The Catholic church: A house divided?

When a church is divided over a matter of faith there are no easy answers, particularly when the divide is over some very fundamental principles that sometimes involve matters of life and death. Our cover story is reported by Barry Petersen:

It's a battle between Catholic and Catholic, a battle between the past and the present. A battle centuries old that rages yet today.

In Phoenix, it's a battle between Bishop Thomas Olmstead and the city's oldest hospital, St. Joseph's, whose staff includes a respected nun.

It began in November 2009, with a pregnant 27-year-old mother of four who, in her 11th week, was admitted with severe pulmonary hypertension. Her doctors say it was dramatically worsening because of the pregnancy.

"The hormonal changes of pregnancy, the changes in blood flow in this patient created a situation where her heart began to fail," said Dr. Charles Alfano, St. Joseph's chief medical officer. "And that failure, despite the efforts of the physicians, progressed to the point where she was very near death."

Modern medicine presented two equally grim options: Terminate the pregnancy and save the mother, or lose both mother and child.

"And as a result we made the difficult decision, but the decision that we had to make, to terminate the pregnancy," said Dr. Alfano.

"No matter [what] you guys would have done, the child would have died?" asked Petersen.

"Correct," said Dr. Alfano.

Before moving forward, doctors consulted the hospital's ethics committee, which included Sister Margaret Mary McBride. The committee approved terminating the pregnancy, which doctors did ... saving the mother's life, losing the fetus.

In the months following, word of events at St. Joseph's reached Bishop Olmsted, whose role includes being the moral leader of Catholics in his diocese, and he began his own inquiry, speaking with - among others - Sister Margaret.

"I sat down and visited with her," recalled Bishop Olmstead. "So, I gathered information from her directly. Now, that didn't involve her giving me the charts and things. But in that description I did not hear, not equal concern for the mother and for the child. The child was not, nor was the uterus - infected, or there was nothing wrong with that. So, what was directly intended was to kill the unborn child."

(Credit: CBS)

The Bishop ultimately found that officials at St. Joseph's "had not addressed in an adequate manner the scandal caused by the abortion," and for that he decreed, "St. Joseph's Hospital is no longer Catholic."

As for Sister Margaret, Bishop Olmsted informed her that she'd been excommunicated.

That prompted a lot of comment in the press. But, as she has consistently in this matter, Sister Margaret said nothing.

Father Thomas Doyle, who specializes in church law and once worked for the Vatican's Embassy in Washington, D.C., said, "The excommunication of the sister, I thought, was an extremely cruel act. I can't describe it in any other way."

Father Doyle is now an outspoken critic of the church, and says what happened in Phoenix points to an unfolding trend within the church.

"It tells me that within the hierarchy, there is a great deal of fear, that there is almost an obsession with control, that there's an inability, I think, to deal with the 21st century.

"The bishop in Phoenix is not unique," Father Doyle said. "There are many, many like him."

Take Archbishop Allen Vigneron in Detroit, who has spoken against the American Catholic Council, a group promoting change within the church, including the ordination of women.

Or the U.S. Conference of Bishops: They've critiqued and investigated the writings of Sister Elizabeth Johnson, a feminist theologian whose book "Quest for the Living God" has become popular among liberal Catholics.

Some see these events - taken together - as symptomatic of a larger effort to reverse reforms set down by the 1960s advisory council that came to be known as Vatican II - reforms which, back then, were seen as an effort to bring the church closer to modern times.

"There was a sense that we should try to bring Catholicism up to the 20th and then the 21st century," said Gary Macy, a professor of theology at California's Jesuit Santa Clara University. "In all kinds of ways - in scholarship, how do we relate to psychology? How do we relate to political science? How do we relate to modern ethics? All of those questions were opened up. There was much more involvement of the laity in the liturgy, so people felt much more involved. There were less spectators and more participants."

• 1
• 2
• Next Page »

[blkequus]

talk about a biased report, Shame on you CBS this was an awful bad piece of reporting.

[lily409]

You have overlooked a major fact. The doctors said they could not save both Mom and Baby. However, they could save one or the other. They only mentioned saving the Mother. Why didn't they try saving just the baby? Both Mom and Baby are equal human beings. That's the real problem at hand.

[gouletdrg]

It is very obvious that those who prepared the story and those that were interviewed, especially the Sisters, never actually read the Documents of Vatican II. Catholicity of both Universities and Hospitals are not mentioned in the Documents. They have their own documents. As far as worship, the Documents clearly state the use of Latin, Chant, and proper translation, which every non-English country followed.

[ithro]

The Catholic Church is a Universal church and was founded and uses a couple different way to determine what it does. There are somethings based on God's law and others based on tradition. Anything that is based on God's Law can not be changed and is looked at very seriously. Abortions is one of those absolutes that is based on God's law. A person who is supposed to be in a guidance position and determining what to do in this instance, need to do so very carefully, realizing that God will hold that person responsible for the guidance of others. There are so many who do not believe in the decisions of the Catholic Church, this should be no problem... if you do not like the decisions necessary in the Catholic Church... there are many other places to go. You do not need to wish the Church change when you have so many other places to go that believe like you do. There is no need to have the Church to change so it can join everyone else who wish it to change to be in agreement. Its objective is to be in accord to what is wished by God and not by every man or woman... there it would be all over the map and not the stable representative of God and it should be. Then there would be no difference in it from the rest of the world.

[Zann-Zel]

I just don't think God would want the death of the mother AND the baby rather than just the death of the baby, leaving 4 children on this earth without a mother.

[Misty0408]

The Church is and always has been against abortion. One human life is not more valuable than another. Just because the mother is a person we can know and see, and the baby is not, does not make the baby disposable.

This article seems bias. When this all first happened the doctors said the mother "could" die...not "would" die.

Also, a Catholic hospital is just that...Catholic. Which means we believe in and trust God, who is the author of life. If a person wants an abortion or contraception they can go to a non-Catholic hospital.

This mother's life was not in immediate danger. She didn't have to have an emergency abortion. When she decided she wanted to kill her own child to save herself, the Catholic hospital should have said no, we won't do that. She could have then chosen to go elsewhere, a hospital that does not value the unborn human life.

As a Catholic woman and a mother, I am appalled that this nun would have agreed to end the life of an unborn human being as if the child was a non-being at all. So sad.

As Catholics we believe in miracles. If it had come to the point that in attempting to save the mother, the baby died, that would have been understandable. But to authorize the killing of a baby just because it could pose a danger to the mother, is playing God.

[Zann-Zel]

YOu chose to listen to only parts of the story you just read!

THe baby would have died either way. When the mother died, which she would have - the baby would die. Why sacrifice two lives instead of just one? And shouldn't those 4 children waiting at home for their mother have SOME consideration here???

[Zann-Zel]

As for the hospital: To regain its "Catholic" status, the bishop insists that it must say the medical procedure that resulted in the abortion and saved the mother of four was in violation of religious and ethical policies, and will never happen again.
---------------
So basically they have to say that next time they'll let the mother die. Leaving 4 children without a mother! The way this article reads that sounds like it would be no problem, they'd still have their father and that's all that matters anyway!!! : (

[KnowerseekerReturns]

This is silly. I'm a Southern Baptist, and I do not know of a fellow Southern Baptist lay person or minister who would not give the green light to the doctors to abort the baby if the mother was in danger, and 1. the mother decided that her life is more important than the baby's (her right, but not laudable by our standards), or 2. she is incapacitated and nobody else present has the right to make that decision, or 3. both she and the baby are in danger, and she decides that both she and her baby will likely die together if something is not done. Other than Catholicism, I don't think there is any denomination that is more hawkish on the abortion issue than the Southern Baptists.

[DenverBroncofan]

by dogsoul December 5, 2011 10:47 AM EST
...well CBS - for me, you've finally done it.

I recognize your right to publish whatever it is you see fit - and I've read your shameless promotion of the liberal agenda along with your Christian (especially Catholic) bashing for quite some time. And I've debated much of that in these forums.

But now, I'm done... as a Catholic - and an American, I am excercising my right & what I view as my moral respobsibility to ensure this will be the last time I will visit your website or watch your television station.

I would encourage any other Catholics to follow their own hearts with regard to this matter as well.

Goodbye.
=====================================================================

You won't be missed in the least...

[Zann-Zel]

All you'll do is change your name and be right back, because you can't resist coming here to bash CBS and its readers!

[FreshxWater]

U.S. (Republican President Bush) Says Pope Immune From Molestation Lawsuit
www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,169909,00.html

[vielmann]

It's obvious that this church of evil would have preferred the mother die.

[yahooveritas]

It is obvious that vielmann is a glimmering jewel of stupidity!