In defense of Bishop Olmsted
In the blog item "So how you doing?", a reader commenting on Sunday's column defended Sister Margaret Mary McBride.
Now comes another reader in defense of Bishop Olmstead. Please add it to your Complete Las Vegan reading list. Knowing the difficulty of this debate, I'm sure this won't be the last reader to weigh in. Here's the e-mail note:
"Dear Sherm,
"I think you left something out of your article on Sunday about "Thorns Everywhere in Abortion Debate".
"That hospital, St. Joseph's in Phoenix, had been doing tubal ligations and other things contrary to Catholic teaching for many years.
"Bishop Olmsted recently had learned of their ongoing non-observence to Catholic teaching and the abortion issue was the icing on the cake so to speak.
"And, what you left out was that the Catholic Medical Association sided with the Bishop on this case. They are much larger than the Catholic Health Association, who are notorious for not living up to Catholic teaching at most of their hospitals in the USA.
"Here is an artical about it for you. http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=39708
"I have read both sides of this issue, and frankly, the nun deserved to be excommunicated according to canon law. She had been shirking her Catholic responsibilities for a long time (as many "Catholic" nuns do today).
"There is a great divide in the Catholic Church today - much like your Episcopal Church. But our issues are not with women priests (we don't have them), or gay bishops, (we have those, but they are silent about it), but with orthodoxy or what we orthodox believers call "protestants". Those who do not adhere to the entire teachings of the Church found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, who pick and choose what they want to believe or not believe, are not fully Catholic. That is how Sister Margaret is viewed. If you look at truly "orthodox" diocese's in the USA, you see the fruits of them. Denver, with Archbishop Charles Chaput, is as orthodox as they come. Has two books he has authored and most in his diocese has read them. They have 78 seminarians studying to be priests from there.
"Las Vegas, with almost 150,000 more Catholics than in Denver (we have just over 700,000 registered Catholics in the Las Vegas diocese and Denver has just over 500,00), have only eight seminarians. The list goes on like that depending who the Bishop is... an orthodox one who stands up and is not afraid of the Truth, or the ones who let things go by.
"Sorry for my soapbox. I hope you are feeling better....
"God bless you. Hope I shed some light on the situation."
Ed
Las Vegas, NV
