"A Closer Look at CHAUSA's 'Alternative Magisterium'"

Check out "A Closer Look at CHAUSA's 'Alternative Magisterium'" (http://faithfulinthe8th.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-closer-look-at-chausas-alternative.html).

Please sign the petition: "If we are to save truly Catholic healthcare in this country, we must amputate the rotting limbs immediately or risk losing the patient"

Please sign the petition: "If we are to save truly Catholic healthcare in this country, we must amputate the rotting limbs immediately or risk losing the patient" (http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/if-we-are-to-save-truly-catholic-healthcare-in/).  Thank you!

"If we are to save truly Catholic healthcare in this country, we must amputate the rotting limbs immediately or risk losing the patient" (Pat Archbold, National Catholic Register, 7/12/13)

 After quickly receiving its first dozen signatures, the petition had to be moved to http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/catholichealthcare.  Apologies for the inconvenience.  Thank you.




Please consider signing this online petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/if-we-are-to-save-truly-catholic-healthcare-in/

Thank you.

"If we are to save truly Catholic healthcare in this country, we must amputate the rotting limbs immediately or risk losing the patient"

As per Archbishop William Lori, "Plaintiffs in HHS legal challenges include business leaders who want to bear witness to Christian principles. We cannot be silent about the conscience rights of private employers and then say on Sunday, 'Bear witness to your faith in the workplace.'”

The Catholic Health Association has somehow given its "blessing" to the draconian HHS mandate, demonstrates absolute impertinence to the USCCB, and is "throwing under the bus" any of us who struggle to be faithful witnesses in the face of open assaults on conscience. God help us! (See http://www.chausa.org/newsroom/women's-preventive-health-services-final-rule.).

Yesterday, the National Catholic Register published a powerful critique in exceptionally dramatic language:

"The Bishops have tried to work with the CHA for a long time, to bring them in line, and to have them be more respectful and diligent in protecting Church teaching in health matters. They have failed. The CHA, in this crucial moment for religious freedom in this country, is on the other side. The Catholic Health Association is the enemy....

"the competent ecclesial authorities must remove permission for the CHA to use the word Catholic in their name. This must be done immediately. The CHA is not Catholic and they must not be allowed to use the name when they are in open opposition to the Bishops and Church teaching. This is most especially true with all the pending litigation against the mandate by Catholic institutions. The Bishops cannot allow the Church to seem divided on this question.

"Further, each and every Bishop should urge (read threaten) Catholic Health institutions within their dioceses that continued association with the CHA calls into question their commitment to Catholic principles and their affiliation with the Church.

"This may seem drastic but it is necessary. If we are to save truly Catholic healthcare in this country, we must amputate the rotting limbs immediately or risk losing the patient"

As one person commented in response: "Jesus did not ask the money changers to leave the temple. He THREW them out."

The time has long since passed for playing footsy with people who might talk a good game but who demonstrate no inclination to practice medicine in accord with authentic Catholic teaching. Nightmarish conditions of the CHAUSA-affiliated "Catholic" hospitals in my own archdiocese include:

1) a paucity of NFP-only physicians

2) "privileges" for IVF specialists

3) "privileges" for associates of a practice involved with "fetal reduction"

4) provision of information on "advance directives" which fails to specify that Catholic teaching must be honored - particularly with regard to the provision of nutrition and hydration. And I live in the home archdiocese of Terri Schiavo!

Catholic Health Assoc gives its "blessing" to the HHS assault on conscience‏

The below link is to the Catholic Health Association's "blessing" on the draconian HHS mandate, its absolute impertinence to the USCCB, and its "throwing under the bus" any of us who struggle to be faithful witnesses in the face of open assaults on conscience.  God help us!

http://www.chausa.org/newsroom/women's-preventive-health-services-final-rule

Bishop Persico's model for dealing with "Catholic" health care

Mr. Bozza,

At the recent PNFPN conference, you spoke of "nightmares" at Philadelphia's Catholic hospitals.  That marked quite a departure from what you previously wrote.  In my opinion, those "nightmares" could be summed up as follows:

1) the paucity of NFP-only physicians: I have only been able to find one OBGYN from our hospitals on One More Soul's list of NFP only OBGYNs.

2) "privileges" for IVF specialists: ALL of Holy Redeemer's "Reproductive Endocrinologists and Obstetricians" are IVF specialists (i.e., Drs Larry Barnat and Jennifer Nichols of Abington Reproductive Medicine; Drs Arthur Castelbaum, Martin Freedman, and Benjamin Gocial of Reproductive Medicine Associates of Philadelphia; Dr Maria Pia Platia of Fertility and Gynecology Associates) and NONE of Holy Redeemer's obstetricians are to be found on a list of NFP-only physicians!

3) "privileges" for associates of practice involved with "fetal reduction": As per posters at FertileThoughts.com, Dr. Frank Craparo is a practitioner of "reduction."  All of St Mary Medical Center's specialists in "Maternal Fetal Medicine" - including Dr. Stephen Smith - are associates of Craparo at "Abington Perinatal Associates."  Smith's name had been removed from St. Mary's online directory, around the time that the Huffington Post reported the following:  Dr. Stephen Smith of St. Mary's performed an ultrasound on an expecting mother and confirmed that the fetus had polycystic kidney disease, a fatal condition in infants. Smith recommended an abortion.... local abortion opponents publicized Smith's advice....any pledge to support Catholic doctrine on medical matters is broadly viewed as a formality to be agreed to and then summarily ignored."

4) provision of information on "advance directives" which fails to specify that Catholic teaching must be honored - particularly with regard to the provision of nutrition and hydration.  This in the home archdiocese of Terri Schiavo!: Neither Saint Mary's Advanced Directives and Living Wills, nor Holy Redeemer's Making Your Own Health Care Decisions and Advance Directive Form, nor Mercy Health System's Vendor Compliance Program, nor Lourdes' Pre Admission testing, nor St. Francis' Advance Directives properly specify
• Catholic teaching with regard to nutrition and hydration, and
• that health care services cannot honor advance directives (e.g., non-specific directives to forego nutrition and hydration) opposed to Catholic teaching.

Bishop Persico of Erie is to be applauded for removing the label "Catholic" from a hospital in his NW Pa diocese (www.eriercd.org/saintvincent.htm).  It appears that Bishop Persico was following Pope Benedict XVI's guidance and doing what the situation demanded:

"Art. 11. – The diocesan Bishop is obliged, if necessary, to make known to the faithful the fact that the activity of a particular charitable agency is no longer being carried out in conformity with the Church’s teaching, and then to prohibit that agency from using the name 'Catholic' [Emphasis added.] and to take the necessary measures should personal responsibilities emerge (Apostolic Letter Issued 'Motu Proprio' of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI on the Services of Charity).

In the case of Bishop Persico's hospital, it appears that they were at least being forthright. In our archdiocese, hospitals are shamelessly claiming to be "Catholic" in spite of easy-to-find outrages.

Come Judgement Day, won't each of us be answerable for situations of turning our backs and letting evil thrive?

Thank you,