http://www.catholic.org/views/views_news.php?id=22161&pid=3
[excerpt]
A healthy identity
11/29/2006
Our Sunday Visitor (www.osv.com)
There's major crisis brewing in Catholic health care that threatens the
viability and even the existence of Catholic hospitals in the United
States.
Ever-increasing health-care costs have forced Catholic systems to examine
their bottom line more closely to remain solvent. In real terms, this has
led to sometimes uncomfortable partnerships with secular health systems,
accusations of excessive profits and claims that too little pro bono health
care is extended to the poor and uninsured.
Such concerns go to the heart of the Catholic health-care mission. Women
religious first established Catholic hospitals in this country to serve the
poor and indigent. As health care became more sophisticated, Catholic
hospitals had to rely less on voluntary contributions and more on
government subsidies, insurance payments and fees for services from those
who could afford them.
Problems arise when the business of health care conflicts with the Catholic
mission. When Catholic hospitals turn a blind eye to abortions performed by
their secular partners or provide contraceptive services in defiance of the
U.S. bishops' directives, it's fair to ask whether the Church ought to get
out of the health-care business rather than allow this erosion of Catholic
identity.
In a political climate where a fictional "wall of separation" between
church and state runs in only one direction, special interests often seek
to impose libertarian values even on private entities. Lawmakers and
regulatory bodies try to force Catholic employers to provide employees with
contraceptive coverage in company health plans. They deny "conscience
clauses" to pharmacists and try to coerce Catholic hospitals to offer
"reproductive services" that are incompatible with Catholic morality.
It's the same concern some Catholics have about federal tuition vouchers
for Catholic schools: The more government subsidizes, the more government
controls.
Some Catholic institutions take the painful high road rather than cave in
for the sake of licensing or governmental funding. Catholic Charities in
Boston recently quit offering adoptions rather than comply with a new
Massachusetts law forbidding agencies from discriminating against same-sex
couples who want to adopt. Some struggling Catholic hospitals have closed
rather than curtail charitable care or compromise their mission by moving
into lucrative but problematic markets.
[end excerpt]
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You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads [Virginia] SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members, there are members from
all over the US and a couple from overseas as well]
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.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
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USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
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THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
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