USCCB President says Obama offered next to nothing; expresses disappointment with Sr. Keehan

Te Deum ^ | February 14, 2012 | Francis X. Rocca

[EDINVA]

I would suggest that there are certain principles that cannot be compromised. That is what seems to have ‘gotten to’ her in the initial HHS regs. She one of those who swoons at every word out of Obama’s mouth, so if HE said he was compromising, she wanted to believe it.

I wonder who pays the fare for the organization? Is it really Catholic hospitals and other health-care institutions? Those offices are in the high-rent business/lobbying district, a block from the notorious “K Street.” They are not near any Catholic hospital. (Georgetown is across town, but you could walk to the GW Hospital from there). hahahah, maybe Cardinal Wuerl should suggest her organization move onto the Archdiocese’s property, better to control costs (and her!)

[D-fendr]

Thanks for your reply. Curious to know the answers, I looked it up on wikipedia. Established in 1915 CHA is an association of Catholic hospitals. Keehan is the ninth president.

Here’s her latest ‘Something has to be fixed’ column:
http://www.chausa.org/Pages/Publications/Catholic_Health_World/Catholic_Health_World_Archive/2012/February_15/Something_has_to_be_fixed/

I think it’s clear from this that something changed or someone got the message to her. I pray it continues.

Below is a cut and paste from the Wikipedia entry for CHA that contains some information I was not aware of.

CHA created a firestorm within the Catholic Church when it defied the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and came out in support of Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[1] The USCCB believes the overhaul provides for taxpayer funded abortion; the CHA said this was a “false claim”.[2] CHA was heavily criticized for subverting the bishops, who have doctrinal authority in the Church while nuns do not. At least one bishop, Thomas Joseph Tobin of the Diocese of Providence, withdrew his diocese’s hospitals from membership in the CHA, saying, “Your enthusiastic support of the legislation, in contradiction of the bishops of the United States, provided an excuse for members of Congress, misled the public and caused a serious scandal for many members of the church” and said it was “embarassing” to be associated with the CHA.[3] Archbishop Joseph Naumann said Keehan, who met with Obama before endorsing the bill,[4] was “incredibly naive or disingenuous” for saying that the bill prevented taxpayer funding of abortions.[5] Cardinal Francis George, who was president of the USCCB at the time, reported that he and other bishops tried to reach out to Keehan both before and after the vote; he also said that in choosing Obama over the Church, she had “weakened the moral voice of the bishops in the U.S.”[6]

[EDINVA]

Did you notice that the “Something needs to be fixed” article has a dateline of today, Feb. 15, 2012, but at the end she speaks of the subject as something that WILL be discussed at the board meeting of February 8? A little odd that they WILL discuss this last week, don’t you think? And, two days before Obama made his announced ‘compromise.’

Would be interesting to know the ‘story’ about the various board members. They serve 3 year terms and can only serve 2 consecutive terms. That pretty much vests what power there is in the permanent bureaucracy, in the person of its CEO. (link to board below) There’s one bishop, another clergyman, a couple of nuns, maybe 2 MD’s. The rest appear to be hospital administrators. In ‘normal’ times that might make sense. Nothing ‘normal’ about the present times.

http://www.chausa.org/Board_of_Trustees.aspx

[SuziQ]

D’OH, yeah I meant litigation, but you figured it out! :o)

[D-fendr]

Excellent catch, EDINVA!

Here’s what the note at the top says:
The following article appears in the Feb. 15 printed version of Catholic Health World. The actual statement was posted on Feb. 10, 2012.

Now this is still after the Feb 8 meet you caught; and, I believe, on the day Obama announced it, and she supposedly spoke favorably about it.

Very curious, something’s amiss here, or I’m missing something.