The US Conference of Catholic Bishops covers itself with glory again by finding stupid pettifogging reactionary reasons to refuse (officially, publicly, in a statemently) to support the Violence Against Women Act. Anything to be conspicuous, eh guys? The chairmen of four committees and one subcommittee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a …
Tag Archive: US Conference of Catholic Bishops
Dec 06 2012
Shut up and obey
In writing that post I turned up this item from The Catholic Phoenix a couple of years ago. It’s special. Denys Powlett-Jones is commenting on the leaking of the bishop’s infamous letter to Catholic Healthcare West by the Arizona Republic. It is also no surprise that it is C(INO)HW who has decided to fight this …
Nov 19 2012
But it’s not just Ireland
Ann Marie Hourihane has an interesting piece in the Irish Times on how awkward it is for her to be in the US right now, because of all the shocked questions about how that hospital could have let Savita Halappanavar die rather than perform an abortion to complete the miscarriage that was already happening. Perhaps …
Nov 16 2012
Part 3 of the Legion of Death’s “Directives”
The instructions. Prenatal diagnosis is not permitted when undertaken with the intention of aborting an unborn child with a serious defect. No matter what the defect. No matter how unable the parents are to deal with an infant born to suffer and then die. No matter how much futile suffering is in store for the infant. Those …
Nov 16 2012
The ERD part 2
The US Catholic bishops’ orders to Catholic health care providers. Page 20 still. 28. Each person or the person’s surrogate should have access to medical and moral information and counseling so as to be able to form his or her conscience. The free and informed health care decision of the person or the person’s surrogate …
Nov 16 2012
Start at the beginning
Now. Let’s be thorough about this. I need to understand the Ethical and Religious Directives – commonly and folksily called ERD – and just exactly how they function, and why. I need to know if and how and why anyone relevant (like, hospital administrations, and medical practitioners) considers them binding. I also need to know …
Nov 15 2012
Hospital administrators interfered
More detail, from the full report by the National Women’s Law Center. the Study revealed four serious lapses in care resulting from religious restrictions: Doctors performed medically unnecessary tests, resulting in delays in care and additional medical complications for patients. These tests were done solely to address hospital administrators’ concerns that the treatment complied with religious …
Nov 15 2012
It’s not just Ireland
I’ve been re-reading the National Women’s Law Center report on religious restrictions at hospitals that put women’s lives at risk, from January 2011. It’s about what happened to Savita Halappanavar last month and what happens to a significant (but unknown) number of women because of religious bullshit surrounding the termination of pregnancy. It’s about hospitals …
Nov 13 2012
The bishops prattle of humility
The US Catholic bishops are chastened by their failure to impose their religious views on the electorate last week, and Cardinal Timothy Dolan lectured them yesterday on what to do about it. To think harder and realize that they should pay more attention to human well-being as opposed to pretended goddy mandates? Don’t be silly.
Jul 04 2012
A custody fight
NPR’s god-besotted religious affairs reporter Barbara Bradley Hagerty shyly points out that bears shit in the woods and the Catholic church is not the most liberal institution in the world. She’s very careful about it but even she can’t hide the scary. Perceiving its core beliefs to be under threat from popular culture, the White …
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