Catholic Hospitals

In your article "When Church and Medicine Clash" (Feb. 2), there is a serious misrepresentation of Catholic teaching and practice. In several places this article wrongly implies or states that Catholics are obliged to do everything possible to sustain life and must even limit pain medication if it would shorten the life of a dying person. This seriously misrepresents Catholic teaching and practice. Catholic medical ethics has been reflecting on such questions for over four centuries and there is an unwavering tradition.

The nation's Roman Catholic bishops lashed out at Vice President Joe Biden on Friday, saying he was wrong in the way he described a healthcare mandate that would require contraceptive services for employees of some Catholic institutions. The statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was the latest volley in a heated fight between the Catholic Church and the Obama administration over a mandate published early this year by the Department of Health and Human Services -- a battle that the church has framed as a struggle for religious freedom.

Re "Bishops Ban Sterilization Services at All Catholic-Affiliated Hospitals," June 16: It is remarkable that the Catholic Church is still considered to represent some sort of moral authority. By ending voluntary surgical sterilization (a popular and effective form of preventing unwanted births) in its affiliated hospitals, the church positions itself as promoting over-population, the largest threat to humanity's continued existence. Human overpopulation either directly causes or seriously exacerbates most of today's major problems, including poverty, resource depletion, the spread of disease, pollution, famine, extinction, climate change, rain forest destruction, desertification and others.

Airing on Easter and Passover, the Sunday morning news talk shows used the occasion to explore the religious questions and controversies that could emerge in the presidential election. On “Face the Nation,” Catholic Archbishop Timothy Dolan said he hoped that if Mitt Romney were to become the Republican nominee for president, that his Mormon faith would not prove a liability. “There may be reasons not to vote for Mitt Romney as president of the United States,” Dolan told host Bob Schieffer.

Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley has ended a joint venture between a hospital system founded by the archdiocese and a Missouri-based health insurer, fearing it linked Catholic hospitals too closely to abortion providers. O'Malley has been criticized for allowing Caritas Christi Health Care to partner with Centene Corp., which covers abortion services. With the decision, Caritas will still provide healthcare to patients, including those covered by Centene -- though it won't provide services that violate Catholic teachings.

Do Catholic hospitals and other Catholic institutions apply the church's core teachings when dealing with their employees and the broader community? That question will be a major topic for discussion when thousands of Catholics from across the country meet in Los Angeles beginning Thursday at Jubilee Justice, a once-a-century Catholic gathering. The church has long had a mission of working for justice and for strong, self-reliant families and communities.

Representatives of organized labor and sympathetic ministers Sunday took to the pulpit throughout the Southland to remind worshipers that there are workers on this Labor Day who are still fighting for the right to organize and to get better working conditions. The spreading of the labor "gospel" was part of an effort by an interfaith group to underscore what it says is the theological basis in the struggle for workers' rights.

The Obama administration announced Friday that it would give Catholic hospitals and other religious institutions an extra year to comply with a new requirement that most health plans provide contraceptive benefits at no cost to their members. The administration, however, held fast to the mandate that most health plans eventually offer free contraception. That infuriated Roman Catholic bishops and some other religious leaders who had vigorously opposed the rule as a violation of their religious liberty.

The nation's Roman Catholic bishops firmly declared Friday that sterilization is "intrinsically evil" and will no longer be permitted at Catholic-affiliated hospitals. The ethical and religious directives were prompted by Vatican objections to what were seen as loopholes in cooperative agreements with the many non-Catholic hospitals that have been purchased by Catholic health care chains.

The nation's Ro man Catholic bishops ended their four-day annual conference Thursday with the adoption of a wide-ranging set of rules that will broaden local bishops' influence over the medical and business practices of Catholic hospitals.

Even as angry Catholic leaders vow to fight a new federal requirement that most employers include contraceptives in their health insurance coverage, the Obama administration believes any political damage will be limited because it's on the side of women's rights. Democratic strategists think voters who oppose President Obama because of the birth-control rule wouldn't have voted for him anyway. The strategists think most Catholic women — like most other American women — believe that birth control should be affordable and available.

In its essence, Rick Santorum's pitch to voters boils down to this: I am the only true conservative in the race and the only candidate who is not compromised on the single most important issue of the 2012 presidential election -- the repeal of President Obama's healthcare reform law. Santorum arrived precisely at 10 a.m. Tuesday to address a crowd of about 200 at a suburban golf club half an hour from Denver. Wearing his trademark sweater vest, Santorum began his talk with a rousing call to defend what he described as an assault on the freedom of Americans at the hands of the Obama administration.

The Obama administration announced Friday that it would give Catholic hospitals and other religious institutions an extra year to comply with a new requirement that most health plans provide contraceptive benefits at no cost to their members. The administration, however, held fast to the mandate that most health plans eventually offer free contraception. That infuriated Roman Catholic bishops and some other religious leaders who had vigorously opposed the rule as a violation of their religious liberty.

A woman arrives at the hospital with a condition called pulmonary hypertension. The arteries supplying her lungs are unable to deliver enough blood, which threatens their ability to delivery oxygen throughout her body. Making matters worse, she is 11 weeks pregnant, which puts additional strain on her weakened body. If the pregnancy continues, the woman surely will die. This was the situation confronting doctors last November at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix.

Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley has ended a joint venture between a hospital system founded by the archdiocese and a Missouri-based health insurer, fearing it linked Catholic hospitals too closely to abortion providers. O'Malley has been criticized for allowing Caritas Christi Health Care to partner with Centene Corp., which covers abortion services. With the decision, Caritas will still provide healthcare to patients, including those covered by Centene -- though it won't provide services that violate Catholic teachings.

Re "Bishops Ban Sterilization Services at All Catholic-Affiliated Hospitals," June 16: It is remarkable that the Catholic Church is still considered to represent some sort of moral authority. By ending voluntary surgical sterilization (a popular and effective form of preventing unwanted births) in its affiliated hospitals, the church positions itself as promoting over-population, the largest threat to humanity's continued existence. Human overpopulation either directly causes or seriously exacerbates most of today's major problems, including poverty, resource depletion, the spread of disease, pollution, famine, extinction, climate change, rain forest destruction, desertification and others.

The nation's Roman Catholic bishops firmly declared Friday that sterilization is "intrinsically evil" and will no longer be permitted at Catholic-affiliated hospitals. The ethical and religious directives were prompted by Vatican objections to what were seen as loopholes in cooperative agreements with the many non-Catholic hospitals that have been purchased by Catholic health care chains.

A two-year battle of wills between a fast-growing hospital chain and an equally aggressive labor union came to a head when hospital employees voted solidly against joining the union. Service and maintenance workers at St. Francis and Robert F. Kennedy medical centers, both in Los Angeles, on Thursday voted 363 to 199 against joining the Service Employees International Union. There were an additional 90 challenged ballots, not nearly enough to change the outcome.