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.
- "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."
- "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,
