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I’m Michael Hichborn, and this is the American Life League Report.
Ever since Bishop Olmsted of Phoenix, Arizona announced that Sr. Margaret McBride had excommunicated
herself for authorizing an abortion at a Catholic hospital, uninformed and dissident Catholics
have engaged in a smear campaign against the good bishop.
For instance, The National Catholic Reporter, which is hardly Catholic by the way, published
no less than 8 articles attacking Bishop Olmsted, with such headlines as,
“The saintly Sr. Margaret - and her episcopal detractor,” and “Ethicists fault bishop’s
action in Phoenix abortion case.” Perhaps one of their most damaging articles was titled,
"Shades of grey in a world of apparent absolutes,” by Father Thomas P Doyle. In the article,
Fr. Doyle twists the facts of the case and tries to focus so much on the particulars
he ignores the most basic element of the case. Sr. Margaret McBride authorized the direct
and intentional killing of a completely innocent and defenseless human being.
Here are the facts. Last December, a 27 year old mother went to St. Joseph’s Hospital
and Medical Center looking for help because she was 11 weeks pregnant and suffering pulmonary
hypertension, a potentially deadly condition. However, instead of working to save both patients,
the hospital Ethics committee, which is headed by Sr. McBride, concluded that an abortion
was a good and moral option. And once the decision to kill the baby was made, Sr. McBride
put her name on the execution order.
Writing for the Jesuit-Run America Magazine, Fr. James Martin, published a hit-piece against
Bishop Olmsted titled, “Kaveny on Abortion.” Cathy Kavney is a Notre Dame Law and Theology
Professor, who incredibly said,
“I think it is likely that what took place wasn’t an abortion in the sense the procedure
is prohibited by Catholic moral teaching. It was a surgical separation of mother from
baby, with the foreseen, terrible, and unwanted side effect of causing the baby’s death.”
What a total perversion of the truth! We know from reports that this was a surgical abortion.
The baby was the direct target of the surgery, where she was murdered, torn to pieces and
ripped from her mother’s womb. Once Bishop Olmsted heard about the abortion
in one of his Catholic hospitals, he met with Sr. McBride, who confirmed to him that she
had indeed approved the abortion, causing her own AUTOMATIC excommunication.
One of the most basic precepts of Catholic moral teaching is that no one may do evil
so that good may come of it. In other words, the ends can never justify the means. Pope
Pius XII said in 1951, “To save the life of the mother is a most noble end, but the
direct killing of the child as a means to this end is not licit.” Furthermore, Canon
1398 of the Code of Canon Law makes it clear. “A person who procures a completed abortion
incurs an automatic excommunication.” Because the excommunication is automatic, all the
articles and hit pieces accusing Bishop Olmsted of excommunicating Sr. McBride are entirely
baseless. Here’s why:
Suppose Sr. McBride is climbing up a rope to grace. As she is climbing, she pulls out
a knife and cuts the rope above her. Bishop Olmsted finds Sr. McBride on the ground, examines
the rope and the knife, and informs her that she has cut herself off from grace, and then
explains what she must do in order to re-establish that connection.
This case can’t be any clearer … Bishop Olmsted did NOT impose the penalty of excommunication
on Sr. McBride. Just as one is cut from the life of grace through a mortal sin, Sr. McBride
cut herself from the Church by committing an automatically excommunicable offense.
So because dissident Catholics are attacking this bishop's good name, American Life League
launched a letter of support for Bishop Olmsted, gathering the signatures of faithful Catholics
around the world. The individuals signing this letter pledge their support for Bishop
Olmsted’s faithful defense of Church teaching to accomplish his primary task — which is
the salvation of souls in his diocese.
Bishop Olmsted reminds us that the *** of an innocent preborn baby is at the center
of this horror, and strikes at the very core of the Gospel of life.
Please stand with us and support Bishop Olmsted by adding your signature to our open letter.
Go to supportolmsted.com, and let him know that he has your prayers and support.
For American Life League, I’m Michael Hichborn.