Creighton partnership does not change Phoenix hospital’s non-Catholic status
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Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix.
Despite its collaboration with a Catholic university, St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix remains a non-Catholic institution due to dissent on abortion and medical ethics, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted said July 23.
“Catholics, and all people of good will, are advised that they cannot be guaranteed authentic Catholic health care at St. Joseph’s Hospital,” the Bishop of Phoenix said in the statement, clarifying the hospital’s status in response to its partnership with Nebraska’s Creighton University.
Regardless of that collaboration, “St. Joseph’s Hospital is not a Catholic institution” and “does not faithfully adhere to the (U.S. bishops’) Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services,” Bishop Olmsted said in the announcement, meant to “ensure clarity” among the faithful.
Creighton, a Jesuit university, partnered with St. Joseph’s to establish the “Creighton University School of Medicine Regional Campus at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix.” The joint venture was announced in June 2009 and had its official opening in June 2012.
In November 2010, Bishop Olmsted formally stripped St. Joseph’s Hospital of its Catholic status after a dispute that emerged over an abortion performed there 12 months earlier. Sister Margaret McBride, a hospital employee who approved the abortion, was declared excommunicated over the incident.
In discussions with Bishop Olmsted, hospital representatives defended the abortion as necessary to save the life of the mother, who suffered from hypertension. Advisers to the diocese said the “treatment” given was a direct abortion, which violated ethical directives and was not a treatment for hypertension.
St. Joseph’s Hospital stated in December 2011 that Sister McBride had regularized her standing in the Church and was no longer excommunicated.
However, the hospital itself remains subject to Bishop Olmsted’s December 2010 decision to withdraw its approval as a Church institution. [More]
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21 Comments
nothing like a power hungry bishop– my way or no way. Maybe someone could give him a book about the life of Christ who he claims he emulates.yes you may have to read it to him.
TPD — thank you for your extensive research supporting your position that he is “a power hungry bishop” — how incredibly cynical of you; how judgmental; and you have ZERO evidence to support your position. So, I am left to wonder if power and its acquisition is not one of your chronic sins.
Bishop Olmsted is of course free to exercise his rights of free speech even when he is in poor taste, or just plain wrong. Likewise, Catholics and others seeking healing are free to make their own healthcare decisions without reference to the intricacies of sectarian dogma.
Where Jesus is present in the heads, hands and hearts of healers and helpers, He need not be present in the tabernacle if the local bishop has so decreed and commanded.
Florian — remember what the Church teaches about the Eucharist, however: it is the source and summit of our spiritual life. It is the richest source of grace. So, trying to do good works with our heads, hands and hearts will fail without the grace of God. This is why Blessed Mother Teresa required her sisters to go to Mass (and I think Adoration) every day: she realized they could not properly minister to the poor without this richest source of grace.
Jim, the bishop has removed the Blessed Sacrament, and has prohibited Mass from being celebrated for the patients.
So over a theological dispute, patients are denied the healing power of our Eucharistic Lord.
The medical team says one thing and the bishop says another and the patients lose.
Yes, some of the Bishops go way overboard and never see the missed opportunities.
Tony — I agree with you, in that I don’t see the rationale for prohibiting Mass from being celebrated for the patients — but I’m assuming it was the bishop’s judgment that the potential harm in people being misled into believing what the hospital was doing was right could not justify the benefits of the Mass being celebrated there. Eucharistic ministers, of course, can bring the Eucharist to the patients, so even without the Mass, they still can receive those graces.
I see this as another power and control issue of the Bishop.
The nun is no longer excomunicated, and the sick patients in the Hospital are denied Mass being celebrated because of the obstenate bishop.
Tony — are you sure the patients are being denied Mass? Just because it no longer is a Catholic hospital does not necessarily mean Mass can’t be celebrated there.
Tony — with regard to power and control: that, of course, is speculation on your part. I see it very differently: the bishop is simply discharging his responsiblities to lead his flock, and he is clearly identifying for them what is Catholic and what is not. It is not unlike the FDA banning a harmful drug: the FDA protects the public by the ban, and the bishop protects his flock by advising them that the hospital does not follow Catholic principles — so that those who know the principles by which the hospital operates can not be misled into thinking those priniciples are kosher.
Thank you, your Excellency, for remaining strong and courageous.
And thank goodness the bishop had the courage to excommunicate the errant nun — a big heads up for the LCWR — they may be next. You either are with the Church or you are against it.
The article further stated mass is not to be celebrated in the hospital chapel Jim. Evidently the life of mothers is not as important the church or this bishop. He just wants fame for his stances and to exercise POWER.
Mary — your assertion that “he just wants fame … and to exercise POWER” is, of course, complete speculation. It leads me to wonder if you are a power-hungry person yourself.
Another example of the fact that Jim can not defend his argument by simply trying to reverse the facts. The Bishop is after power, a name for himself in Rome and getting ahead.
Concerned — again, you are in la-la land. “Jim cannot defend his argument” — well, all the post said to which you are responding is that Mary’s comment was pure speculation. That statement does not need a defense — what I said is patently obvious to anyone. Are you smoking something, Concerned? You are flailing out in your attacks against me, but you are attacking me with a water pistol — that’s BROKEN!
And, Concerned, I now accuse you of what also is patently obvious: your assertion that this bishop is after power is PURE SPECULATION. The fact that you could say such a thing and not see that it is complete speculation makes me wonder if I should keep responding to your ridiculous posts. You apparently are not a very rational thinker — which partially explains your venom for the Catholic hierarchy.
Yeah! Let’s celebrate another sinner has been removed! “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” It doesn’t seem that Bishops such as this one know the meaning of the words. And people like Jim who gloat and celebrate with the removal of a deemed “sinner” have no clue about the real message of Jesus Christ.
Concerned — I never “gloat” over such things, so that is your own invention, the product of an over-active imaginiation, and makes me wonder if gloating over the misfortune of others is one of your chronic sins. With regard to celebrating: I never celebrate sin, but I do celebrate its correction — just like I celebrated when they poured water on the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz and she shrunk to zero. I celebrate, I rejoice in such circumstances.
You compare your celebration of people being denied the sacraments to your celebration of a character of fiction being destroyed? Who has the problem with reality? Anyone who goes over all your posts can clearly see how you celebrate and gloat when someone is denied the sacraments. If they go over my postings they see that I constantly proclaim the message of Jesus Christ who accepted everyone. Your childish response of basically “that’s what you do” is so inappropriate and demonstrates that you have no real way of defending your actions.
Concerned — okay, let’s get it on. I want the thread, the date, and the time of a specific post I have made that represents gloating. Put op or shut up. With regard to my comparison of a fictional character with a real-life situation: have you ever heard of an analogy, Concerned? By definition, the thing which you are using as an explanation for something else is not that thing itself. You can use any comparison you like, and in no way does it equate the two. You’re not very imaginiative, are you, Concerned? But again, back to my primary point: put up or shut up. Give me a specific thread, date and time of a post that represents celebation and gloating over denial of the sacraments. To repeat for at least the third time: what I DO celebrate is the rebuke of the person; I never celebrate the sin of another. And with regard to you proclaming the message of Jesus Christ: you most definitely do not. What you proclaim is some of His message. You conveniently omit the numerous examples from Scripture that I have posted that disagree with your misconception of Jesus. For example, look at Luke 17:3 — this one verse (among numerous others) flies in the face of your characterizations of Jesus.