This is awful. Nuns gone wild. The AP reports:
Catholic nuns are urging Congress to pass President Barack Obama’s health care plan, in an unusual public break with bishops who say it would subsidize abortion.
Some 60 leaders of religious orders representing 59,000 Catholic nuns Wednesday sent lawmakers a letter urging them to pass the Senate health care bill. It contains restrictions on abortion funding that the bishops say don’t go far enough.
The letter says that “despite false claims to the contrary, the Senate bill will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions.” The letter says the legislation also will help support pregnant women and “this is the real pro-life stance.”
More to come. Check back soon.
This kind of thing will almost certainly confuse many Catholics. Methinks the Dems have had this in their pocket for a while and are now attempting to create momentum. This comes on the heels of Catholic congressman Dale Kildee’s official endorsement today and the Catholic Health Association endorsing Obamacare.
What really kills me is that the bill clearly funds abortion. Do they really think that if they lie openly enough and loudly enough that everyone will simply accept it.
This is an in-your-face to the bishops who need to react to this kind of thing.
Update: A little more of the text of the letter has been reported by CNN:
“We write to urge you to cast a life-affirming ‘yes’ vote when the Senate health care bill (H.R. 3590) comes to the floor of the House for a vote as early as this week,” a group of nuns wrote in a letter to members of Congress released Wednesday by NETWORK, progressive Catholic advocacy organization.
NETWORK said the 55 signatories represent tens of thousands of Catholic nuns in the United States.
The letter argues that the legislation “will make crucial investments in community health centers that largely serve poor women and children.”
“And despite false claims to the contrary, the Senate bill will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions,” the letter reads. “It will uphold longstanding conscience protections and it will make historic new investments – $250 million – in support of pregnant women. This is the REAL pro-life stance, and we as Catholics are all for it.”
Still doing research so check back in later. If you get anything put it in the combox.
March 17, 2010 at 6:02 pm
This is why the Apostolic Visitation to American women religious is so necessary.
Cardinal George, speaking for the USCCB, just said two days ago that health care reform, as it stands now, *cannot* be supported by Catholics. Whatever happened to that vow of obedience to the Church that these sisters took?
March 17, 2010 at 6:07 pm
I'm suspicious of the lack of details. Which nuns? Are they really nuns (or actually sisters)? With what authority do they speak? Where can we read the letter? Who signed it? And so on…
March 17, 2010 at 6:11 pm
I saw this. It is being headed by Sister Carol Keenan, aka "Half my brain is a clinking cash register".
The so called not for profit catholic healthcare hospital groups are all profit. It is a big scam and they send millions of dollars a year to offshore accounts. Their local hospitals plead poverty, while the systems (Sisters of Charity Leavenworth, Catholic Healthcare West, etc) brag about how much money they make.
March 17, 2010 at 6:36 pm
We are responsible for the life of the Church and must do something to reign in these renegades. We cannot allow them to mislead the faithful anymore. These scandalous behavior must not stand. So, we need to find which nuns and take corrective and disciplinary action by contacting their bishops and superiors and withholding donations to their orders. We need to expose their disorderly conduct as sinful and faithless. Unless we do this, these liberals and dissenters in the Church will continue to injure the Mystical Body. They've done enough damage last election. We cannot afford to let these loose cannons do what they have. This is our Church because, we are the one's who are faithful to the bishops and Pope. They are the heretics and schismatics that must not be tolerated because the consequences of their actions are a matter of life and death. Everyone with a blog must call out this scandal and out these nuns for their faithless and scandalous behavior. It must not stand because they can influence others.
March 17, 2010 at 7:58 pm
Matthew, I've been unable to find a list of the signatories. Could you provide one so that we know which orders should NOT be receiving our charitable donations or young vocations?! Thanks!
March 17, 2010 at 8:20 pm
No wonder young women are not drawn to religious life as they once were. We can't even tell what they stand for anymore. This really is the work of the Devil. We must pray and fast to end these divisions within the Church. CMR – PLEASE tell us what orders these were if you can find out! God help us!
March 17, 2010 at 8:41 pm
As suspected, it's the usual suspects: the LCWR, the same ones currently being investigated by the Vatican. Here's the link to the damning letter:
http://www.networklobby.org/press/3-17-10HealthcareSistersLetter.htm
(Will probably need to cut and paste)
March 17, 2010 at 9:02 pm
Thanks for the link to the letters and signatories, Anonymous!
March 18, 2010 at 12:48 am
The Bishops power has been fettered away. They came down on the right sides of the Notre Dame Scandal and on ObamaCare and yet it appears on both issues nothing but scandle continues to occur. Letters have done nothing, action and swift public action is needed.
March 18, 2010 at 2:45 am
Aren't women wonderful?!? I am fondly remembering the School Sisters of Notre Dame. This whole thread reminds me why I am no longer a Catholic. These women are courageous, and they are to be commended. They are doing God's work. I pray daily for a National Health System like Medicare that will cover all Americans, much more cheaply than the current for profit system does. I pray for my child and I'll pray for yours too.
March 18, 2010 at 3:42 am
These nuns who urge Congress to pass the PRO-ABORTION Obama Health Care Bill are probably the same nuns that rejected the Vatican investigation of their religious orders because they display outrageous dissent against the teachings of the Natural Moral Law and against the unchangeable teachings of the Roman Catholic Chrch.
March 18, 2010 at 3:51 am
Abortion is a crime against the Incarnation. It is the willful destruction of the Image and Likeness of God which Christ came to restore.
A nun advocating abortion is as grave as a priest molesting children.
St. John Chrysostom said that the road to hell is paved with the skulls of priests with bishops as guideposts…
It is arguable that this nun is just another one of us in a long line of people who install street lights along the way.
Pray for the heretics–especially the one looking back in the mirror.
March 18, 2010 at 8:35 am
This pains my heart. No wonder other Christians think we are so confused. We can’t even agree on something that’s so elementary, the right to life.
I’m wondering, what’s one got to do to get excommunicated? I would think being pro abortion and going against the bishops would be enough.
We’ll see which bishops say something about this scandal. I’m sure some funds through Catholic Campaign of Human Development helped these groups.
March 18, 2010 at 12:11 pm
For Archbishop George and the U.S.C.C.B. to proclaim they are really against the Senate Bill, they need to defund the CCHD. Our money, millions, is funding pro abortion, pro Obama care,and the pro Democrat platform. You can't tell someone you won't commit a crime, and then help them commit the crime and say you're not a criminal….
March 18, 2010 at 2:26 pm
These "nuns" are sisters in the organization Network – A National Social Justice Lobby. Their letter is at
http://www.networklobby.org/press/3-17-10HealthcareSistersLetter.htm
The signers are all listed and do not carry the endorsement of their orders. Unfortunately it is painted that way.
For hope in our future religious see the young woman flocking to the Dominican Order of Mary Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor, MI. Other
fully habited orders are growing by leaps and bounds. Praise be to God!!
March 18, 2010 at 4:09 pm
I will vote it as long as all partial birth abortions (or post birth as that is the preferred abortion position of obama) be performed in catholic hospitals as they are cleaner and the abortions will be safer and more effective so IF the aborted child somehow finds a way to survive, his or her life can be terminated more antiseptically. God bless American and God bless the nunnery. Be hit on your hands by a ruler seems simple in comparison.
March 18, 2010 at 9:38 pm
Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious
Statement Affirming Bishops' Opposition to Obamacare
March 18, 2010
In a March 15th statement, Cardinal Francis George, OMI, of Chicago, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, spoke on behalf of the United States Bishops in opposition to the Senate’s version of the health care legislation under consideration because of its expansion of abortion funding and its lack of adequate provision for conscience protection. Recent statements from groups like Network, the Catholic Health and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) directly oppose the Catholic Church’s position on critical issues of health care reform.
The Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, the second conference of Major Superiors of Women Religious in the United States, finds the provision of the bill to include expansion of abortion funding and fails to include conscience protection. We believe the bill needs to include the Hyde Amendment as passed by the House in November.
Protection of life and freedom of conscience are central to morally responsible judgment. We join the bishops in seeking ethically sound legislation.
Mother Mary Quentin Sheridan, R.S.M.President
On behalf of the Membership of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious