Clarity is Part of the Best Charity

Catholic medical ethics puts Deuteronomy 30:11-20 into action by putting clarity into charity.

I have long been concerned about the witness of Catholic health care (cf. Our God Loves Us, American Life League, 6/16/12) because of its lack of clarity. “Catholics and non-Catholics need to know the liberating beauty of Catholic medical ethics. Absolute respect for the sanctity of human life and the sanctity of the transmission of human life MUST be at the center of anything we dare call ‘health care.’ This is a call to which we must continually and continuously return” (Catholic Stand, Catholic Medical Ethics: Respect for the Sanctity of [Human] Life, 9/30/21).

The Clarity of Charity

Scripture has long given us clear guidance on the need for clarity in charity:

For this command which I am giving you today is not too wondrous or remote for you.

It is not in the heavens, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to the heavens to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may do it?’

Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may do it?’

No, it is something very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.

See, I have today set before you life and good, death and evil.

If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I am giving you today, loving the LORD, your God, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and ordinances, you will live and grow numerous, and the LORD, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

If, however, your heart turns away and you do not obey, but are led astray and bow down to other gods and serve them,

I tell you today that you will certainly perish; you will not have a long life on the land which you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live,

by loving the LORD, your God, obeying his voice, and holding fast to him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land which the LORD swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them (Deuteronomy 30: 11-20).

The basics of Catholic Medical Ethics are “not too wondrous or remote” but “very near” requiring us to just do the right thing.

Acting Like We Need Someone to “Go Up to the Heavens”

Per the current edition of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (2019):

Catholic health care services will encounter requests for medical procedures contrary to the moral teachings of the Church. Catholic health care does not offend the rights of individual conscience by refusing to provide or permit medical procedures that are judged morally wrong by the teaching authority of the Church.

Accordingly, the Lepanto Institute is calling for the nation’s largest Catholic health network, CommonSpirit Health, to be immediately stripped of its Catholic identity for engaging in practices utterly defiant of Catholic Medical Ethics. St. Francis Memorial Hospital of San Francisco is part of CommonSpirit Health’s subsidiary, Dignity Health.

Lepanto’s report shows that the hospital performs so-called sex change operations, provides transgender “services” (and to cover such in employee health plans), and conducts surgical sterilizations. Not denying such, the Archdiocese of San Francisco counters that the hospital falls under a Catholic umbrella but is not Catholic itself (cf. Hospital doing transgender surgeries is not Catholic, San Fran archdiocese says, The Pillar 6/14/23).

The archdiocese is also reported to have cited an alleged lack of clarity in the current ERDs as to why St. Francis Memorial Hospital would be engaging in immoral practices. As noted by the Pillar:

The U.S. bishops’ Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services document recognizes the possibility of partnerships with non-Catholic entities, but also gives guidelines for assessing such partnerships….collaborative arrangement that in all other respects is morally licit may need to be refused because of the scandal that might be caused or because the Church’s witness might be undermined (6/14/23).

The response from the Archdiocese of San Francisco reminds me of “Three Card Monte” from the streets of NYC. And despite the recent Doctrinal Note on the Moral Limits to Technological Manipulation of the Human Body (USCCB 3/20/23), the USCCB only voted in their June 2023 meeting to start working on an update to the ERDs. In a further delaying move worthy of Pontius Pilate, it was reported that, “The archbishop of Newark, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, urged the committee to consult a wide range of experts during the drafting process, ‘including people who are from the trans community’” (America, 6/16/23).

“This Command….is Something Very Near to You.” So, Speak Clearly & “Carry a Big Stick”

Catholic clergy and other Catholic adults urgently need to speak clearly and forcefully on transgenderism as it is a source of tremendous confusion, particularly for the young. This is not yet happening. For example, Male, Female, Other? : A Catholic Guide to Understanding Gender strikes me as falling into an unfortunate trap of not speaking plainly and strongly.

To paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt, we need to speak clearly and carry a big stick (i.e., no apologies or “namby pamby” approaches to proclaiming God’s Truth). Dioceses have a moral responsibility to follow the Catholic and Religious Directives, Scripture, and the Church’s teachings when dealing with Catholic hospitals and other hospitals that are in their network.