Anne Hendershott had a great piece in Friday’s Wall Street Journal on the role lefty Catholic organizations play in promoting Obamacare. The King’s College professor had the temerity to write “For faithful Catholics, it is discouraging to see that Catholic Charities USA and the Catholic Health Association have both embraced the plan. And it is even more discouraging to learn that some parish priests and bishops are leading the fight for it.”
Well, that didn’t make the CHA happy. Potentate Fred Caesar has written the Journal demanding “immediate action to correct” the Hendershott article, claiming it “misrepresented the position of the Catholic Health Association,” which “has not endorsed any of the health care reform bills, but our message to lawmakers is clear: health reform should not result in an expansion of abortion, and it must sustain conscience protections for health care providers who do no want to participate in abortions or other morally objectionable procedures.”
Sounds reasonable, and technically true. But if it waddles, quacks, and lays eggs, it’s a duck Mr. Caesar. Witness: CHA president Sr. Carol Keehan a week or so back gushing over the president’s health-care speech to Congress. The nun was “very heartened” by Mr. Obama’s promised his plan would not allow federal funds to be used for abortion. Now let’s go out there team and fight fight fight!
In the land of sugar-plum fairies and liberal Catholic health-care officials, it’s true that Obamacare won’t fund abortions. But in the real world, that’s precisely what will happen, as the National Right to Life Committee’s painstaking primer should make clear to even the most obtuse cleric. Maybe even Mr. Caesar.
One final point: You can find CHA bureaucrats singing in the choir of Our Lady of the Immediate Concession. Debate? Discussion? — these are the new deadly sins (poor Thomas Aquinas!). Catch the spirit of it all on the CHA’s Obama-loving video campaign – “I Can’t Wait . . . for Health Reform.”
Such good little Democrat errand boys and girls. Stick to your guns, Anne!