I hardly know where to begin with this one.
You can read the full story here. The basics are this: Sister Margaret McBride, a nun in the order Sisters of Mercy and an administrator at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, approved an abortion for a woman who was 11 weeks pregnant and seriously ill. Doctors agreed that the woman would have died had she continued with the pregnancy.
In response to the nun’s compassionate, and yet surely difficult decision, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted automatically excommunicated her. Defending the bishop’s decision, medical ethics director for the diocese, Rev. John Ehrich, said, “She consented in the murder of an unborn child. There are some situations where the mother may in fact die along with her child. But…you can’t do evil to bring about good. The end does not justify the means.” When a canon lawyer suggested a double standard at play, because no priest guilty of child molestation has been ex-communicated, Ehrich responded, “I’m not going to make a distinction between what’s worse.”
Yep, that’s right. He equated consenting to an abortion to save a mother’s life with pedophilia.
You can’t help but wonder what’s really going on here. Is this really the judgment of god almighty working through humble servants, or does it have to do more with an institution where many of the leaders are more concerned with power, control, and ego than the health and well-being of human life?
With his swift excommunication of this nun, the bishop accomplished at least two tasks for himself. First, he succeeded in whitewashing the fact that life is messy. He has sent the clear message to the church’s adherents that the rules are black and white and that there is to be no individual thought or reasoning. The punishment for such sedition will be swift and relentless. This is imperative for any established institution that wishes to retain control, and the Catholic Church is hardly alone in its efforts to maintain absolute control over its population. It is an effective and powerful tool, one designed to maintain a top-heavy, autocratic institution. At least until it collapses under its own weight.
Another accomplishment of his is the powerful message of who is in charge. Supposedly, the nun will be allowed back into the Catholic Church if she repents and goes to confession. Seems like the bishop needs to be reminded of some of the basics of repentance and confession. Repentance is a turning of the heart, and it is not meant to be a response to coercion. I thought the church learned that lesson after the Spanish Inquisition. And confession is a private sacrament between a person, their confessor, and god. The bishop, though, is using it as a means of public humiliation and subjugation. It is his actions, not the nun’s, that are abhorrent and repulsive.
Sister McBride has lost the community that was her family and her life, she has been violently and heartlessly amputated from the faith that nurtured her, and her career and future have been compromised. But her courage, intelligence, and strength saved a woman’s life. She will be embraced and loved by another community that shares her heart and spirit.
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Comments
That's not a "pro-life" stance, that's a "let them both die" mentality!! Excommunicating a nun for this, truly is a sin! By the way, does this religion not have enough PR problems already? Makes u wonder if, they're insane, or just power-drunk?
Notice this has happened in Phoenix - the new Waco!
Sounds like this was spoken from the heart of a wise, but formerly wounded, warrior. And to think, I grew up with Tom Olmstead and knew him when he was just a skinny smart kid and not an "all powerful" bishop.
You need to go back and do your homework with this one. You haven't fully reported the situation due to ignoring many of the facts, or just not bothering to report them. Had you reported this correctly you would have mentioned that the HOSPITAL brought the situation into the media, not the Church. Also the Bishop didn't excommunicate Sister...her action did. The Church teaches that people can excommunicate themselves automatically. "Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. 'A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae, by the very commission of the offense,' and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law CCC # 2272.
Please be diligent next time in presenting the entire issue. I continue to pray for Sister, of course. And thank the U.S. bishops' Committee on Doctrine for its support of Bishop Thomas Olmsted.
I did my homework. You have presented no new information. But as long as we're talking about thorough research, perhaps you should look up the word "procure." Also, please try to learn the difference between an opinion article and a news report. I provided several links so that readers could read various aspects of the story themselves. My article intended to present my opinion, which I still strongly hold, based on the given information.
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