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| Creighton University Medical Center |
Creighton University, located in Omaha, Nebraska, recently embarked on
a partnership with the Phoenix hospital to establish a regional campus
of Creighton’s School of Medicine. This was disturbing to many because
in 2010, Bishop Olmsted stripped
St. Joseph’s of its status as a “Catholic” hospital after Mercy Sister
Margaret McBride, who served on the hospital’s ethics panel, approved of
an abortion because the mother was suffering from severe hypertension.
That abortion led to the excommunication of Sr. McBride and the hospital’s loss of its status as a “Catholic” hospital. Because Creighton University is a Catholic institution, the recently
announced partnership, Olmsted said, “led to some confusion” which he
sought to clarify with this statement:
It has been recently announced that Creighton University has established a medical school in conjunction with St. Joseph’s Hospital. This has led to some confusion since Creighton University is a Catholic institution. Thus, to ensure clarity on the issue, I wish to affirm to all of the faithful that St. Joseph’s Hospital is not a Catholic institution. Secondly, St. Joseph’s Hospital does not faithfully adhere to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. Catholics, and all people of good will, are advised that they cannot be guaranteed authentic Catholic health care at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
Bishop Olmsted prohibited the celebration of Mass on the hospital’s
campus and had the Blessed Sacrament removed from the hospital’s chapel
in 2010. As the bishop of Phoenix, Bishop Olmsted does not have jurisdiction
over the university. Calls to the Archdiocese of Omaha were not
returned at the time of publication.
Link (here) to read the full Cardinal Newman Society Report
2 comments:
This is a complete smear of Creighton.
At best, the medical students only spend two years in Phoenix. Big deal.
America needs more doctors. There are only FOUR Catholic medical schools in America. With this association, Creighton was able to add more medical students. It was completed capped in Omaha because of the number of patients available in Omaha.
Among the most highly regarded organizations are the Catholic hospitals. Catholic involvement with such ventures is a good thing -- especially if the hospital has lost its offical Catholic status.
While it may be hard to hear, most Catholic "service" is seen as a negative at this point.
The problem is one of judgment. We exist in a community, and individual charity, even Church-wide charity, is insufficient to address the problems facing our society. But instead of addressing the underlying government, economic, educational, and values issues, our "service" organizations enable the wealthy to keep exploiting those without power.
Good judgment would make a much greater effort to go after the causes of the problems, rather than put "band-aids" on the destruction caused by the rich and their values.
To this end, we could create governments that required no taxes. Profitable areas of business could be reserved for government so that it could be well funded to care for its citizens. Of course, a properly functioning government would need to be created in order to make this work (but we are in a time where such systems can be constructed.) Yes, corruption must be fought, but we can set up systems to fight corruption. The improvement is well worth it.
We need to stop substituting Church charity and individual charity for the obligations of our society. The opportunity cost is too great.
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