Mayo-Franciscan, FSPA respond to Bp. Callahan statement

Mayo-Franciscan and the FSPAs also issued reactions Monday in response to requests for comments on the bishop’s original statement.

Mayo-Franciscan CEO Dr. Tim Johnson said, “The organization is very appreciative of the bishop’s support of the Catholic hospital in La Crosse and its benefit to the community, and the dialogue we’ve been able to have with him on this issue over the last several months. We also appreciate the guidance we have received from our sponsors, the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

“Franciscan Healthcare remains committed to compassionate, high-quality health care for all of our patients in accord with its Catholic mission and our legal and medical obligations,” Johnson said.

The FSPA statement quoted Sister Karen Lueck, the order’s president, as saying, in part, “We move forward, together with Bishop Callahan and Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare, continuing to honor our responsibilities as stewards of the Gospel ministry of healing. We do this by answering the bishop’s call in his statement for continued regular evaluations and reviews of policies, procedures and internal actions.”

FSPA leaders will work with Mayo-Franciscan and the bishop to “ensure that all ethical and religious guidelines are communicated effectively to and evaluated regularly with all of our partners in our sponsored ministries.”
full article at La Crosse Tribune

Mayo Health Systems refuses to say one way or the other that the employee in question, Dr. Rose, does perform abortions.  I don't get it.  If they think it's legit, why not admit it?  Why keep it a big secret?

I'm not sure who will give first here.  Neither admit any desire to comply with the USCCB Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. And that is really the heart of the crisis in Catholic healthcare today.

2 comments:

Eugene Diamond said...

The statements from Dr. Tim Johnson and Sister Karen Lueck are trite obfuscations. But the Diocese of La Crosse is not helping the situation at all when its spokesman tells the La Crosse Tribune that the piece of paper entitled, "Statement of The Most Reverend William Patrick Callahan, Bishop of La Crosse, On the Situation at Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare" is not actually an official statement—despite both the unambiguous heading of the rather official-looking non-statement and explicit permission from the ordinary himself to those who received it to distribute this non-statement as they see fit.

According to the La Crosse Tribune, the Diocese of La Crosse then issued an official statement yesterday, from which the La Crosse Tribune did not quote. The public wouldn't be faulted for getting the impression that the official statement released on Monday—not the apparently unofficial, non-statement that Bishop Callahan himself issued on May 31—is the final word, but the problem is that the public doesn't know what the official statement says. Does Mayo-Franciscan and the FSPA even know what it says? And even if it is the exact same statement as the non-statement, why both inject uncertainty into a situation in which Mayo-Franciscan and the FSPA are trying to avoid taking any meaningful steps to remove the abortionist and also seemingly undermine the authority of Bishop Callahan by stating that his unofficial, non-statement is not in fact the official statement?

Anonymous said...

I am frustrated.
I have no hard evidence but plenty of circumstantial evidence that the Bishop has silenced his curia and his Priests on this issue.
I think he should tell us why.
Then there is this statement and its platitudes with absolutely no teeth. Franciscan prescribes contraception on a wide scale, they employ known abortionists, they refer patients to known abortionists who work off campus and are, presumably, free to counsel towards abortion....I could go on, but suffice it to say that Franciscan and the FSPA thumb their noses at Catholic teaching and the Bishop is silent.