A Jesuit university is honoring Sr. Carol Keehan who publicly supported Obamacare against the bishop’s wishes and despite the bill’s federal funding of abortion. Keehan’s support was a huge public relations coup for the Obama administration which believed her endorsement so pivotal they gave her one of the pens Obama used to sign Obamacare into law.
The Cardinal Newman Society sent out an alert stating:
On November 23, 2010, the University of San Francisco (USF) plans to honor Sr. Carol Keehan, the president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, whose support of the healthcare overhaul passed earlier this year by Congress resulted in “a wound to Catholic unity” according to the U.S. Catholic bishops. The Cardinal Newman Society is urging USF to rescind the scheduled honor.
“It is unspeakable that the University of San Francisco should choose to honor someone who severely damaged pro-life efforts in this nation and undermined the express will of the U.S. bishops,” said Patrick J. Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society. “The Cardinal Newman Society calls on the President of USF to rescind the offer of this honor and speaking platform to Sr. Keehan.”
USF’s office of University Ministry plans to honor Sister Keehan at its “Stand 4 Conference” later this month. According to the University, the conference “recognizes religious and spiritual leaders whose actions symbolize a life of courage, commitment, and advocacy.” She will deliver a talk entitled “Health Care as a Social Justice Issue” at the conference.
The USF website reads: “This year we honor Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, President and CEO of the Catholic Health Association. . . in her letter sent to Congress representing 59,000 Catholic nuns and more than 50 heads of religious congregations and organizations she remarks, ‘health care reform is a faith mandate for life and dignity of all of our people.’”
When she says for “life and dignity of all of our people” I assume she means except for the unborn…or the really sick people who won’t receive care under the federal plan.
But other than them Sr. Keehan’s right on target.
The thing that is especially irking about this invitation is while Notre Dame said they honored President Obama despite his stances opposing Catholic doctrine and bishops, the University of San Francisco seems to be honoring Sr. Keehan because of her stance against the bishops.
Cardinal Newman Society is attempting to mount a push to get the university to rescind their invitation. Check it out here.
