The biggest losers in this week's health-care reform vote are the U.S. Catholic bishops. Unlike other opponents of the legislation who had none to begin with, the bishops lost much of the respect and benefit-of-the-doubt to which they had been accustomed. Their tacit approval of unjust war and torture, not to mention aiding and abetting the sexual assault of tens of thousands of children, produced few who directly challenged the bishops claim to being "pro-life," but that has changed.
Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association - an independent group of hospitals and other facilities financially unconnected to the institutional Catholic Church - said that the Senate bill was "an acceptable way to prevent federal funding of abortion" in direct contradiction to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' stated position. Next, a group representing 59,000 Catholic nuns rejected "false claims" that the bill would result in more abortions - another position held by the bishops. The religious women also urged members of Congress to "cast a life-affirming 'yes' vote" for the legislation. Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne noted, "major Catholic leaders - most of them women in religious orders - have picked up the flag of social justice discarded by a bishops' conference under increasing right-wing influence."
Emboldened by the sisters, the editors of Commonweal, a magazine published by lay Catholics, referred to bishops' supporting the availability of health care only "in theory." Politics Daily columnist David Gibson wrote, "it wasn't clear whether the point was to oppose the abortion provisions in the Senate bill, or the bill itself." Even Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) who, according to Gibson, had "members of the bishops' staff literally in the room with him" during his negotiations with House leaders over his vote, said "the hypocrisy is great" when the USCCB denounced the use of an executive order by President Obama to bar federal funding of elective abortions while having "applauded" President Bush's use of an executive order on embryonic stem cell research. In his interview with the Daily Caller, Stupak also said he suspected the USCCB was actually "just using the life issue to try to bring down health-care reform."
Rightfully claiming an important role in bringing us eight years of the Bush administration, the bishops' influence began to falter beginning with the 2006 elections and failed miserably in 2008. Losing the health-care vote was another major setback. So expect the continued loss in the number of lay employees, schools and parishes over which the bishops have control as well as severe cut-backs to whatever little is left of their assistance to the poor, sick and homeless as their benefactors look for more effective ways to influence voters.