Thousands of Catholic sisters support health care reform

Good for you, good Sisters!! Keep it up! Follow your consciences!!!

Wonderful.

(Makes me so happy to see the congregations who were my teachers in grade school, high school, and college on the list! Their stance for social justice is not new.)

I am so proud of these remarkable women who show courage to stand up for what is right! Go Sisters!

Also of important note: Just saw that Bishop Lynch, board member of CHA who yesterday said he was siding with the USCCB on defeating the Senate bill, has had somewhat of a change of heart. Read his new blog entry here: http://blogs.dosp.org/bishoplynch/

Not a complete reversal, but an acknowledgement of the fact that CHA is in quite good company when it comes to its position on health reform. He's a good man for doing this.

I've never been so proud of my faith and those who have given their lives to God. Thank you sisters for this very timely heroic stance. I admire all that the Bishops have done but felt that they were missing the big picture and that they were not correct on the language of the Senate bill as it relates to abortion. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU

Social Justice = Socialism

Thank you, thank you, Good Sisters for standing up and speaking the truth about health reform and why we need it. People are suffering and dying in this country due to lack of access to health care. That is the face of this issue, and why we should support reform. God bless you for your courage and care and love.

As a Catholic that has been fighting against this legislation for months in order to protect the life of the unborn, I am deeply disturbed to see this endorsement of the most PRO-abortion administration that this country has ever seen! We currently have medical care available to the poor. While it is poorly managed, (what government entity is not) the solution lies in fixing our current Medicaid system not in creating a larger, more out of control one that promotes a pro-abortion agenda!

Who doesn't support health care reform ? The question is what kind. The bill about to be passed by Congress is a Planned Parenthood wish list, with lots of built in expandability for public funding for abortion. Care will be rationed and euthanasia will be promoted in a bloated bureaucratic system that will eventually be very hostile toward Catholic values. This monster will dwarf any other federal agency and spawn hundreds of others. The good Sisters who flocked to sign this declaration may see a great need for healthcare but seem very naïve about political subterfuge and that is what this bill runs on, side deals, political coercion, misrepresentations, all to produce a 2700 page bill that few have actually read and had to be passed in the dead of night. There is something very wrong
With this, and many that signed this document will one day feel terribly deceived.

Wonderful article and great courage by the Sisters who have signed this article. I was also very happy to see of Sisters from the IMH in Scranton,
PA. This wonderful order of Nuns taught me through 12 years of Catholic Education at St.Jerome's High School ( 1 thru 12) in Tamaqua, PA in the late 1940 and early 1950. God Bless all of these brave ladies. The Health Bill will bring coverage to millions of Americans. The Health Bill will also hopefully reduce the need for many young woman to decide on an abortion. In the major industrial countries that have national health service, the rate of abortion per 1,000 women has dropped. The USA is the leader in this category unfortunately with a higher abortion rate

My community is a member of LCWR. I do not want to be included in those they represent. There is no doubt in my mind now why they are being doctrinally assessed. This is indeed a sad moment for religious life in the United States.

God bless the Sisters!

I am life long Catholic who is is extremely dissapointed in your response to the Health Care. I have taught at a Catholic school for the past 17 years and have always taught the church's teachings. What am I going to say to a student who says, "Why are we paying for abortions on, your own words, an imperfect bill?" You should be advocating on a bill that does not need to be changed to become a "perfect".

The lowly nuns, circumspect, demure, carrying the true flame of the Christ's compassion for the poor and downtrodden, sacrificing and rejoicing on the front lines of the worst tragedies humanity can do to its weakest, make their statement. Yet the Bishops, in their haughty vestments, all male and far removed from reality, take a different view, based on incorrect and misleading interpretations of the language in the Bill being promulgated by an egoistic and ambitious small-time politician and a cadre of weak-kneed followers.
Bravo to the sisters for speaking truth to power.

I've never been prouder to be Catholic

AMEN!
The Sisters are the ones who know about health care. The Senate bill is a "crucial next step in realizing health care for all," while it will not change substantially change abortion in America.

Let me remind people, the Hyde Amendment does not ban all federal funding of abortions. The Stupak Amendment would have the effect of preventing private insurance companies from covering abortions. It appears to me that some people in the Church want to hold health care hostage in order to make progress on the struggle over abortion.

Let's move toward pro-life goals where we can and not let the abortion issue prevent progress toward other goals of Catholic social teaching .

The sisters are tremendously brave people.

You are always in my prayers.

The Sisters keep our Church honest; I'm glad they're around.

The voice of women in the Catholic Church will be heard. These women in Religious communities are highly educated and spiritually rooted people who have been wrestling for years with the thorny issues of healthcare and morality. Because they operate in the real world they see that a single issue cannot define the whole picture. Many, many people are going without any or without adequate healthcare because they cannot afford it. Their lives are in the balance. These Sisters who head many hospitals and other healthcare outreach programs got it right. We have to take this first step toward making healthcare equitable. Those in the House and Senate who don't see this are out of touch with the needs of many of their constituents. I pray that they are influenced by the Sisters statement and that of the Catholic Health Association.

The sisters have been in the healthcare trenches for years. They know the pain that the poor and the voiceless have endured.They are also against abortion but they know the real life and death stakes. Speak out sisters-we're behind you all the way.

Thank you Sisters!!!!!

Thank God for the nuns... They are the voice of reason in this war in which few of our Bishops have even read the bill.

Thank you for speaking the truth of the gospel with such clarity and strength. You, Sisters, lead by your wisdom and by your commitment to Christ's message of practical, effective love for all.

Aging but ain't-done-yet Protestant pastor continues to be awed by the eloquence, insight, courage and common comitted compassionate sense of my religious sisters!

Thanks for insight, eloquence, courage, and common committed compassionate sense!

Dennis Coday -

Thanks you for posting the second response from "nuns".

There is a discrepancy in the how the letter identifies it signatories, who the signatories actually are and how they individually identify their roles.

The letter says they are "the heads of major Catholic women's religious order in the United States".

Individual sisters who are, to my knowledge, not "the heads" of their own or any other Catholic women's religious order (major or not) are listed as signatories.

Other sisters sign their name followed by a parenthetical "for the ABC Order".

Often semantics are "just semantics". In this context, they matter and, as one discerning religious life with an LCWR order and one that is a signatory to the letter but is not (to my knowledge) one of "the heads' of that order, I am disappointed by this lack of clarity and am concerned.

And, by the way, this concern is NOT your clue as to whether I support the healthcare bill or the Bishops' stated objections.

Discerning Woman

Why don't these nuns leave the Cathlic faith and start a new religion if they do not agree with the teachings of the church. Those who support them can follow suit.

Over a million children are aborted each year in the US, and the nuns want this bill passed without adequate protection. Mr Stupak in on record that he was told that more abortions would reduce the health care cost as there would be fewer people to take care of.

This is a sad day for Catholicism in the US, but then are you really a catholic when you do not follow the teachings of the church.

The nuns understand the real world -- the world where real people have real problems. Bishops inhabit their own narrow theoretical planet. What's so "pro-life" about leaving people without health care? When's the last time a bishop cleaned a bedpan?

This is outgracious! How can you support a bill that will fund abortion? I am totally against this action!!! I am very disappointed because I am discerning a vocation to religious life. I can honestly say that I will not be visiting your communities. I want to be a part of a community that believe life begins at conception and ends at natural death. I don't desire to be lukewarm about issues affecting the unborn. A health care bill should be for everyone!!! This is not for every person. Yes, the poor and marginalized are important, but I will not pick and choose who lives. It's either all or nobody. I will pray for all of you. May God have mercy on you.

May I add my name to those others who are disgusted with this decision by Catholic nuns to support what they know in their hearts is the abortion agenga run by our new Socialist/Marxist Leader. The right to life does not seem to concern these people who insist they are Catholic, but nevertheless choose to follow their own path resulting in the destruction of human life. Just when I thought I've seen it all in the Catholic Church, these desenters add a new chapter to the book. May God have mercy on their souls for this scandalous behavior. I pray they will see the error of their way and return to faithfully follow the dictates of their Religion.

Abortion NOT part of this bill! I was sorry that other orders of Sisters did not add their name to this Network- the Sisters of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, Sisters of Providence (Seattle), Little Company of Mary, Sisters of the Incarnate Word, Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, or Daughters of Charity, all who have been envolved in Catholic Health Care for over 100 years. Maybe there isnt enough of them to care anymore. Thank you Catholic Network for your efforts, and allowing Sisters and Associates to also send an email in support. 11

Thank-you, brave sisters, for taking such a principled stand. As a non-Catholic, I have great admiration for the sisters I've worked with on hunger issues through Bread for the World. This just reaffirms their outstanding character in not being hoodwinked by all the deliberate misinformation out there.

Thank you sisters foryour wise and prudent support for the health care bill.The following quote from your letter sums it all up:
"And despite false claims to the contrary, the Senate bill will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions. It will uphold longstanding conscience protections and it will make historic new investments – $250 million – in support of pregnant women. This is the REAL pro-life stance, and we as Catholics are all for it."
The rhetoric of the opposition has dipped close to being anti- Christian. I have to believe that Jesus would support the bill. Frankly, I don't know what to make of the U.S. Catholic Bishops. Their uninformed thinking on this matter defies common sense and provides for a situation on abortion than is better than what we currently experience. Most prudent people would have the good sense to quit while they are ahead. But not our arrogant Bishops. They appear to be willing to hold the entire system hostage in thir attempt to use health care to neutralize Rowe vs Wade. It should be perfectly clear to them that they are not going to get that and so like the spoiled rottten little children that they are they are willing to pick up their marbles and go home. The aftermath of course is that they have gained nothing relative to thir stance on abortion and all of the myriad benefits of the health care bill go unfulfilled. What a bunch of dumb-clucks. Thank God for the nuns to put them in their place.

Anonymous

I feel sincerely happy to be a Sister when I see what fellow american sisters in the USA do to help move on for justice! Thank you

Sinde I didn't see on the list, I want to know if the Sisters of Providence, St. Mary of-the Woods IN are in support of the Health Care Reform Bill? Thanks

Sisters,

You have been used by an administration that has put forth a bill that is not about human rights to health care but about cost containment. And the cost containment it professes is a facade, because this bill has sold out to the drug companies. You have lost your way. Sisters, if you spend some time in prayer and if you would place your trust in God instead of your fallible reasoning, and work for real dignity and hope for all guided by the Holy Spirit--we could find God's own way to help our country. You have betrayed our trust. John Paul II has said: "A nation that kills its own children has lost its hope in the future." You have betrayed your values and your faith and your God; you have jumped on a bandwagon that is bent on destroying our nation and its historical values.

Wow, talk about being out of step with your Bishops! These sisters should be ashamed of themselves. Good Catholics while supporting a need for the change in which health care is delivered---a call to social justice---can NEVER forget the most innocent among us. We can NOT support legislation that supports abortion. The current health care bill is not good for this country from a fiscal point of view nor from a moral one!

Congratulations, Sisters! I really think you've made a BIG difference in this battle. To "I am a life-long Catholic who:" When asked why we're paying for abortions, the correct response is that we are NOT paying for abortions. Under both the House and Senate bills it is crystal clear that no Federal money will go to pay for abortions. On the other hand, the bill will save thousands of lives and may reduce the number of abortions, since poor women will be able to obtain decent prenatal care.

Videos titled, “Autistic Adult in Crisis Goes Unnoticed” and “Shocking Patient Neglect of Autistic Person” on youtube warrant immediate attention to dangers of managed care and general hospital medical mismanagement of severely autistic patients in California. What we witness here is a FAILURE to care, as in from the heart. There is little intrinsic motivation for many nurses, doctors to really HELP their patients, especially complex ones that require complex care management. So do we need healthcare reform? DO we really need to change a system, when the real problem is heart care reform? As in value, dignity and respect for persons with special needs, the elderly, sick, infirmed, disabled, blind lame? WHERE are the miracle workers of today? Where are those that go the extra mile to help patients?