns. His business in the abortion industry was what enabled him to afford the private plane that was carrying his family to their week- long vacation at The Yellowstone Club, a millionaires- only ski resort.

The plane went down on Sunday, killing two of Feldkamp's daughters, two sons-in-law and five grandchildren along with the pilot and four family friends. The plane, a single-engine turboprop flown by Bud Summerfield of Highland, crashed into the Catholic cemetery and burst into flames, only 500 ft. from its landing destination. All aboard were killed.

Leonard Leo Pressuring the Nuncio to Pressure Bishop Burke to be "quiet"?

According to Austin Ruse, the Nuncio is about to get pressure from Obama to shut Archbishop Burke up.

A few days ago Archbishop Burke gave an interview to the San Diego-based organization Catholic Action for Faith and Family, during which he took the gloves off about Sebelius, who has been nominated to head the massive U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He noted her “public association with some of the more notorious agents of the culture of death.” This, of course, was a reference to her hosting a party for the late-term abortionist George Tiller, currently on trial in Kansas for nineteen infractions of abortion restrictions.

Burke commented on her fitness for office, saying that for Sebelius to be “placed in charge of the federal office with responsibilities for health and human services” is “sad for our nation” and a “source of great embarrassment.”


Burke closed the interview by issuing a challenge to his brother bishops, most notably Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C.: “Every bishop is held to the same universal discipline which has been in force since the time of St. Paul the Apostle and is stated in canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law.” And then this: “Whether Governor Sebelius is in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, or in any other diocese [italics mine], she should not present herself for Holy Communion because, after pastoral admonition, she obstinately persists in serious sin.”

You can see why the Obama administration might get upset about this. They played footsie with pet Catholics of left and right last year and thought they had this kind of problem covered, since some of them have already offered cover for Sebelius. Two groups created to offer such services, Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance, started a petition drive saying Sebelius was really pro-life.

And now there is word that someone who is well known among Republicans, and who has served in previous Republican administrations, is reaching out on behalf of the Obama administration to get the Holy See to quiet Burke, or at least to make it clear he speaks not for the Church, but only for himself.


Democrats may say that Burke overstepped his bounds by commenting not just on Sebelius and Communion, but her fitness as a nominee for HHS secretary. IRS guidelines, which are even now being tested by the Alliance Defense Fund, say Church officials may not comment positively or negatively on candidates for federal office. But Sebelius is not running for federal office. She has been nominated to a cabinet post by the president. And beyond a mere technical question of IRS guidelines, since when are bishops required to shut up about public policy or to speak only for themselves?

But it’s not just questioning her fitness for office that offends Obama and his Catholics. They are also offended about Burke questioning Sebelius’s fidelity to the Catholic Church, for this strikes at the heart of their appeal to Catholics in the pews. Catholics who believe the Democratic answer to health care is more important than the murder of a million children a year desperately need the fiction that someone like Sebelius is a Catholic in good standing. Burke gives the lie to that assertion.


Does this explain this?

I thought this was really a peculiar meme from AB Burke.

I don't know. Maybe it's me, but I had trouble processing the context after years and years of speaking the truth about Canon 915.

There's a guy with a camera, doing an interview. You know he's going to use the interview. A week before the interview comes out, Archbishop Burke has his own interview about Canon 915 and issues a challenge to his fellow Bishops.

How did he think Terry was going to use it? Did he think we'd all be gathering in the underground catacombs to watch it?

Cardinal Burke's letter is a head scratcher, especially this:

“Fourth, I was never informed that the videotape would be used as part of a campaign of severe criticism of certain fellow bishops regarding the application of Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law.

And he's been out in the public square talking about how Canon 915 isn't optional because.....? To....?

“I am deeply sorry for the confusion and hurt which the wrong use of the videotape has caused to anyone, particularly, to my brother bishops.”

I smell something and I smelled it way before reading Ruse's article.

Don't miss this:

n the course of a Q-and-A, Terry also said Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley had "done a great disservice to the Church" for failing to excommunicate Sen. John Kerry.



Speaking of which, there's not word one from any of these folks about the original author of that quote and his authoritative statements that Catholics can give out the phone number of the people he's hired to kill other people.

Nobody can answer whether it's Catholic doctrine.

A little screwy.

A lot screwy.

***UPDATE: My sources inform me that Ruse's anonymous Republican luminary putting pressure on Archbishop Burke for Obama, is Leonard Leo, former RNC Chairman. Leo, is famous for taking the RNC from success to the big tent wreck of an organization they have now.

Leonard Leo is also Chairman of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast and, guess who's coming to breakfast.

In light of this information, Archbishop Burke's raking Randall Terry over the coals makes perfect sense. Leonard Leo and the Nuncio put him up to it on behalf of Obama.

Ruse's story should be written in past tense. It's already happened. Done. Accomplished.

Insufferable.





All Six Caritas Christi Hospitals to Drop "Caritas Christi" from their names


Good Samaritan and the five other Caritas Christi hospitals in Massachusetts are all dropping “Caritas” from their names.

This was interesting:

The new logo still has a cross in it, but it’s less prominent, located inside an upper-case “C.” The logo is meant to appear more “dynamic” while still preserving the hospitals’ Catholic identity, Aleman said.

I don't see it.

Let's play where's Waldo.

If they're going to do abortion referrals and deny cancer patients, elderly and poor medical treatment (all in the name of better treatment for the poor), I hope they have the decency to take the Crucifixes down from their dens of debauchery.

Mass Citizen for Life Waking Up?

A few weeks ago Mass Citizens for Life gave Cardinal O'Malley the benefit of the doubt.

"Massachusetts Citizens for Life continues to wait for Caritas Christi to respond to the organization's request for a meeting. Mass. Citizens seeks clarification of the Caritas statement that they would provide a full range of family planning services in partnership with the Centeme Corporation. That clarification has not been forthcoming.

We at Mass. Citizens are aware of the fact that Cardinal O'Malley is the ultimate authority on whether or not Caritas will continue to pursue the partnership. Over the years that Cardinal O'Malley has been a bishop in Massachusetts, his support for life from the moment of conception until natural death has been unwavering and an example to all. The officers and directors of Mass. Citizens have full confidence that the Cardinal's decision will continue his exemplary support for life."

How they could possibly have drawn any sincerity or confidence in the Cardinal, when both Caritas and the Commonwealth was in the public square contradicting the Cardinal about abortion referrals and has even given written assurances that Catholic personnel at Caritas would be compelled to give information about abortion that is contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church, defies logic.

This week, Mass Citizens for Life is starting to smell the rat.

Massachusetts Citizens for Life has asked to meet with Caritas Christi to clarify their statement that they will provide a full range of "reproductive health services".

Although Caritas Christi has not yet responded to this request, Cardinal O'Malley has assured the public that partnership can go forward only if it receives approval from the NCBC.

Mass. Citizens for Life still questions the statement about full reproductive health care. The organization now has another serious concern. Caritas Christi has mounted an expensive and well planned advertising campaign. Why is the campaign starting now before the NCBC response?



There are now more questions than ever! Please email http://www.bostoncatholic.org/About-The-Archdiocese/Contact-Us.aspx?id=262 Ask how this campaign could have started when the Cardinal has said the partnership can go forward only if it receives approval from the National Catholic Bioethics Center.

How could it go forward as the Cardinal is waiting to find out if he can hire people to kill other people?

Gee, it's a real mystery.

Raise your hand if you think the Cardinal can hire somebody to kill people and then tell Catholics to give out the phone number.



Raise your hand if you think the Cardinal doesn't know he can't say "Gee, we don't do abortions here but, here's the phone number of somebody who will help you get one".

It's ludicrous to surmise the Cardinal is acting in good faith waiting four weeks to get answers about the absurd.

It was Holy Spirit that Planned Parenthood made Caritas promise in writing that Catholic employees would be forced to describe abortion in a positive light and give out the referrals and then gave it to the Boston Globe. Otherwise, the Cardinal would still be sending out blurbs saying we are liars and doing a disservice to the Church.

He's stifled opposition with lies.

He's waiting for weeks to tell him whether or not hiring people to kill people is the Gospel of Life.

Wake up.

Pray for the man. But, let us not aid and abet his delusions with pretense. He's caught in the snare. Free him with the truth. The whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Don't permit people to make that ugly.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Caritas Christi CEO Ralph de la Torre Dear Obama Letter


Somehow, we missed this Caritas de la Torre stumping for Obama's think tank letter in Business Week.

Is "quality" care for the sick, elderly and poor going up or down?

Witholding medical treatment to elderly and poor, evaluating your loved ones cancer survival rate before spending money on their healthcare-you be the judge.

Dear President Obama,

As a concerned medical professional, I am gratified that health-care reform will have such a high priority in your new Administration. It was especially pleasing to see that one of your very first Cabinet selections was Secretary of Health & Human Services. (Both nominees radical proaborts)

You have spoken often about the flaws in the U.S. health-care system and the grave risks, in both human and fiscal terms, associated with not correcting them. As a current hospital CEO and former heart surgeon, I'd like to share my perspective on today's health-care problems and recommend a course of action.

According to your Web site, "the Obama-Biden plan&builds on the existing health-care system." With all due respect, I believe that simply adjusting our current model would be a mistake similar to the one the Clintons made when they tried unsuccessfully to reform health care early during that Administration. We can't simply tweak elements of the system while leaving the rest intact. It's time to overhaul the entire model.

To start fresh, we need to clarify the three basic concepts of every health-care discussion: access, cost, and quality. We need to answer the following questions:

How should we define access? Should every U.S. citizen have a primary care physician? Should anyone on U.S. soil at any given moment be entitled to medical care? Should the elderly and the very poor continue to have access that others do not? Does "access" define all medical care without reservation?

• How much should health care cost in the U.S.? Is 20% of gross national product acceptable (the level we expect to reach by 2016, if the present system remains unchanged), or should we aim for less? How much of that cost should be borne by employers, and how much by the government? What should an American family reasonably pay for health care?

Where should we set the parameters for quality? Do we want to shoulder the tremendous costs of medicine that meet the very highest standards? What should be the goals for infant mortality, cancer survival rates, and other such metrics?

Defining access, cost, and quality will set the baseline requirements the new system must satisfy. These conditions, rather than any vague goal such as "universal care" or "affordability," should be the starting points for reform. Without them, any plan will soon hit financial and demographic obstacles that will derail it completely.


Invite him and station the National Guard outside of every entrance as soon as possible:


Arriving at consensus on such basic yet critical questions will not be an easy feat. That's why I suggest you launch a kind of 90-day Manhattan Project as soon as possible. Invite 50 to 70 of our country's smartest thinkers—people willing to spend three months in Washington—to solve what is one of the biggest domestic problems facing the U.S. today. Avoid policy wonks and business consultants, simply because the economics of health care differ so radically from those of other industries. Station the National Guard at every entrance to the meeting room and instruct them to keep out all lobbyists.

Who should be on this "A-Team?" Obviously, you'll need to select representatives from the relevant groups: physicians and hospital administrators, insurers and drugmakers, as well as legislators and their constituents. But two-thirds of the conferees should be crossovers, such as doctors who left their practices to run hospitals or administrators who switched to insurance. That way, they'll speak each other's languages and be equipped to talk from both sides of the table. Fortunately, many highly regarded individuals fit those descriptions, including former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who has gone back to practicing medicine.

The IT Factor

In addition to building consensus around the baseline questions, it is vital that we understand that information technology may ultimately be the most important element of health-care reform. While I applaud your five-year, $10 billion IT spending plan, I'm afraid it will barely scratch the surface of the nation's need for medical data sharing. My six-hospital chain alone is budgeting $73 million over the next three years to upgrade its medical-care technology.

People talk about the potential cost-savings of integrating medical IT so that hospital computers can communicate with one another, as well as with primary-care offices and with imaging labs across the country. But the real payoff from IT investment will be the birth of truly preventive medicine. Imagine an integrated system that lets us identify populations at high risk for conditions such as hypertension or diabetes and thus encourages intervention before patients get sick, instead of just before they need high-risk, expensive procedures like cardiac surgery or foot amputation. Effective data sharing will give researchers the tools to reach that level of analysis. We should no longer define prevention as lifetime treatment of chronic disease.

Predictably, the companies now competing in the medical data field will balk at cooperating to such a degree. And, finding answers to the basic baseline questions will no doubt result in strenuous argument. But, those are hurdles project members can clear. While the plan they produce won't please everyone (truthfully, it should completely please no one), the ultimate objective must be an agreement that transcends all vested interests. I firmly believe that, just as the greatest American minds could put people on the moon and invent the atomic bomb, they can also create a world-class, sustainable health-care system.

When the panel emerges with a plan, it must be followed immediately by a transition time line—perhaps six to seven years—during which an initial pilot program would expand in an orderly fashion, piece by piece. But it's imperative that this process begin right away. If we don't tackle health-care reform within weeks of Inauguration Day, the will for change that has built up so powerfully during your campaign will quickly evaporate. This is an opportunity our nation can ill afford to squander.

Dr. Ralph de la Torre is chief executive of Caritas Christi Health Care, New England's second-largest hospital network. He was formerly chief of cardiac surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Can Cardinal O'Malley Hire People to Kill Other People and Tell Catholics Pass Out That Phone Number?



A reader posts in the comment section:


I don't understand why there isn't a Religious or member of the Clergy who will answer the question, is it wrong to give a woman seeking an abortion an 800# where she could obtain it? Sad sad day for Humanity!

I don't think you mean you don't understand, do you?

Don't you mean you don't want to face how dire the situation inside the walls?

Let's face it. Caritas has hired people to murder children. The Cardinal has endorsed it and is lying about it. The gravity of this situation should have taken four phone calls to put out of it's misery.


Further, perhaps the situation is not as Cardinal O'Malley is trying to make it appear, but here he is sucking up the Roman culture 20 feet away from the Vatican and nobody was interested enough in the women, the children, the doctors and nurses and the trust that has been violated with the lying going on to do something to stop it.

No Religious. No Clergy. No Bishops. No Cardinal. No Nuncio.

So far.

I have another turn up the heat surprise coming during Holy Week and a surprise or two coming shortly thereafter.

By the way, some kind soul sent the question to EWTN. Thank GOD for EWTN.




Previous Question Next Question
Assisting in Abortion?
Question from on 03-23-2009:
This may sound like a stupid question but here in Boston it is becoming a dilemma with the Hierarchy specifically our Cardinal.. Would it be wrong as a Catholic to give a woman an 800# where she might obtain an Abortion? Many of the Faithful believe this is definitely wrong but when we voice our concerns are called Unloving, Uncaring and doing a Great disservice to the Church!

Please advise.

Thank you

Answer by Judie Brown on 03-24-2009:
Dear Kathy

It is wrong to participate in any way in the direct aborting of a child. This means that if a Catholic provides a phone number to a mother who is looking for a way to have her child killed, then that person is complicit in the actual murder.

I know there are theologians attempting to say that this is not so, but it is actually no different than the doctor who calls in a prescription for his patient who has asked him for a lethal medication so he can take his own life.

Judie Brown

Monday, March 23, 2009

My Conversation with Sister Carol Keehan of the Catholic Health Association

I asked Sr. Carol Keehan point blank questions which she refused to answer.

Essentially, she said she herself would never do any of the things required of the contract and if I thought she would, I obviously have no respect for her. She said everybody knows abortion is an option.

Yes, Sister. Everybody knows. Everybody knows drinking is an option too. But people with sound judgment don't send the alcoholic with a case of Dewers to the AA meeting.


Our exchange is below.

Sr. Carol seems like woman who would appalled if she knew the details of this arrangement. It's clear to me she doesn't.

The people who will be miles away from what's happening are simply not thinking this through.

They think they are setting up a system that can hoodwink the insurance company and use the opportunity to talk women out of the abortions. That you can do in a Catholic hospital.

What they're doing now is taking that environment away and replacing it with a system that is going to force Catholic healthcare workers to CEASE AND DESIST from talking women out of abortions. They are replacing it with a system that is forcing Catholic workers to talk about abortion in a positive light and hand the women the phone number. And, they're promising that monitors will be watching.

They've made the Cardinal Archbishop of Boston a man who has set up a partnership to hire people to kill other people. They've told him it's ok to do it.

They've told the Catholics at Caritas its ok to do it. But when you ask them if they'd ever do it themselves, they tell you they're prolife and would never get involved in any aspect of killing anybody else. We have no respect for them if we would think such a thing about them.


It's too crazy to be of human origin. It's the devil, hiding truth, clouding judgment, taking advantage of naive people.

Also worthy of reading is Leila Lawlor's below post on this menacing debacle. The Cardinal's game playing has left her with doubts about the National Catholic Bioethics Center. I personally have never heard anything that came out of Father Tad's mouth that wasn't wholly consistent with the teachings of the Church in any matter and I cannot imagine him compromising truth. I do share Leila's sentiments about the foolishness of having to ask somebody whether Catholics can hire somebody to kill people and then point people in their direction.

It's giving the appearance of a disingenuous game. The Cardinal's statement that he "in order to assure" him, he hired the NCBC to review the agreement and "assure him" wasn't exactly helpful.

In order to assure me that this agreement will provide for the integrity of the Catholic identity and practices of Caritas Christi Health Care System, I have asked the National Catholic Bioethics Center to review the agreement and to assure me that it is faithful to Catholic principles."
Seems to many people that the Cardinal, who sits on the Board and helps fund the National Catholic Bioethics Center, has already given them the conclusion of their opinion.

The fight has not been kept far from the walls. The fight is inside the house.



I completely agree that the the culture of death has infested the walls within.

Sister Carol's exchange below (read from bottom up):


-----Original Message-----
From: cmmckinley@aol.com
To: srcarolk@chausa.org


That is an unfair response Sister.

You have made an assertion that will affect thousands of Catholics and I'm asking you to doctrinally confirm your assertions.

It's one thing to be in a Catholic institution and speak to women who approach you in that context and it's another to direct a flow of hundreds of thousands of Catholics who are covered for abortion services and intend to get them - and compel our Catholic physicians to do what you would never do yourself.

You have told the public that it is ok for the Cardinal to hire somebody to kill people and it is ok for Catholics to pass out those phone numbers.

Answer the questions, please.


-----Original Message-----
From: Sr. Carol Keehan <srcarolk@chausa.org>
To: cmmckinley@aol.com <cmmckinley@aol.com>


I am saddened by your response. I would never ask you if you had ever hired someone to kill another. As much as I want to work with you it does not seem possible, I have saved the lives of thousands of babies and never ever done anything to hurt much less kill anyone. You obviously have no respect for me if that is your response. Let’s pray for each other but no longer communicate.



-----Original Message-----
From: cmmckinley@aol.com
To: srcarolk@chausa.org


Sister,

You didn't answer the questions.

Would you kindly answer them?

Can a Cardinal Archbishop hire somebody to kill somebody else?

Can Catholics then give them that phone number?

Have you ever done it.

That's what I want to know from you.


-----Original Message-----
From: Sr. Carol Keehan <srcarolk@chausa.org>
To: cmmckinley@aol.com <cmmckinley@aol.com>


I am convinced few have complete information and I am concerned at the tone of so many comments about permission to kill etc. We are Church and we should talk these issues out with respect. What you are quoting is not what my understanding of the statement has to be. Also in todayE2s world, how many people do you think don’t know abortion is an option?
In my forty years in health care much of it in perinatology and neonatology, many women start out saying I can’t have this baby, I can’t afford it or I am too ashamed and because we are there for them in a loving and supportive way, we get a real chance to prevent the abortion. So many have been prevented because of this.
In any “service” that a provider does not provide, the person is sent back to the insurance company to have them deal with it. Often but not in this case the insurance company will tell the person that it is not covered or if it is what providers they can choose from.
No one likes to hear that someone is going to get an abortion, but if we stay in the business of Ob, we get a real opportunity to help women deal with this challenging time and often are able to save the baby. I am sure for our crisis pregnancy lines, it is an agony that never gets better to talk with someone who ultimately makes the decision to abort but if we don’t keep our call line open we can’t prevent so many of them.
My sense of this arrangement is not the same as yours but I do have faith in the integrity of the Archbishop. There is a difference is saying we don’t do that and hopefully they will ask why, and sending them back to their insurance company office. It is such a painful reality and our work together is the best way to be sure we have every opportunity for women to make another choice. Our example of providing services etc as well as a welcoming Church will do so much to change individual and public opinion which strengthens our pro life position. Sometimes it can be like walking a tightrope in order to have the opportunity to encourage life choices in pregnant women.
We may not see this the same exact way or even have the same information but I hope we can respect the goodwill we both have and the commitment both of us have to pro life. Thank you and God bless you . Sr Carol
From: cmmckinley@aol.com [mailto:cmmckinley@aol.com]

To: Sr. Carol Keehan
Subject: Re: question
Sister,

I'm not convinced you had complete information when you made your statements in the Boston Globe regarding the Caritas situation and I'd like to clarify your doctrinal assertions. We have thousands of Catholics who have expressed that this arragement will force them to quit their job.

Both Caritas and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has confirmed that Catholic employees at Caritas will be compelled to respond to a woman who is di straught about her pregnancy and wishes to terminate it by saying "Abortion is an option for you". Caritas has given written guarantees in writing that they will force Catholic employees to provide abortion information in a positive light and give them further instructions on how to obtain that abortion. The Commonwealth is now working out the details of how to monitor conversations of Catholic employees at Caritas to ensure they are complying with these orders. (please see citation from the Boston Globe below.)

Many of us are confused by your statements.

Can Catholics respond to people asking you to kill somebody by saying "I can't do that but here's the phone number of somebody who willl connect you to the right person?"


Have you ever responded to a distraught women who sought information about obtaining an abortion by giving her the phone numbers to get it or arranging for her ride?


Is it consistent with Catholic ethics for a priest to respond to a woman seeking information about aborti on by explaining the procedure and giving her the phone number to obtain it?

Is it completely consistent with Catholic ethics to respond to a distraught pregnant women by telling her abortion is an option for her and refer her to the phone number of people Cardinal O'Malley has subcontracted to kill the unborn child?



Is it morally ethical for a Cardinal Archbishop to create a partnership that is a subcontract knowing tha t the people employed by that contract are people that will assist and carry out a murder?



Thanks for the clarfications and answers to the questions. See below for the article and links.







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 "rea dy 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.

From the National Catholic Register:
If Caritas-Centene proceeds with its plan, state regulators and abortion advocates will be watching. “How compliance will be monitored is just being worked out now,” Massachusetts health authority spokesman Powers said March 16.
Andrea Miller, executive director of NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) Pro-Choice Massachusetts, said her abortion advocacy group “vows to monitor” the Catholic hospitals to ensure that people have access to services to “protect them from pregnancy and disease …” In the past, NARAL operatives have made covert calls to hospitals, including Catholic ones, to see if personnel complied with a law to offer the abortifacient “morning after” pill.



Carol McKinley