Dissent among Catholics seen as nuns' groups back health bill

[Joanne98]

By Michelle Boorstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 18, 2010; 3:01 PM

Recent public statements in favor of the health-care bill by the head of a major Catholic health organization and a group of nuns have given American Catholics a rare look at public disagreement among church leaders.

Experts on religion, politics and the Catholic Church said they could not remember the last time leading figures within the church so publicly contradicted the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the official voice of the church in the United States.

Smaller Catholic advocacy groups span the ideological spectrum, but in this case the figures strongly challenging the bishops represent the vast majority of the roughly 59,000 American nuns and most U.S. Catholic hospitals.

The willingness of the nuns, including Sister Carol Keehan, head of the Catholic Health Association, to enter into open debate with the bishops shows the intense passion among American Catholics for universal health care -- long a top priority of the Catholic Church. And the bishops' willingness to fight the House bill likely up for a vote this weekend shows the continued preeminence of abortion among all other issues.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/18/AR2010031802456.html

[demosincebirth]

1. We are not all in lock-step with the Church. eom

[CurtEastPoint]

3. Ditto. n/t

[Fresh_Start]

2. Catholic Hospitals also announced support for the bill

http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/catholic-hospitals-support-health-care-bill-352653.html?cxtype=ynews_rss

[HockeyMom]

4. Most people would be very suprised

how really liberal nuns are. First and foremost, they are WOMEN. I spent 12 years in catholic school, way back when. I had many a run in with the priests over many religious, and other, views. I found that more often than not, it was the NUNS who supported me, and especially my rights to even QUESTIONS what they said.

[Warpy]

5. There is a huge divide between Rome and the church

that has existed for a very long time but which is being deepened and widened by Rome's protection of pedophiles and their idiotic stance on reproductive matters they know absolutely nothing about.

Catholics tend to be a lot more liberal than their Protestant neighbors and Catholics tend to be very sensible people who use birth control rather than produce children they don't have the resources to raise. They also hate the fact that the church continues to cling to that "First Estate" nonsense that exempts them from civil law and protects criminal priests.

I doubt the Catholic church would ever cease to exist nor would I want it to. However, Rome should fade away. It's obsolete. It's dangerous. Its time has long gone by.