YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO WATER etc & PHOENIX BISHOP OLMSTED

YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO WATER etc & PHOENIX BISHOP OLMSTED

 A year ago Phoenix bishop Thomas J. Olmsted excommunicated Sister Margaret Mary McBride, a member of St. Joseph Hospital's Ethics Committee and declared St Joseph’s was no longer "a Catholic" hospital. He did this after a committee of health care professionals including Sister McBride authorized an abortion in a OLMSTEAD case where it was concluded continued pregnancy would mean that the chance for survival for both mother and fetus "approached zero" According to the National Catholic Reporter,  a  recent survey was conducted by a fellow at the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies at Catholic University of America. The research survey was to find out what the attitude of Catholics about Bishop Olmsted’s actions was a year after the events.

An overview of the results included the following findings: 72% favored Sister McBride and 13% the bishop. When asked "What is your opinion of Bishop Olmsted’s action – saying Sr. Margaret McBride had excommunicated herself, despite the medical evidence and the judgment of the Hospital Ethics Committee?" the response was 59% felt the bishop had the power but had misused his authority in doing so. When asked "what is your opinion of Bishop Olmsted’s action to declare that St Joseph’s was no longer a Catholic hospital?" 71% said while he had the authority to say it, "in this case it was the wrong use of authority." 77% said in spite or the bishop’s announcement St Joseph’s was still a Catholic hospital.

When the results were broken down by gender 74% of Catholic women favored Sr. McBride and men favored her by 68%. Of those who attended Mass regularly 63% favored Sr. McBride.

In a 1968 encyclical by Pope Paul VI Humanae Vitae the pope declared that any contraception including condoms as a means to render procreation impossible was intrinsically wrong. Since that time to the present Catholics have demonstrated that they will exercise their freedom of thoutht and conscience in evaluating de facto declarations by church authorities about matters or morality. Whether that is for good or not I leave to you.

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