Cardinal warns Caritas approval not final

With the revelation of the Caritas/Centene double referral system, Caritas to Centene, Centene to abortion providing hospital, Caritas would certainly be engaged in material cooperation in evil, and probably formal cooperation, which is always sinful, and hence never permitted.

"Material cooperation takes place when a person [or institution, Caritas] performs an act that is lawful in itself, though in this particular instance it will be used or directed by the principal agent, [Centene] to the accomplishment of [its] sinful
end. Material cooperation is sinful if it is performed without a sufficient reason..." Although assisting in the health care of the poor is a good reason, there can never be sufficinet reason for assisting in abortion.

"Formal cooperation is committed when one actually takes part in the sin of another [institutional] person. . .even with a certain measure of reluctance." Engaging in the double referral system, when Caritas knows this will result in
a sinful action, especially abortion, "is always sinful." Hence, it is incumbent on Cardinal O'Malley to veto this arrangement, which although approved, does not begin til July.

However, I strongly disagree with C. J. Doyle and all others who impute bad motives to the Cardinal. While one may strongly disagree with him on this issue, it is patently ridiculous to attack him personally with ad hominem 'arguments.' It is heartening to hear that he is still consulting with the profoundly and conservatively Catholic National Catholic Bioethics Center. Keep your powder dry, lest you look like a fool when he rejects this deal, and you have to grovel back. All too many in the small Catholic orthodox lifeboat seem to enjoy turning their weapons inward, rather than outward; but when one does that, the lifeboat will sink.

PS: previous quotes from Rev. Francis Connell, cssr, Outlines of Moral Theology, 1958.

Now that Caritas has let the cat out of the bag the Cardinal has cut the baloney guarantee about "no abortion referrals" out of his sound byte.

No matter how many immoral theologians say that Catholic employees can send women on their way to get abortions and give them a ride if they need it and this doesn't violate Catholic teaching, this is a no brainer for the Bioethics Center.

Anyone ignorant of the history of dissent from the theologians who dialed Morrissey Boulevard would be prudent to run a google on hot button issues.

One wonders what other unethical things Bryan Hehir has leaving from taxicabs from the Chancery without the Cardinal getting a second opinion on.

I digress.

This commitment coupled with Celtic’s national experience and financial backing,

What's "Celtic's"?

"Catholic-ness"? You're kidding Paulson. You can't brainstore a term more intelligent than that?

"Catholicity" would be the preferred term to convey the thought.

"It is heartening to hear that he [Cardinal O'Malley] is still consulting with the profoundly and conservatively Catholic National Catholic Bioethics Center. Keep your powder dry, lest you look like a fool when he rejects this deal, and you have to grovel back."

Why does Cardinal O'Malley need to consult with anyone else on this?! It's patently obvious that it is against Catholic teaching. My disappointment in him goes back several years but I hope this latest folly opens others' eyes towards him and his lack of orthodoxy.

If what some say is correct, that providing a phone number and a ride is material cooperation, then all Catholics also need to stop paying taxes. Tax dollars support health care programs that provide abortion and will soon include research that causes the destruction of IVF embryos for stem cells. What's more material cooperation...a phone number or money?

Or, consider the larger issue of providing health care for the poor, and continuing the Caritas hospitals.

SJ:
I'm 71, neuropathetic, diabetic, obese and would not last long in prison. But refusing to pay taxes to support abortion, and embryonic research does seem like something I would consider doing. Mobilize!

Keep our powder dry?

We grovel back?

You've are living in lala land.

Charlie,

If you add in the tax dollars that go to support the immoral pre-emptive war, military aid to other nations, and the federal death penalty, I'd be in the cell next to ya!

I wish you well in your battle with illness.

Gaudete:

To say it is patently ridiculous to impute bad motives is patently ridiculous.

Are you saying that the Cardinal is so incompetent that he was ignorant of the requirement to provide patients with abortions, ignorant of theCaritas statement that they would be referring patients out for their abortions and posted on his blog that people that people saying the contract is dead in the water because those referrals violate the Articles of Amendment and By-laws of Caritas are people doing a great disservice to the Church?
What exactly do you think is the hold up on getting the Bioethics Center to say we can't send a woman in a cab to the abortionist?

You find it impossible to believe the delay is because he's pressuring them to compromise their faith and their credentials and the faith itself? Pray hard and long for his soul and the people he is taking into Dante's Inferno with him to cover up the corruption.

I'm sorry but when it comes to the rapes and murders of our children, we are not going to keep our powder dry while you stake a claim on his innocence and throw Catholics speaking the truth under the bus.

by the way, SJ, if the Wizards at Caritas don't know how to cut back and downsize to save themselves, like everyone else, they're out of luck. Cut back to four hospitals, get rid of dead weight and do some layoffs like the rest of planet.

It's disingenuous to use the Commonwealth''s abortion extortion as a viable option. If you check out their By-Laws and Articles of Organization, they don't have much of a leg to stand on. Thousands of Catholics will have to quit their job in this arrangement. and when they do, there's civil damages to be had.

If the people in the Commonwealth don't find value in the thousands of services we provide to sick people shame on them.

Even if Caritas employees don't refer for abortions, the Centene/Caritas joint venture will be providing them, it seems. Is it morally acceptable for Caritas to be a part-owner of an abortion-providing health-care company? That looks doubtful.

Carol,

You write as if the Cardinal is pro abortion. The facts belie that.

If the Centene deal is rejected, and hospitals close and downsize...
How many lives will that save? How many jobs that save? How many abortions will that prevent?

What do you suppose happens in real life today, pre-Centene? Pregnant woman comes to hospital, is on the fence about having a baby. Decides not to have the baby. Asks doctor for abortion. Doctor says no we won't let you have an abortion? No.

Doctor says we don't perform abortions here you'll have to contact your health plan. Yes. And the same scenario would play out with Centene or with a downsized 3rd rate hospital system that would shut its doors on the poor.

Accepting the Centene deal is not cooperating with immorality. It's distancing itself from the immorality of abortion, and avoiding the immorality of denying medical care for the needy.

Carol McKinley -

You write like you are an "authority" on how decisions get made at Caritas and at the Church. What makes you this authority to spew lies, hate, and misinformation?

Caritas has a new governing board, imposed by the AG's office. Cardinal Sean is no longer the head of Caritas. The Board selected a new CEO. Instead of directing your venom toward Cardinal Sean, it seems like it should be to the new Board of Caritas, the new CEO, and those the Cardinal has delegated to work with Caritas.

The issue at hand seems to be more complex than you and other posters make it out to be. Perhaps that's why there's a difference of opinion among the theologians Mr. Paulsen interviewed. That's likely why the Cardinal wanted a second opinion, to verify that what he was being told by Caritas's own ethicists was true.

Cardinal Sean is a holy man, trying to do his best at an impossible job. Please go to confession for the slander you are spreading.

Bill,

The person spreading misinformation is the Cardinal. We were damn lucky that the proabortion lobby made Caritas officials write down on a piece of paper what they would force Catholic employees to do.You don't seem to have the background to understand that Caritas has to comply with their articles and bylaws which say they will acquiesce at all times to the Holy Father and the teachings of the Church. Legally, Caritas also surrendered their rights to usurp Catholic morality, teaching and mission.

SJ,

Priests don't do abortions.
When a woman approaches a woman about abortion, he doesn't give her the phone number to the abortion hotline and call her a taxi.

The Cardinal wants Catholic lay people to do it and claim this is Catholic teaching. Cut the baloney.

Catholic hospitals don't have to shut down, they have to downsize to stay afloat like everyone else.

If the choices are between forcing thousands of Catholic workers to betray Christ, exploit women, kill children or shutting down - then yes, they must shut down.

Material cooperation with murdering children is not any more a viable option than materially cooperating with rapes of children. Whether you like it or lump it, when we find out holy men are doing it, lay people step in and say NO MORE. THE END.

Oh, and Bill E,

That cult tactic of saying I'm slandering and going to confession or doing a great disservice to the Church, blah, blah - it doesn't fly.

The holy many you're talking about wants to send people by taxi to be killed to save his hospital. If it were the Jews he was sending on a train and I opposed it, you'd be right there in the public square claiming I was slandering a holy man and should go to confession. People like you are why millions of people are killed as you go about your business in a culture promoting death and destruction.

SJ

What happens in "real life" ?

Real life for Catholics are people who prefer to let the State execute them before they will put Jews on a train to Auschwitz or kill children because they are an inconvenience. That's what martyrdom is. That is the red cap on his head. You obviously would put the jews on the train. Good luck to you.

If the doctors at these hospitals give a phone number/transport/make a referral to an abortion mill that is "cooperation" with intrinsic evil.As a physician, and more importantly as a Catholic physician, I will never do this, nor could I work at a hospital where this is considered "standard of care" for some quasi contractural aggreement. In fact, in my ED, I aggressively talk to these young scared women about the alternatives and refer ALL to a "pro-life crisis pregnancy center" where they are offered both truth and love.On the surface it seems that the Diocese is trading morality for cash. However I have not seen the contract. I do wonder, though, what authority does the National Catholic Bioethics Center have.
Get ready, my prediction is that this is the first of many of these same type of arrangements to come down the pike in the near future in medicine. The public may soon find out what it means to be a truly Catholic Hospital.

"What do you suppose happens in real life today, pre-Centene? Pregnant woman comes to hospital, is on the fence about having a baby. Decides not to have the baby. Asks doctor for abortion. Doctor says no we won't let you have an abortion? No.

Doctor says we don't perform abortions here you'll have to contact your health plan. Yes. And the same scenario would play out with Centene"

It has finally dawned on me how the Cardinal is trying to skirt the conversations that will now have to take place between a Catholic physician and the woman needing an abortion.

At a Catholic Hospital, Catholics respond by giving the woman an ultrasound to see her baby, they bring her to the truth that the child in her womb is a baby and that abortion is not an option. Adoption is an option, keeping her baby and providing her with the numbers of many in the prolife community who are dedicated to helping her financially, helping her family help her, her friends help her. When the few who pass that gauntlet say I still want to abort this child, we say we say we are very sorry to hear that and we cannot be any part of it.

We are doing the opposite with the Cardinals proposal. if the Cardinal has his way, we do not say "abortion is not an option". We do not provide her with prolife teaching of the Church. We do not say we don't do those here and walk away. The Cardinal is forcing Catholic employees to say "abortion is an option for you" "here is the phone number you must call" "do you have a ride to get there" "let me call you a taxi and here's the money to pay for it".

Centene is not in the picture at this juncture so stop trying to pretend it is. This is happening to Catholics at a Catholic Hospital and it against Catholic ethics and Catholic teachings and common sense to anyone in a state of grace.

Further, we are not interested in your straw man's argument that if we walk away without providing her the information that abortion is a viable option for her, give her number and a ride there, that she can get it anyways out in the real world. Neither are we concerned about the employees of "Centene". They aren't guaranteed legal and religious protections not be forced into this kind of a situation. They aren't a Catholic organization with By-Laws and "Articles of Organization" which are legal documents saying they will acquiesce any moral judgment call to the Holy Father and the teachings of the Church. Caritas does and they do because they have Catholic employees. Martha Coakley and any other cowardly wizard on this anonymous board shall not deter us from unraveling it.

What's clear is, the Cardinal doesn't really care what happens to the women or the children get killed in this scenario or that Catholic physicians and workers will no longer be able to persuade the woman in accordance to Catholic teachings and worse, will have to talk about abortion with her as though it is a viable option, give the phone number and a ride.

What's clear is, he trying to pretend he doesn't know his faith.
What's clear is, he's spent the last week slandering people who do.
We intend to turn up the heat until he knows he's in Dante's Inferno.

Dr. Athony,

My current game plan is to seek an injunction but to prepare ourselves for what the Cardinal's regular modus operandi in collaborating with evil, and that which he's has done before, i.e., passive/aggressive just lets the whole thing go forward without stopping it in the pretense that he's waiting for an opinion that will take years to get, we are also putting together a coalition for a class action suit for anyone who will have to quit their jobs at Caritas. Drop me an email at cmmckinley "at" aol. I promise to keep it confidential. If we have to move to phase 2 of our legal plan - I suspect the number of Catholics quitting their job will be quite large and the civil damages quite significant. We are not letting the Cardinal get away with giving away Catholic's right to practice medicine. He must be stopped with what he cherishes the most and what he fears the most, lawyers and court rooms and money.

Make a swift and clear policy at all catholic hospitals that an ultrasound will be performed on all women who are potentially pregnant and seeking care. A good Catholic Dr. has told me that 80% + of women who were considering abortion reconsider after seeing an ultrasound. Instead of sound policy we get foolish theological gymnastics. Fr. Corapi quite publicly called Boston 'Ground Zero of the Culture of Death" at this point it looks simply like a lack of courage hidden under a vain brown robe. What is saddest is as he pushes away the 'traditionalists' in the crowd and 'hangs' with the 'hip' our Faith continues its decline. Oh - why do we seek the advice of another make-work board, when the Vatican knows truth?.

The Cardinal considering a deal with non-Catholic organization is clearly a sell out , a deal with the devil. Promises will be made and promises quickly broken should this proposed merger come to fruition. Please remember that while comments here reflect concern about potential abortions, you are missing another piece of the picture. What happens after Catholic women give birth? From experience delivering in non Catholic hopsitals, I can share that nurses (RN's and LN's) will give their unsolicited opinions regarding birth control. Casual comments will fly within a merged organization-promises or no promises-this will happen as time passes.

Catholic Mom, the Cardinal is not ignorant of this.

What is not being said here, is, why in the Name of Christ, would the Cardinal Archbishop of Boston use his mitre to bait uncatechized people at "Centene" into committing debauchery and aiding and abetting in murder? Why would he send a woman on her way to bait the physician at the abortion facility to kill a child he is sending him in a taxicab? It's one thing if the baby shows up at the door of the abortionist from a non-Catholic source. It's quite another when the Cardinal is sending the baby there, isn't it.

This sound like a rational human being that cares about the salvation of people?

This is about money. And, you now see what he is wiling to do, who he is willing to sell to the devil to get it. And, don't kid yourselves. They will financially benefit from this deal with Centene. That's the purpose of going into it. Money to "save" the financially mismanaged hospital.

This does not sound like a deal that the Church can agree to.

In defense of the Cardinal, I heard that he was far away from Boston for most of this week. Perhaps he was making statements to stall for time until he could return and read about the proposed contract and make a decision.

Peter,

With all due respect, the Cardinal wasn't impartial about his convictions. He posted that Catholics who were giving him the details about the theology going awry were "people who do a great disservice to the Church". This isn't the statement of a man acting in good faith stalling to get more details. He knew the details. He thought if his employees hired a pimp to send the child in a taxicab, this passed the muster of the Gospel of Life.

The time has long since come and gone when we admit we have an enemy in the Boston Chancery.

Carol,

I think you can find fault with what the Cardinal is considering, and if this deal goes through, it looks like it would be very bad. But it's a big step to go from there to judge his motives and to call him an enemy. Really??!! He works very hard and prays and tries to live a simple life. He seems to be doing everything he can to build up the Church in Boston. How do you judge him so harshly? I hope you are praying for him at least as much as you are personally attacking him.

Peter,
You sound angry and judgemental. How can you judge me so harshly? How can you judge my motives? I work very hard and pray too. People who turn our children over to be raped and murdered, I consider enemies. No prayers or simplicity seem to be able to get me beyond that. Go figure I'd refrain from trying to undermine the credibility of people pointing it out and get on board the train pulling out of the station. Hitler may have prayed too and plenty of people may have tried to look at his good qualities. Killing people some of us just can't get beyond.

Carol,
That's very strong language. Please tell us about the children whom the Cardinal has "turned over to be raped and murdered." And you can't point to the Caritas-Centene deal, because he hasn't approved the deal.

Peter,
I'm not sure we're going to come to a meeting of the minds. You are out in the public square using an anonymous name implying while it would be tragic if the Cardinal decided to send children in taxis to be burned to death or vacuumed apart alive, he's a prayerful, simple man and instead of defending children from these actions, it's harsh to judge his motives. While it's gratifying to know he's prayerful and simple, your trying to distract from the murders and, instead, imputing things about my character and motives.

The Cardinal has been circulating communications saying people saying that women would be referred out of Caritas for abortions (the Commonwealth, Caritas itself and prolifers) were not giving out accurate information and they were people doing a great disservice to the Church. There's nowhere to go with whether he did so in good faith. it isn't humanly possible. The contract required it. Caritas itself said they promised to do so, in writing. The Globe published it.

There isn't a penny's worth of difference between hiring a pimp to give children their ride from Caritas to the abortion facility and putting Jews on the train at Auchwitz.

Undermining the credibility of people who complain about rapes and murders coming and going with the wink and the nod from the Chancery has been a long-standing game well published in this newspaper and across the Globe. If you've been living under a rock, do check out the archives.

The Cardinal is playing it here. And, you jumped right on his lead by imputing things about my character and leaving the issue of the murders as a tragic consequence of an otherwise prayerful and simple man - and we should be taking his decisions in the aggregate considering his holiness, and not judge his motives.

Based on many, many Catholics who have brought serious scandalous issues to his attention and based upon the Cardinals response to those complaints, I can predict with almost 100% certainty that the "opinion" he needs from the Bioethics Center will be months if not years in the making. And, in the meantime, this contract will go forward. This is Cardinal O'Malley's usual and customary modus operandi, You can take this to the bank.

As he waits and waits for the opinion of what we all know he already knows, you'll be right out there anonymously taking whacks at faithful Catholics, incited by his blog posts and internal communications undermining credibility.

Peter, I'm sorry if you find me an unworthy servant. It pains me to have to be out here being so forthright, cutting through Chancery malarkey. They know it's wrong because they set up a partnership to bait other people into doing it. Nevermind the child and the mother exploited, the doctors and nurses, in the best case scenario, the Cardinal is baiting Centene employees, the mother, the cabdriver and the abortionist to commit a grave offense against God. Who would you throw uncatechized people, poor people lost in the despair of an unplanned pregnancy into this debauchery? There is no excuse for this and the lies to cover it up are as disturbing as the arrangement itself.

Carol,
I admire your courage in trying to protect unborn children and their mothers. I haven't taken the time to read all the details about the Caritas-Centene deal, so I am not as informed as you are. I can understand that you are trying to apply heat to prevent this from happening. My objection is that you are saying that the rape and/or murder of children is being somehow facilitated by the Cardinal. This deal hasn't happened yet.
From what I have seen and read of the Cardinal, and from the little that I have read about the Caritas-Centene deal, that if it is as bad as it sounds, then I think he's not going to approve it. You can complain about other bishops and child abuse, but I don't think the Cardinal is one you can complain about. That's just my opinion. Maybe I'll be proven wrong, but I don't think so.

Peter,This isn't a pipe dream. It's a deal long in the making. It was thought out and planned and defended by the Cardinal. The considerations were on the table that the mothers will leave via taxicab from Caritas with a voucher and best wishes. This is as facilitating as it gets. Caritas will get money for the abortions and they will pay their subcontractors. He's employing them. We can't afford to wait until it happens to clarify the action items. This is in the final stages. The Cardinal is making representations. Those representations are false.
All we have to go on, is past history. This isn't our first fugatz or the first dozen. The way he is handling this is the good old boy system that cannot be trusted for reasons well known to all of us.

We're pinning his culpability on him and we're setting the record straight on the misinformation and bad theology coming out of the Chancery. The Cardinal can't ask his flock to say we don't have hookers in the building but you can find them on Columbus and Tremont, can we call you a taxi. We don't do mercy killings but here's a quarter, go call Jack Kevorkian. He doesn't need an ethicist to tell him why as we're all waiting around while the clock ticks. The contract has been awarded. There's disingenuous going on. There's nothing innocent about the cards being played. We are going to keep turning up the heat until it gets unbearable. We can't afford to sit around hoping it's all a big misunderstanding. Been there. Done that. Thousands of us.

Carol,
From everything that I have ever seen, read, or heard, the Cardinal has never been anything but completely opposed to abortion. His quote from his blog, which I think has already been posted here in these comments -

"To be perfectly clear, Caritas Christi will never do anything to promote abortions, to direct any patients to providers of abortion or in any way to participate in actions that are contrary to Catholic moral teaching and anyone who suggests otherwise is doing a great disservice to the Catholic Church."

Call me naive, but I have never seen or heard anything that would convince me to not take the Cardinal at his word. I can understand why you don't like the last part of that sentence, and we do have to be vigilant about these issues, but I have no reason not to trust the Cardinal on this matter.

Peter, You must be drawing those conclusions from things you are reading in the newspapers. Those of us who actually have experience in trying to get abortion advocates out of power and places where they are scandalizing and misleading people, he supports the proabortion people in decisions.Whether he personally opposes abortion or he doesn't is as irrelevant to what he does as it is with Nancy Pelosi. You can't take the Cardinal at his word when it is so painfully obvious that he lied about the referrals. Now you are here telling me not to forecast projections on who is culpable and what is Catholic. I just can't follow your logic. God Bless

From Diogenes:In Brideshead Revisited, Rex Mottram is determined to become a Catholic-- for reasons that have nothing to do with faith. Actually Rex has no interest whatsoever in questions of faith, and consequently he is quite happy to profess whatever beliefs are required of him....Rex Mottram would fit nicely into the Boston archdiocese. He would not ask questions. He would accept statements offered by the cardinal-archbishop, no matter how implausible those statements might seem.

(Best of all, Rex would toss folding money into the collection basket. Did I mention that the Annual Appeal begins this weekend?)

Cardinal O'Malley tells us that he has been assured a partnership formed by the Caritas Christi health-care chain will not violate Catholic moral principles-- despite the fact that the partnership will provide for abortions, sterilizations, and the whole panoply of medical services mandated by a state government program. Rex would find the cardinal's statement convincing.