Tuesday March 30, 2010
Bishop Tells Pro-Life Democrat: Nuns Can’t Absolve ObamaCare Vote
By Peter J. Smith
EVANSVILLE, Indiana, March 30, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Catholic nuns cannot absolve U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-Ind.) for voting for the Senate’s health care reform bill and failing to protect the sanctity of life, says Ellsworth’s own bishop.
Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger of Evansville went after Ellsworth, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, and other “skitterish” pro-life politicians for using the statements of Network, a “social justice” lobby of Catholic nuns, and the Catholic Health Association to “digress and absolve themselves from the constant position of the bishops of this country of which I am one!”
Gettlefinger said the statements of Network and the Catholic Health Association were both “divisive” and either “beclouded ‘skitterish’ pro-life politicians or gave them a cloud to hide under,” including Ellsworth.
“In recent months I have worked very closely and personally with Congressman Ellsworth. However, he has not been in touch with me even after my effort to encourage him to ‘stay the course’ with the USCCB on this last vote,” said the Evansville bishop.
“I am personally and greatly disappointed in Congressman Ellsworth in the published report that he, instead, ‘hung his apology’ on the published positions of Network and the Catholic Health Association,” said Gettlefinger. “In doing so, Congressman Ellsworth excused himself by sidestepping the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops who have worked exceedingly hard with him on these very critical moral matters.”
“In any case, let us pray for Congressman Ellsworth and all in the political arena elected on our behalf to protect the life of the unborn and the poor!” the bishop concluded.
Dozens of other U.S. Catholic bishops, in agreement with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, have condemned the health care reform legislation that passed March 21 for unleashing federal abortion funding, and lacking adequate conscience protection provisions for pro-life health care professionals.
Many Catholic bishops have spoken out against pro-life Democrats, the Catholic Health Association, and Network, which with the cooperation of President Marlene Weisenbeck of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, released a letter falsely claiming that they represented 59,000 Catholic nuns endorsing the health care bill.
Sr. Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the USCCB, pointed out that the letter’s signature by Weisenbeck and 54 other nuns, made a false claim since they could hardly be representative of the 793 women’s religious congregations in the US.
The Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR), which claims 10,000 members (some also belong to the LCWR), came out that week in support of the US bishops against the health care bill after the Network/LCWR letter was released in the run-up to the health care vote.
See related coverage by LifeSiteNews.com:
Bishop Vasa Slams ‘Positively Evil’ Health Care Reform Law
Bishop Nails Pelosi and ‘Catholic’ Groups for Spreading ‘Fog of Confusion’ on ObamaCare
Chaput Rebukes CHA & “Catholic” Groups for Pro-Abort ObamaCare Triumph
List: Bishops, Nuns, Organizations Supporting/Opposing Senate Health Care Bill
Nuns Backstab Bishops on Health Care, Demand Bill’s Passage