Contact: Christine Valentine-Owsik, Valentine Communications, for Our Sunday Visitor, 215-230-8095, cowsik@osv.com 

HUNTINGTON, Ind., Dec. 23, 2010 /Christian Newswire/ -- An expert in healthcare law warns that the "defiance" of the Catholic Health Association (CHA) to a local bishop's handling of a Church hospital in his jurisdiction sets "a dangerous precedent, and could presage a further secularization of Catholic health care."

Leonard J. Nelson, III - professor at the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University, and affiliated scholar with the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health - said that for Catholics it falls on the bishop, as successor of the Apostles, to be the ultimate authority on interpreting moral law in his diocese.

The full statement of Nelson, author of "Diagnosis Critical: The Urgent Threats Confronting Catholic Healthcare" (Our Sunday Visitor, 2009), is below. He made his remarks after the CHA, an association of some 600 Catholic hospitals nationwide, said it sided with St. Joseph Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Ariz., in judging the morality of the controversial termination of a pregnancy. After months of failed talks, the bishop removed the hospital's right to call itself Catholic.

The litmus test for determining whether a hospital is Catholic is whether it adheres to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services as interpreted by the local diocesan bishop. It is not the prerogative of the hospital; the facility's owner, Catholic Healthcare West (CWH); members of its ethics committee; or officials at the Catholic Health Association to provide authoritative interpretations of the moral law: that is the role of the bishop as successor of the Apostles. This defiance of Bishop Olmsted's authority is setting a dangerous precedent, and could presage a further secularization of Catholic health care.

Bishop Olmsted issued a decree Dec. 21 revoking his consent to the use of the name "Catholic" by Phoenix's St. Joseph Hospital and Medical Center, a facility owned by Catholic Healthcare West (CHW). He said that after extensive discussions with representatives of CHW and consultation with experts he could not verify that CHW will provide healthcare in a manner consistent with authentic Catholic teaching.  The bishop said the revocation would remain in effect until he was convinced that CHW would adhere to the ERDs.

Previously, the bishop had announced that a sister who worked with the Ethics Committee at the hospital had been automatically excommunicated because of her involvement in authorizing the performance of a direct abortion at the hospital in November 2009. In a letter to CHW dated Nov. 22, 2010, the bishop warned CHW that he would revoke St. Joseph's Catholic status unless CHW agreed to acknowledge that this abortion had been performed in violation of the ERDs, submit to a review and certification process to ensure compliance with the ERDs, and provide a formation program on the ERDs for the medical staff.

Unfortunately, CHW did not agree to these requirements.

And their response to Bishop Olmsted's decree was also disconcerting: They rejected any implication of wrongdoing with respect to the abortion, and indicated that they would not change any of their policies, operations or procedures. Moreover, the Catholic Health Association (CHA) issued a press release with a statement by its CEO, Sister Carol Keehan, supporting St. Joseph's action and characterizing the abortion as permissible under the ERDs.

In "Diagnosis Critical: The Urgent Threats Confronting Catholic Healthcare," Nelson explores the pressure mounting on Catholic medical institutions and healthcare workers as they struggle to uphold their faith in an industry that is confronting new bioethical dilemmas every year.

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