NY Times comment - St Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix. Response to N. Kristof's column in today's paper

NY Times on line
January 27th, 2011
11:18 am

Bishop Olmstead was right. The doctors and the hospital were right.

What is most important is that the mother and father decided to do the right thing. They are the ones who get our prayers and condolences. they are the ones upon whom we should focus. This was an excruciating, personal, moral, salvific choice they made - for themselves, for their child, for their family, and, in a real way, for the rest of us.

Unfortunately, the Catholic Bishop, the Catholic Doctors, The Catholic Hospital did not come to One right decision for the Catholic couple and the many couples who will come after them.

The Bishop's error was doing Monday morning quarterbacking without finding a moral and supportive answer for the couple. The Doctors and Hospital apparently erred by not finding the doctors who subsequently pontificated that, yes, both mother and child could be saved.

Now, we Catholics are still left without the unified pastoral guidance we deserve from our Catholic leaders. My conclusion is that the mother and father followed their properly formed conscience (no 's', the couple's conscience) (an assumption I grant them because they deliberately chose a Catholic Hospital and refused an abortion prior to admission). Since the mother did what was right, it is up to everyone in authority in our Church to articulate the Catholic Moral justification for the actions she and her husband took. And, we must respect that regardless of our personal preference for the right answer - whether we be bishop or layman, Catholic or not.

P.S.
The civil debate that Mr. Kristof articulates - what role and rights do Catholic Hospitals have in a secular society - is probably portentous in the era of Obamacare. Personally, I put the question this way. Do I, as a Catholic, have a protected right in our country, to refuse to do acts that for me are Mortal Sins? I believe that our freedom of religion protects me.

Many argue that it is their right to legislate or regulate to require me to commit the sin they call a right of their own: e.g., a pharmacist must dispense abortion pills; a nurse must assist at an abortion; a hospital must provide all the 'reproductive health' services that are legal.

Will our country permit the provision of Catholic Healthcare? I sure hope so.

(The original on line has all of my misspelllings!)