PHOENIX — Bishop Thomas J. Tobin is praising the actions of an Arizona colleague who has revoked the Catholic identity of a hospital that performed an abortion in 2009.
Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted issued a decree on Dec. 21 ending the 115-year-old affiliation between St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix and the Catholic Church because he could not “verify that the hospital provides health care consistent with ‘authentic Catholic moral teaching’.”
“I have nothing but admiration and esteem for Bishop Olmsted,” Bishop Tobin said of his fellow prelate.
“He‘s a man of great integrity and great wisdom and great courage.”
In issuing the decree, Bishop Olmsted said it was his duty to strip St. Joseph's Hospital of its Catholic identity because its leadership, as well as that of its parent organization, San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West, because it is not committed to "following the teachings of the Catholic Church."
In May, officials at St. Joseph's publicly acknowledged that an abortion occurred at the hospital in late 2009.
Linda Hunt, president of St. Joseph's, said in a statement after the bishop's news conference that the hospital was "deeply disappointed" by the action but would "continue through our words and deeds to carry out the healing ministry of Jesus."
"Consistent with our values of dignity and justice, if we are presented with a situation in which a pregnancy threatens a woman's life, our first priority is to save both patients," Hunt said in her statement. "If that is not possible, we will always save the life we can save, and that is what we did in this case.
"We continue to stand by the decision, which was made in collaboration with the patient, her family, her caregivers and our ethics committee," she added. "Morally, ethically and legally we simply cannot stand by and let someone die whose life we might be able to save."
Sister Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity who is president and CEO of the Washington-based Catholic Health Association, also defended the hospital's action in a "heartbreaking situation" and said personnel there "carefully evaluated the patient's situation and correctly applied" the "Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services," to which all Catholics hospitals in the United States are required to adhere.
She said Catholic Healthcare West has a "long and stellar history in the protection of life at all stages."
"I have continued to insist that this scandalous situation needed to change," the bishop said. "Sadly, over the course of these years, CHW has chosen not to comply."
In the Diocese of Providence, Bishop Tobin last March wrote a letter to Sister Carol Keehan requesting that St. Joseph Health Care of Rhode Island be dropped from the organization’s membership to express his disappointment that the CHA had publicly endorsed legislation that supported health care reform even if it came with the possibility of increased funding for abortions.
“If you’re going to claim the name Catholic, it means you have to be completely and consistently in line with the teachings of the church on the essential matters of faith and morals,” Bishop Tobin said.
Through its involvement in the Mercy Care Plan, Bishop Olmsted said Catholic Healthcare West has been responsible for a litany of practices in direct conflict with Catholic teaching. These include: contraceptive counseling, provision of various forms of contraception, voluntary sterilization and abortions "due to the mental or physical health of the mother or when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest."
