In his column, which appeared in the La Crosse Tribune, E.J. Dionne Jr. is very wrong in his assertion that the letter released by "Network" represents the position of the 59,000 women religious of the U.S. Of course, it would appear that he got his information from the Associated Press, which very rarely gets its facts straight with regard to the Catholic Church. The fact of the matter is that out of 793 communities of women religious in the U.S., there were 61 signatories to this letter by congregation or organization.
These sisters claim that they must support this legislation, in opposition to our bishops, including our own former bishop, Archbishop Jerome Listecki, because of the many who will be helped. They dismiss as baseless the concerns of the bishops (who have lobbied for decades for health care reform) regarding abortion and conscience protection. If this is so, then there is one question which continues to beg an answer: If this legislation will not allow for the funding of abortion, and if physicians and nurses have nothing to fear with regards to the protection of their conscience, then why has language that specifically addresses these concerns been struck down at least five times so far in the formulation of this legislation? And now the Stupak amendment, which at least dealt with the abortion issue, has been struck down in the committee tasked with reconciliation.
This mirage of united opposition to the position of our bishops was quick in being revealed when the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious issued a letter, as an organization, supporting the position of the U.S. bishops. This organization of women religious, which has as one of its founding principles the support of the legitimate teaching magisterium of the bishops, represents 105 communities in the U.S. (about 10,000 women religious).
A bedrock of Catholic moral theology is that you may never do evil, even to bring about a good end. How did the sisters miss this? It is all very curious.
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