Register Radio: Sister Carol Keehan & Men's Ministry

Ann Carey Kevin O'Brien

Today on Register Radio, the first guest was Ann Carey, author of Sisters in Crisis: The Tragic Unraveling of Women’s Religious Communities. She spoke about her recent National Catholic Register article, “Who is Sister Carol Keehan?” Carey described Sister Keehan’s role in supporting Obamacare.

“She was the public face for Catholic health care,” said Carey. “She really provided moral cover for some Democractic congressmen who voted for it.”

Pointed out Carey, “She took advantage of her identity. Being a vowed religious doesn’t give someone the ability to speak for the Church as the ultimate authority.”

Furthermore, Carey demonstrated how Sister Keehan repeatedly became “the public face of opposition to the U.S. Bishops. As the Bishops raised concerns, she was right there to contradict them, and even wrote to the House of Representatives urging the passage of the bill.”

Carey also took a look at Sister Keehan’s salary. While she was unable to answer whether the nearly $1 million salary is taxed, she said that tax records do show that the salary goes to her religious congregation, The Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. “It does seem an exorbinant salary for any Catholic organization to provide,” she said.

Carey ended by saying that at least 22 Catholic female religious congregations have so far publicly opposed the HHS mandate.

In the second half of the program, former professional football player and co-founder of the Catholic men’s conference Men of Christ, Kevin O’Brien spoke about the rise in the Catholic men’s movement. O’Brien said that there are upwards of 70 annual Catholic men’s conference currently in the U.S., with another three to 10 being added each year.

“There is a hunger,” said O’Brien. “Men feel an emptiness inside and want to see faith presented in a masculine modality. They want to be challenged. When faith is presented in its proper form, men are attracted to it.”

O’Brien encouraged men to become involved in local dynamic men’s groups such as That Man is You!

“A conference is the first step,” said O’Brien, “but if you’re just doing something once a year, that’s not enough. At the end of the day, given the choice between a men’s conference and a men’s group, I’d say that a men’s group is more important because that’s where the habits and virtues are developed.”

“We look to Christ as our model,” concluded O’Brien. “We as men desire to lay our lives down for something greater than ourselves. We want to protect those we love and fight evil.”