Sr. Margaret McBride
Posted on 11/07/2011 10:44:21 AM PST by NYer
PHOENIX — The hospital official who was excommunicated from the Catholic Church last year is speaking out for the first time.
Sister Margaret McBride, who was targeted by Bishop Thomas Olmsted for her role in a lifesaving medical procedure that the bishop deemed an abortion, will be honored this weekend by Call to Action, a national group that supports a married priesthood, women priests, gay marriage and other positions that the church opposes.
“Call To Action recognizes Sister Margaret’s careful work with a complex issue, her courage in a time of censorship and public pressure, and her witness to the need to stand firm in the face of opposition while striving to protect life in all its venues,” the organization said of its decision to honor McBride.
In response to emailed questions, McBride said she is “very proud to be receiving this award.”
“My journey over the past year has led me in many directions, but ultimately to a new understanding of forgiveness and mercy. And that will be my message when I accept the award,” she said. “Whether we are talking about my situation, the state of the church or society in general, I believe that forgiveness and mercy are extremely important for each of us.”
McBride was excommunicated last year, by her own action, the diocese said. But sources say she has resolved that situation by going to confession. She declined to answer a question about the excommunication.
Six months after McBride was punished, the bishop withdrew Catholic sponsorship from her hospital, St. Joseph’s in Phoenix.
Olmsted’s decisions generated a vigorous and long-lasting debate among theologians, medical ethics experts and Catholics in general. Many concluded his actions were not justified, noting that the intent of the procedure was to save the mother’s life.
McBride still has not talked with the media, and her written answers to the Arizona Republic’s questions are her first comments since the controversy began.
Although McBride declined to respond to several questions, she answered one about the impact the controversy has had on St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, where she has worked for 36 years.
“Our important mission to our community has not changed,” she said. “This is an extraordinary place with people from every religious background doing the impossible every day. At the heart of St. Joseph’s is still our commitment to caring for the poor and ill in our community. Each employee is an inspiration to me every day in carrying out the mission of the Sisters of Mercy,” McBride’s religious order, which is active in education, health care and social service worldwide.
Call to Action was formed in Detroit in 1976 and became so controversial in the mid-1990s that the bishop of Lincoln, Neb., Fabian Bruskewitz, excommunicated local members en masse. Olmsted was ordained in Lincoln in 1973, before Bruskewitz’s arrival. Both served the Vatican in Rome in the late 1970s, and they have been fellow bishops since Olmsted’s ordination in 1999.
Call to Action challenged Olmsted’s actions regarding McBride and St. Joseph’s in a full-page advertisement that ran in the Republic, claiming he had “abandoned a moral theology based on the message of the Gospels and returned to a legalistic moral theology.” It called upon him to demonstrate pastoral care.
Rob DeFrancesco, diocese spokesman, said the bishop had no comment about the award.
Her cooperation in an abortion was probably only the tip of the iceberg.
Hey, why don’t y’all form your own little church and quit annoying the poor Catlicks?
They have waited 30 years for this.
They found a case where abortion saved a mother's life. And just to prove their is a god, the emergency procedure was done at a Catholic hospital under the supervision of a nun, further proving that Catholics are hypocrites and are stupid.
(is a tag needed?)
I seldom finish the month with more than a dollar or two left. If I can contribute ten dollars a month then anyone can. This forum is one of a few almost sane harbors in an insane world. Please help pay for our megaphone, put your money where your mouth is.
Respectfully
W.W.SMITH
The process worked exactly as the Church was set up by Christ to work. His Bishop called her actions as unacceptable, mortally grave. The Church holds child murder to be a self-excommunicating act, separating oneself from the Church of God. She repented to God in persona Criste, before a priest, promised never to do so again. By the powers given him in the name of God via his ordination, she was absolved of her grave sin. God’s mercy. That’s why Jesus suffered and died and rose again for us and why He set up the Church on the strength and humanity of Peter.
The fact that she is screwy in other ways has a lot to do with her worthless award, and nothing to do with her return to the ability to receive communion after the abortion.
We whip Jesus daily by our offensive sins. She continues to whip Him, I continue to whip Him in similar and different ways, unfortunately. His mercy is so appreciated.
What the Church, via the bishop, says, it means.
Nuns should always wear habits and priests should always wear collars.
Not only does the public need to see them as set-apart, but religious themselves need to understand they are set-apart and not to be involved in temporal political issues. Putting on religious garb every day is a reminder to the individual of their obedience.
It sounds silly, but requiring Sister McBride to wear a habit would have brought her character and potential for disobedience to the fore long before it came to something as serious as abortion.
I don't agree with some of its dogma and am therefore not a likely convert, but I have respect and regard for those who do and consider them my brothers and sisters in Christ. But for these apostates to insist that the Roman Church must change to accommodate them is nothing but hubris.
Why do I think there is more to this story than saving a patients life? Why do I think this person is a liberal democrat? Just asking!!!
At least partially because the church in the past has gone out of it’s way to elect democrats!!!
yea and notice that it only took 30 years and how many abortions to get there?
they must really be good at their jobs / major sarc
Hit piece.
I so agree with you.
Many years ago, a small order of nuns taught school in our small town. In the early 60s, her order decided to abandon the habit. She siad, according to my Dad, a friend, that if she had to abandon the habit, she would leave the order. She felt the same, or greater pride in it that a service member does in his uniform. It does signal that a woman is set apart. Why else do Muslims women wear their headscarf?
NINO
It sounds silly, but requiring Sister McBride to wear a habit would have brought her character and potential for disobedience to the fore long before it came to something as serious as abortion.
Post of the day. When I was taking classes at the seminary we knew who the Catholic priests were and who the CINO priests were. Knew it the minute they walked in the door.
Ms. McBride is in great need of our prayer.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.