The Phoenix Catholic Diocese has ended its relationship with St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix
Why you ask?
Because in 2009 the Hospital made the decision to save the life of a mother (with four other children) who had pulmonary hypertension... She was 11 weeks pregnant at the time of the surgery. The pregnancy put additional stress on her heart, to the point that hospital officials and doctors believed she was near death.
Bishop Thomas Olmsted reacted this spring with his demands:
If St. Josephs wishes to remain affiliated with the Catholic church they must agree to the demands made by the Bishop.
Bishop's demands:
- He wants more oversight to ensure that contraception education is not given, there is no sterilization, no prescribing contarceptives and no in vitro fertilization. (and of course no abortion)
- Provide all the "education on the rules" to staff
- Acknowledge that the Bishop is correct in the dispute over a procedure the diocese says was an abortion.
As for rule #1...oh oh, read this, can't help out those poor people!
The other violations, he said, are taking place under the auspices of the Mercy Care Plan, a nonprofit health insurance plan for poor patients who qualify under the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.
Talk about a daddy figure!
http://www.azcentral.com/...
"There cannot be a tie in this debate," Olmsted wrote. "Until this point in time, you have not acknowledged my authority to settle this question."
He writes, "Your actions communicate to me that you do not respect my authority to authentically teach and interpret moral law in this diocese."
Asked whether saving one life was better than losing two, he said the issue was that rather than trying to save two lives, doctors took one of them.
"There is no way to rationalize this," he said. "It would have been best to try to save them both."
From the hospital's Linda Hunt:
"Our medical staff did try to save both lives. We will always try to save both lives." she said. "In this case it was impossible. Rather than let both the mother and the baby die. We saved the only life we could."
Oh, lest I forget, the Bishop also said that
Sister Margaret McBride, a vice president of the hospital, had excommunicated herself by approving the procedure.
Now, I respect anyone's right to their own beliefs. I don't care if you are Christian, Jew, Atheist, Wiggan, or any other of the myriad choices.
I do question where these guys (seems it's always the guys) get off being little dictators.
I heard that there were protests of the Bishop where he was called "Bully Bishop" but I have not been able to find any links.
If he was called that, I'm glad, because he is.
KPHO TV's website
says 68% of viewers outraged by this story.