Australian MP’s are voting on whether all hospitals must either perform abortions or at least offer referrals. One Archbishop is standing up against it and saying the Catholic church might have to get out of hospitals altogether. According to The Australian:
CATHOLIC hospitals might close their maternity and emergency departments if a proposed new abortion law is passed in Victoria next month, Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart has warned.
Archbishop Hart said Catholic hospitals would not provide referrals for abortions — nor perform them — which would be mandatory under the law.
“In the worst-case scenario, if a government is determined to enforce such laws, we have no option. We might get out of hospitals altogether,” Archbishop Hart told The Age.
This does seem to be the way of things recently. If the Church doesn’t conform to the secular demands of the government, then the Catholic church must decide whether it goes against its morality or just closes up shop.
Archbishop Hart has taken to asking MP’s to understand the Church’s issue here. Stay tuned for hypocritical screams about separation of church and state.
September 22, 2008 at 9:46 pm
At long last one lone bishop is standing up and telling the atheist hoardes that they can’t have it both ways.
God Bless Archbishop Hart.
If only the rest of the world’s Bishops had a bit of his spine.
September 22, 2008 at 9:46 pm
“Stay tuned for hypocritical screams about separation of church and state.”
We’re talking about Australia, not the USA. I don’t know for sure, but they may do things differently down under.
September 22, 2008 at 10:07 pm
We’re talking about Australia, not the USA.
Yes, and I think most people know that, but that won’t stop the screams. And we will surely hear widely-applicable variants of it such as, “imposing a religious view on patients” and such. The Cult of Indiscriminateness always finds a way.
September 22, 2008 at 10:17 pm
And there’s another scenario: Caesar might decide to take over any hospitals instead of letting them close down.
September 22, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Dave: The church can sell their stake in the assets to anyone. If Caesar wants to ante up, then that’s their perogative. They could sieze the assets, but that won’t sit well with Aussies.
Catholic medical practitioners will quit and find other employment, many will emigrate from Oz, (including Catholic doctors that practice in non-Catholic institutions).
Healthcare in Australia will dagrade significantly, . The political backlash will be HUGE.
Catholic Health Care accounts for 13% of Australian health services overall.
http://www.cha.org.au/site.php?id=10
September 23, 2008 at 1:35 am
Where the Church is not allowed to operate according to its doctrine they should pull out.
We have been taking care of everyone else for so long that we forgot to take care of ourselves first. Let Caesar run the schools, hospitals, and adoption services. The results will be much better(sure they will…)
September 23, 2008 at 1:35 am
Where the Church is not allowed to operate according to its doctrine they should pull out.
We have been taking care of everyone else for so long that we forgot to take care of ourselves first. Let Caesar run the schools, hospitals, and adoption services. The results will be much better(sure they will…)
September 23, 2008 at 2:11 am
Here’s a better option. You don’t perform the abortions or referrals. And you don’t pull out. You do what Rosa Parks did – you sit at the front of the bus and let them drag you off. Why make things easy by pulling out of health care? And selling up isn’t an option. You can’t sell a Catholic hospital to someone who is going to use to perform abortions.
September 23, 2008 at 2:28 am
Separation of Church and State means that the Church cannot intrude on the State; but the State is able to intrude on the Church. As Bill Clinton would say: it all depends on what the meaning of the word “separation” is (or something close to than anyway). Good for Archbishop Hart, and let’s pray that he means what he says. The Archbishop of Milwaukee would do well to emulate him.
–William
September 23, 2008 at 2:57 am
Archbishop Hart is truly a Pastor; may God bless and protect him and all the faithful in once-free Australia.
— Mack
September 23, 2008 at 3:24 am
This is only in Victoria, one of the Australian States, but no doubt, the abortionists will want to adopt similar laws in other states, too.
Now, as to the “separation of Church and State”; well in Australia, we have no bill of rights. We do have a section in the Federal Constitiution that says that the Federal Government cannot establish a State Religion, or mandate a religious test for holding public office (I think the historical background of this was Irish Catholic fears of the Church of England becoming the State Church in Oz, but I’m not sure). the courts read that very narrowly, and all levels of government use taxpayer funds to support, Church run schools, for example.
But the Greens (Satan’s political party – they’re for all the things that ol’ nick likes – atheism, abortion, euthanasia, tree-worship, sodomy on demand etc) and the left wing of Labor, have taken to adopting the Democrat whine about separation of Church and State – even though, for example, State and Federal funding of Catholic Schools (as well as the schools of the False “Religions”) is constitutionally permissible, and has been occurring for decades.
September 23, 2008 at 3:24 am
This is only in Victoria, one of the Australian States, but no doubt, the abortionists will want to adopt similar laws in other states, too.
Now, as to the “separation of Church and State”; well in Australia, we have no bill of rights. We do have a section in the Federal Constitiution that says that the Federal Government cannot establish a State Religion, or mandate a religious test for holding public office (I think the historical background of this was Irish Catholic fears of the Church of England becoming the State Church in Oz, but I’m not sure). the courts read that very narrowly, and all levels of government use taxpayer funds to support, Church run schools, for example.
But the Greens (Satan’s political party – they’re for all the things that ol’ nick likes – atheism, abortion, euthanasia, tree-worship, sodomy on demand etc) and the left wing of Labor, have taken to adopting the Democrat whine about separation of Church and State – even though, for example, State and Federal funding of Catholic Schools (as well as the schools of the False “Religions”) is constitutionally permissible, and has been occurring for decades.
September 23, 2008 at 3:27 am
Kudos to His Grace, Archbishop Hart. He’s a great Shepherd. Supports orthodoxy, the TLM, and told priests to “Say the Black and Do the Red” in a widely-published address last year – obviously he reads Fr Z!
September 23, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Smasher lagru is right. No retreat, no surrender. Make the Deathists and the Leftists throw us out forcibly. This will highlight their brutality and tyrannical oppression of Truth. It may also result in martyrdom of some of us. We should consider it an honor to bear this cross and to follow our Lord – particularly when things get vicious. Just remember that it wasn’t the acts of Constantine that converted millions – it was the Grace of God and the blood of the martyrs. Political backlash or no, we must do what is right – provide medical services and refuse to provide butchery on demand.
September 23, 2008 at 4:34 pm
In the 90’s Guttmacher issued a report claiming that less than 10% of abortions are provided by hospitals. In PA, a woman would be hard pressed for her regular OB/GYN to do an abortion at the hospital. I believe it’s this way in NY State and why Catholic Hospitals were so up in arms when former Gov. Spitzer tried to mandate that ALL hospitals provide abortions. I’m sure, though, that there are Catholic hospitals who do perform abortions and I KNOW most of them perform sterilizations and offer Plan-B. A bigger threat I think—gender reassignment surgery. I have heard of people suing over that. Our Catholic Hospitals need to either step up to the plate refusing these “services” or sell out and have their names removed from the organization.
September 24, 2008 at 10:10 am
Arch. Hart, A spine? He was the Archbishop after Cardinal Pell… many areas have slipped…
September 26, 2008 at 7:47 am
We’re talking about Australia, not the USA. I don’t know for sure, but they may do things differently down under
Very differently. In Australia it was considered a scandle that a senior government minister visited Cardinal Pell just before releasing the party’s education policy. I mean how DARE he visit a religious person! At one stage he was unable to actually address the press conference due to reporters demanding to know “which parts of the policy were written by Cardinal Pell”.
It has only just become possible for a politician to ADMIT he attends Church without public outcry, and then he has to offer a disclaimer that his religion is a ‘private’ thing which doesn’t influence his decisions.
A significant cleric who’s recently released research on public opinion and abortions may well have influenced the abortion debate is now ‘neutralised’ by charges trumped up and rehashed (having been dismissed by courts decades ago) and trumpeted in the media.
In Australia there is no right leaning media. There is left and extreme left. Here anything goes and any tactic against Catholics is acceptable.
Archbishop Hart is a wonderful liturgist and a good man. I pray his spine holds.