Not long ago, I wrote how the Catholic church said it was unwilling to take action against clergy who had molested children. It now seems, however, the Church is more than prepared to take action against a greater heresy: Saving the life of a pregnant woman. Recently Sister Margaret McBride of Phoenix, AZ was excommunicated by Bishop Olmsted for voting, as a member of the St. Joseph’s Hospital ethic committee, to allow a woman to receive an abortion to save her life. The woman, a mother of four, suffers from pulmonary hypertension, and it was determined that the continuation of the 11 week pregnancy endangered her life. In justifying the excommunication, the Bishop’s office explained, “The mother’s life cannot be preferred over the child’s.”
The Church’s position on abortion and life is well known, and it is pointless to try to debate faith with reason. Still, for an organization which seems to show so much compassion and forgiveness for ordained child molesters to deny Sister Margaret the sacraments and Christian fellowship seems beyond cruel. It has taken a difficult decision by the mother of four and Sister Margaret and applied a simple manichean template to it. The Church has abandoned any any notion of the individual conscience and has replaced it with dogmatic execution. In do so the Church has also abandoned any claim it may have on compassion, forgiveness, or humanity.
