Developments in Phoenix Hospital Controversy

Breaking news from Phoenix earlier this afternoon…

Phoenix Diocese Strips St. Joseph’s Hospital of Catholic Status.

The decree by Bishop Olmsted can be found here.

Video of Bishop Olmsted’s press conference can be found here.

The hospital’s first response is here.

The National Catholic Reporter has more details here.

The relevant canon in church law that Bishop Olmsted based his decision on is Canon 216: “Since they participate in the mission of the Church, all the Christian faithful have the right to promote or sustain apostolic action even by their own undertakings, according to their own state and condition. Nevertheless, no undertaking is to claim the name Catholic without the consent of competent ecclesiastical authority.” (if my Canon Law professor is reading this, this atones for the numerous errors on my final exam). 

From the NCR report…

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix has declared that St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, located in the diocese, can no longer call itself a Catholic hospital because of a dispute over whether a procedure performed at the hospital last year was a direct abortion. “It is my duty to decree that, in the Diocese of Phoenix, at St. Joseph’s Hospital, CHW [Catholic Healthcare West] is not committed to following the teaching of the Catholic Church and therefore this hospital cannot be considered Catholic,” Olmsted said today in a news conference hosted by the diocese.

“The Catholic faithful are free to seek care or to offer care at St. Joseph’s Hospital but I cannot guarantee that the care provided will be in full accord with the teachings of the Church. In addition, other measures will be taken to avoid the impression that the hospital is authentically Catholic, such as the prohibition of celebrating Mass at the hospital and the prohibition of reserving the Blessed Sacrament in the Chapel.”