Yesterday Archbishop Dolan posted comments supportive of Bishop Tobin of Rhode Island in his reprimand of Congressman Patrick Kennedy. Congressman Kennedy had recently criticized the Catholic Bishops of the United States, wrongfully accusing them of being opposed to universal health care. Evidently Representative Kennedy feels that protecting the unborn is not a valid reason to oppose the health care legislation that is being proposed for our nation. He also must believe that Catholic physicians, nurses and other health care workers do not have the right to defend their conscience by being exempted from participating in immoral procedures, such as abortion. It seems that Mr. Kennedy is promoting health care legislation at any cost...even the cost of the lives of scores of unborn children.
As Archibishop Dolan states in his post:
Both bishops call for Representative Kennedy to issue an apology. Unfortunately, we probably shouldn't hold our breath.The Catholic community in the United States hardly needs to be lectured to about just healthcare. We’ve been energetically into it for centuries. And we bishops have been advocating for universal healthcare for a long, long time.
All we ask is that it be just that -- universal -- meaning that it includes the helpless baby in the womb, the immigrant, and grandma in a hospice, and that it protects a healthcare provider’s right to follow his/her own conscience.
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