In an extensive television piece Sunday, CBS's Sunday Morning featured the conflict between Sr. Margaret Mary McBride and Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmstead over her decision to authorize the termination of a pregnancy at St. Joseph's Hospital.
Both mother and fetus would have perished, McBride and her staff believed, if the action had not been taken. Olmstead subsequently declared McBride excommunicated and St. Joseph's no longer a Catholic hospital.
The TV segment also took notice of the condemnation of the American Catholic Council meeting by Detroit's archbishop and the harsh critique of Sr. Elizabeth Johnson's book by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. It was titled "The Catholic church: A house divided?"
Watch it here.