In the creeping secularization of the past 40 years that has impacted so many Catholic colleges and universities, charitable organizations, and hospitals, the responsibility has sometimes fallen on the local ordinary to declare that an organization that once was Catholic is so no longer.
That just happened to St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, Oregon.
Diocese of Bend, Oregon Bishop Robert Vasa details the history of St. Charles in a column in The Diocese of Bend’s Catholic newspaper, The Catholic Sentinel.
“It is not uncommon for faithful Catholics to question the Catholicity of these public institutions especially when they seem to be expressing and holding public views which are, or strongly appear to be, contrary to the clear teachings of the Church,” wrote Bishop Vasa in January. “At what point are these institutions no longer ‘in the communion of the Catholic Church on this earth?’”
Bishop Vasa said that he has struggled to reconcile the practices of the hospital with Catholic beliefs over the past several years. In particular, St. Charles-Bend offers patients tubal ligations, a form of permanent female reproductive sterilization, which goes against the Church’s teachings.
Bishop Vasa asked St. Charles Bend in 2007 for an audit of the hospital’s compliance with the Ethical and Religious Directives. In the end, Bishop Vasa decided that the hospital was no longer Catholic.
“It is my responsibility to ensure the hospital is following Catholic principles both in name and in fact,” Vasa said. “It would be misleading for me to allow St. Charles Bend to be acknowledged as Catholic in name while I am certain that some important tenets of the Ethical and Religious Directives are no longer being observed.”
“I have come to the very difficult conclusion, after much discussion and discernment, that it is time to acknowledge that which has become very clear to me, namely, that St. Charles is a community hospital and should no longer be identified as a Catholic institution.”
Other Catholic institutions may want to take notice. Being Catholic in name only doesn’t count.
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Well said Tim! If one were to examine the many “Catholic” hospitals and colleges of this country, there would be many more added to that list. It makes me sad to see so many stray from the truth. So many pick what they like and ignore what dosen’t fit into their world view.
The ownership question was never answered in the article.
What percentage of ownership does the Catholic Church still
have in this particular institution?
We have a similar institution around where I live. The
church minority ownership really doesn’t have much to say in how the business part ruthlessly abuses sick people. They just keep their mouth’s such and their hands out. Personally, I feel that they should
just cast the whole thing off once and for all because it isn’t
a ministry any longer. It’s only a money gouger.
Not that all patients should expect a free ride on their health care
given by that institution!
It’s just that the patients would expect, at the very least, fairness. This they are not getting. It is the biggest swindle known to mankind around here….far from anything a Catholic should be involved with. Not a good example at all.
“So many pick what they like and ignore what dosen’t fit into their world view.”—sounds like how episcopal church members are-with their “personal Jesus”
Thank you, Bishop~! It is very heartening to see a bishop finally showing some backbone. A Catholic can’t help but question why we are shouted at to stand up for our values, but the bishops regularly go limp at the first sign of opposition from a so-called “Catholic” college or hospital.
Next…where is the excommunication for the Catholics on the hospital and college boards who are in rebellion? They create scandal and get to do so without consequence.
A good reminder from NCRegister that donating to so-called “Catholic” hospitals may actually be aiding the fight against truth.
Similarly for “Catholic” colleges: http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/16432/
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