What's clouding the Catholic health care debate

Psychology 101 tells us that traumatized people are often brittle, overreacting to stress and struggling to keep things in perspective. That’s an insight worth bearing in mind as the U.S. bishops and the leaders of Catholic health care in America work to overcome the rift that opened up during the recent national debate over health care reform.

Generally speaking, I’m as skeptical as anybody else when journalists attempt to put whole groups of people on the couch. Nonetheless, somebody needs to say out loud that two mammoth recent traumas are lurking, like elephants in the living room, in the background of the Catholic health care debate: The sexual abuse crisis, and the Vatican-sponsored investigation of American nuns.

Read the Allen's full column here: Elephants in the room of the Catholic health care debate