Politics
Friday November 21, 2008
Texas Bishop Repents Publicly for Catholic Hospital That Was Doing Sterilizations
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
By John-Henry Westen
TYLER, Texas, November 21, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In yet another sign of revival in the Catholic Church in America, a US bishop has taken the rare step of publicly repenting for failing to ensure respect for life at Catholic hospitals under his jurisdiction.
An anonymous report issued last year revealed that tubal ligations were being performed for contraceptive purposes at Texas Catholic hospitals. The report cited hospital inpatient discharge data that was reported to the Texas Health Care Information Collection Center for Health Statistics, as evidence for the claim.
The report said Trinity Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler had reported 1619 sterilizations, and Christus St. Michael in Texarkana had reported 188 sterilizations between the years 2000 and 2003.
Bishop Alvaro Corrada, SJ, initiated an investigation following the report and has today issued a public admission of guilt after finding that Catholic hospitals were in fact illicitly carrying out sterilizations. (See: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008_docs/tylerbishopstatement.pdf)
"As a Bishop, I am deeply saddened and upset by this news," said the Bishop. He added: "As Bishop of the Diocese of Tyler, I have to admit my failure to provide adequate oversight of the Catholic Hospitals as regards their protection of the sacred dignity of each human person."
In the statement the Bishop explained that the hospitals were engaging in "serious mis-interpretation" of Catholic health care directives. He noted further that he is working "directly with the Catholic Hospitals in the Diocese of Tyler, and with my brother Bishops in the state of Texas, to bring an end to immoral procedures and to put in place some method of ongoing accountability and transparency of monitoring both protocols and actual practices."
In the statement the Bishop noted that "in response to their own investigation of the matter, CHRISTUS St. Michael's in Texarkana has discontinued all tubal ligations." With regard to Trinity Mother Frances, the Bishop explained that it "is a large health care system and is developing plans to protect the sacred dignity of each human person through compliance with an authentic interpretation" of the Catholic health care directives which prohibit "direct sterilization."
To read the complete statement by Bishop Corrada, go to: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008_docs/tylerbishopstatement.pdf
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Pro-Lifer Attacked with SUV, Alleged Attacker Charged
- Huckabee Hashes Out Abortion Arguments with Comedian Jon Stewart
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Amnesty International Caught in "One Big Lie"
- Editorial: Archbishop Weisgerber is Wrong - Vatican Stopped its Donation to UNICEF in 1996
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Government of Trinidad and Tobago: No Homosexual "Weddings," No Abortion
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.