Catholic nuns urge passage of Obama's health bill

[Pirate Smile]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Catholic nuns are urging Congress to pass President Barack Obama's health care plan, in an unusual public break with bishops who say it would subsidize abortion.

Some 60 leaders of religious orders representing 59,000 Catholic nuns Wednesday sent lawmakers a letter urging them to pass the Senate health care bill. It contains restrictions on abortion funding that the bishops say don't go far enough.

The letter says that "despite false claims to the contrary, the Senate bill will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions." The letter says the legislation also will help support pregnant women and "this is the real pro-life stance."


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100317/ap_on_go_co/us_health_overhaul_catholic_nuns

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This does not surprise me at all. There can be quite a gap between the nuns and the Bishops. The Catholics Hospitals are also supporting the bill.

[Jim__]

1. It does surprise me, but I'm glad to hear it! - n/t

[ensho]

2. see! I told you nuns were smarter then you knew

(not 'you' the poster. I'm referring to a thread yesterday)

[Beavker]

3. They just need to get their "flock" of Sheep

to put down their anti abortion and gay marriage signs long enough to pick up a pro health care reform sign and we're golden.

[glinda]

6. Nuns tend to have a more independent and educated approach. Most nuns I have known are a hoot.

Feisty.
They have been quite battered by the Pope, who has made several attempts to silence them and bring them in line to the extreme conservative view.

[Demoiselle]

12. I agree, Glinda.

Nuns at two schools and a retirement home made up a sizeable slice of the voters in my division when I was a Democratic Ward committeeperson.
They were very liberated in their thinking. Never, that I could tell, voted the company line on Choice, always voted for the most humane, humanitarian candidates. And they ALWAYS voted. I hope this upcoming Vatican ordered "investigation" of women's orders here in the States doesn't shut them down in any way. But I'm really fearful.

[CatholicEdHead]

21. And are now being investiaged by the Vatican

with official visitations. They have been too noisy for the Vatican.

[glinda]

23. I don't think the Pope will do it now facing scandal. Something like 30 active groups of

Sisters spoke as one. Very unusual. They must feel emboldened. Good for them. You go girls!

[Chipper Chat]

4. Watch for scapegoat excommunications to follow.

Priests don't need nuns anymore. Lay people can do what they used to do. If powerful ultra-conservative priests and bishops can withhold communion from John Kerry and threaten him with excommunication they can certainly get by with getting rid of liberal nuns. Besides, takeover of the remaining convents will make great spare bedrooms and rec rooms for the parish fathers.

[global1]

5. Stupak (MI - D 1st) And Lipinski (IL - D 3rd) Can No Longer Hide Behind Their Catholicism......

on this health care bill. Now that both the Catholic Hosp and Catholic Nuns have come out in support these guys are losing their disingenuous platform to vote against this bill. They might still try that tactic - but we know that it is only cover for them so they can protect the insurance companies and corporations. They are both frauds along with any of their other Dem cronies that in that House that have joined them in this stupid argument.

Call these guys and let them know we are on to their scheme. Out them.

[Christa]

7. Universal health care tends to cut the abortion rate

In Britain, only 8 percent of the population is Catholic (compared with 25 percent in the United States). Abortion there is legal. Abortion is free. And yet British women have fewer abortions than Americans do. I asked Cardinal Hume why that is.

The cardinal said that there were several reasons but that one important explanation was Britain’s universal health-care system. “If that frightened, unemployed 19-year-old knows that she and her child will have access to medical care whenever it’s needed,” Hume explained, “she’s more likely to carry the baby to term. Isn’t it obvious?”

A young woman I knew in Britain added another explanation. “If you’re active,” she said, “the way to avoid abortion is to avoid pregnancy. Most of us do that with an IUD or a diaphragm. It means going to the doctor. But that’s easy here, because anybody can go to the doctor free.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x225023

[HughMoran]

8. Do you hear that misogynistic Catholic Bishops?

I spit on you.

[ColesCountyDem]

9. Misogynistic?

That assumes a priori there is no motive that is not hate-driven, doesn't it?

[patrice]

10. Thank you. We can't expect Progress, as in Progressive, without honesty.

[HughMoran]

14. .

never mind

[HughMoran]

13. Of course it doesn't assume that, are you denying that Bishops are often misogynists?

See how you're poisoning the argument?

[ColesCountyDem]

16. Of course it assumes that.

Look up the definition of the word. If it's not what you wanted people to assume, then use a different word, please.

[Demoiselle]

15. Are we then to assume that misogyny doesn't play a part in Church politics?

I'm sorry, but the Church has been run strictly by men and for men since the last days of the Roman Empire. The official dictates of the Church refuse women
any position of power in the Church. They may not serve as priests. You don't have to dig very hard to find historical Church doctrine that labels women as the tempters and men as the tempted. As far as I can tell, official Church policy grants females real protection and personhood only as long as they are fetuses. Once grown they are merely vessels to be protected from their own weak impulses.

And now the Vatican has ordered an "investigation" into women's orders. Orders that have dropped the flowing robes and moved out their cloisters to work in the world.
I, for one, am pretty sure that the investigation is meant to reassert control over the orders that the Vatican fears it has lost.

Misogyny isn't the only pillar on which the church is built, but it's certainly part of the structure.

[JerseygirlCT]

18. I don't think it's such a wild assumption

Their behavior and proclamations have been misogynistic for a very long time.

In fact, their very existence (as male-only clergy) attests to it.

[ColesCountyDem]

22. Look up the definition of the word.

It has a very specific meaning, and far too many people bandy it about without knowing what it means.

[JerseygirlCT]

25. OK - for you:

Misogyny: hatred, dislike, or mistrust of women.

That just about covers it, I think. Some even get the trifecta.

[ColesCountyDem]

26. Making it fit, eh?

You can't prove that their stance is based on any of the three. Even though I'm pro-choice, I do accept the fact that people can oppose abortion on purely religious grounds, without the need to attribute some other malign motive to their beliefs.

[JerseygirlCT]

27. I think you can look at the fact that

women are denied the priesthood and it's pretty clear right there.

They'll attempt to cover that with flowery language about "different ways to serve" and motherhood and all that... but it comes down to "no girls allowed".

I'm not talking about abortion, although I think the bishop's obsession with that issue at the expense of far, far more important ones such as poverty, homelessness, health care, war... and on and on, is perverse.

I haven't anything against most Catholics. I was raised as one; my family (who I love dearly) are Catholic. But I do think that overwhelmingly, bishops on up are political animals and there is a strong culture of misogyny that they willingly buy into when they accept their episcopal ordination.

[4lbs]

11. Catholic nuns, who are frequently the nurses at Catholic hospitals, see first-hand how important

proper health care and insurance is to their followers.

[JerseygirlCT]

19. I think that's important

How much day to day interaction with those in pain does the average Catholic bishop have?

[JerseygirlCT]

17. The sisters almost always have better judgement than the

bishops - who are too often purely political animals.

[glinda]

24. Our local Convent, the Sisters hold Earth Day and Peace Festivals.

[ColesCountyDem]

28. I'd have to agree. n/t

[Kingofalldems]

20. Yeah....Yeah!!

Go nuns!