Bishop Tells Pro-Life Democrat: Nuns Can’t Absolve ObamaCare Vote

From LifeSiteNews:

EVANSVILLE, Indiana, March 30, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Catholic nuns cannot absolve U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-Ind.) for voting for the Senate’s health care reform bill and failing to protect the sanctity of life, says Ellsworth’s own bishop.

Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger of Evansville went after Ellsworth, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, and other “skitterish” pro-life politicians for using the statements of Network, a pro-abortion "social justice" lobby of Catholic nuns, and the Catholic Health Association to “digress and absolve themselves from the constant position of the bishops of this country of which I am one!”

Gettlefinger said the statements of Network and the Catholic Health Association were both “divisive” and either “beclouded ‘skitterish’ pro-life politicians or gave them a cloud to hide under,” including Ellsworth.

“In recent months I have worked very closely and personally with Congressman Ellsworth. However, he has not been in touch with me even after my effort to encourage him to ‘stay the course’ with the USCCB on this last vote,” said the Evansville bishop.

“I am personally and greatly disappointed in Congressman Ellsworth in the published report that he, instead, ‘hung his apology’ on the published positions of Network and the Catholic Health Association,” said Gettlefinger. “In doing so, Congressman Ellsworth excused himself by sidestepping the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops who have worked exceedingly hard with him on these very critical moral matters."

“In any case, let us pray for Congressman Ellsworth and all in the political arena elected on our behalf to protect the life of the unborn and the poor!” the bishop concluded.

Dozens of other U.S. Catholic bishops, in agreement with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, have condemned the health care reform legislation that passed March 21 for unleashing federal abortion funding, and lacking adequate conscience protection provisions for pro-life health care professionals...

[More]

(emphasis added)

My Comments:
This particular Bishop is hardly some "right-winger" either.

(Hat tip: PewSitter.com)


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Evansville Bishop Won't Attend Pro-Life Banquet with GOP's Steele as Speaker