South Dakota bishop raps Catholic health-care network for accepting HHS mandate
March 21, 2013
Bishop Paul Swain of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has rebuked a Catholic health-care system for its decision to comply with the federal government’s mandate to provide contraceptive coverage.
The Avera health-care network, which includes dozens of institutions in South Dakota, brought its policies into line with the federal mandate, declining to join Catholic institutions and dioceses that have challenged the policy in court.
“This development is troubling in a number of ways,” said Bishop Swain. “Most importantly, as an organization, Avera will now be materially cooperative in the termination of life.”
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Posted by: unum -
Mar. 21, 2013 9:31 PM ET USA
Perhaps it would have been more effective for the bishop to forbid the offending institutions from calling themselves Catholic health care systems. Perhaps they should adopt a descriptor such as "a health care system in the Obama tradition". Many universities that are no longer "Catholic" have opted instead to describe themselves as "a university in the (fill in name of religious order) tradition" since they are no longer Catholic.
