CHAUSA affiliates in the Archdiocese

8/29/15

Your Excellency:

With total compensation for top administrators at CHAUSA affiliates more closely rivaling professional athletes than nurses, there would seem to be minimal incentive to upset the status quo.  According to CitizenAudit.org,

• From 7/1/11 to 6/30/12, the Daughters of Charity received $1,226,336 in total compensation for the services of President/CEO Sister Carol Keehan.

Total 2012 compensation for Trinity Health (nee Catholic Health East) President and CEO Judith Persichelli was $3,908,063.  








Chief officers at the Mercy Health System of Southeast Pa and St Mary Medical Center received $1,275,381 and $705,458, respectively, in 2012.  





For 2011, Holy Redeemer's chief officer received total compensation of $767,949.

While the Pa Catholic Conference and the USCCB continue to advocate for conscience protections, CHAUSA has lauded its role in passing the conscience-protection-free Affordable Care Act and its relationship with the ACA's primary architect (cf., Bishop James Conley, No Law Can Be Based on Injustice, 6/11/15).  President Obama has, in turn, tirelessly praised CHAUSA's Sister Carol Keehan (cf, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNG6xNT1ObU).

In our archdiocese, it would appear that the CHAUSA-affiliated Mercy Health System, St. Mary's, and Holy Redeemer are operating in as "Catholic" manner as they intend.  When I last checked,

• NOT ONE OBGYN in the directory of the Mercy Health System of Southeast Pa could be identified on One More Soul's list of NFP only OBGYNs. 
• While St Mary Medical Center's directory includes one OB/GYN who can be found on the NFP-only list, 27 others cannot be found.  The directory also includes three perinatologists (i.e., 1, 2, and 3) from Abington Perinatal Associates - a practice reported to be involved with fetal "reduction" (See # 1, # 2, and # 3.). 
• While Holy Redeemer's physician directory includes one OB/GYN who can be found on an NFP-only list, 21 others cannot.  The directory also includes 6 physicans (i.e., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) from Reproductive Medicine Associates of Philadelphia and Abington Reproductive Medicine, where people can choose from a smorgasbord of morally excluded services, such as egg/embryo/sperm "donation," IVF, and "surrogacy." 

 

• Neither Saint Mary's Advanced Directives and Living Wills, nor Holy Redeemer's Making Your Own Health Care Decisions 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.

With Pope Francis' visit just a month away, his words from early June seem especially noteworthy:

• "Money does help — we know that! — but it can also become the downfall of the Mission.... Please, with so many plans and programmes do not cut Jesus Christ out of your missionary work, which is his work."  

As per Pope Emeritus Benedict XI,

• "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' and to take the necessary measures should personal responsibilities emerge."  

Please remove permission for the Mercy Health System of SE Pa, St. Mary Medical Center, and Holy Redeemer to continue to identify themselves as "Catholic."

Thank you,
 

Defunding Planned Parenthood

Dear Representative Fitzpatrick and Senator Toomey,

Long before the recent videos came to light, we all knew that Planned Parenthood was the nation's largest abortion provider.  Defunding Planned Parenthood should have happened a long, long time ago. 

While Representative Fitzpatrick is NOT among the 163 co-sponsors of HR 3134, Senator  Toomey IS a co-sponsor of S 1881.  While the Senate is expected to vote tomorrow on S 1881, it is feared that filibustering will result in its demise.  More will actually be needed than HR 3134 / S 1881.  

As reported by The Hill, "Eighteen House conservatives told GOP leaders Thursday that they will not support any measure to fund the government if it continues to fund Planned Parenthood.  'We must act to fully defund Planned Parenthood,' they wrote in a letter obtained by The Hill. 'Please know that we cannot and will not support any funding resolution — an appropriations bill, an omnibus package, a continuing resolution, or otherwise — that contains any funding for Planned Parenthood, including mandatory funding streams.'"  Signers included Pennsylvania's own Representative Keith Rothfus.

 Should S 1881 fail tomorrow, would you consider standing in solidarity with Representative Rothfus?

Sincerely, 

Your dad, Dorothy Day, and S 1881

The Honorable Robert Casey
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Casey,

As per your web site, "Bob Casey graduated from The College of the Holy Cross in 1982 and spent the following year teaching fifth grade and coaching eighth grade basketball in inner city Philadelphia for the Jesuit Volunteer Corps....Throughout his public career, Bob Casey has been guided by the legacy of his father, and the principle that: 'All public service is a trust, given in faith and accepted in honor.'"  In 1982, the young woman who became my wife was also a full time volunteer in Philadelphia, working for Mercy Corps.

In Philly's small circle of full time Catholic volunteers in the early 1980s, it's highly likely that you and we crossed paths.  While all of us greatly admired Dorothy Day of Catholic Worker fame as a champion of impoverished people, most of us would have been shocked to learn of Dorothy's absolute disapproval of abortion, contraception, and Planned Parenthood (cf, Dorothy Day's Pro Life Memories)!  Dorothy had a disdain for manipulative, wrongheaded efforts that disregarded the sanctity of human life and human dignity.


Recalling your dad's noble fight in Casey v. Planned Parenthood and Dorothy Day's recognition of the wrong headedness of Planned Parenthood, I am praying that you will reconsider your reported position and vote in favor of S 1881.


Sincerely,