Catholic Healthcare West is under fire again — this time for awarding grants to various nonprofit groups — including two abortion businesses. This comes after a Catholic bishop said the company was no longer faithfully Catholic.
CHW issued $1.2 million in grants or organizations in central California earlier this month, according to Father John Malloy, who conducted research into the grants earlier this month and posted the results at his blog. The grants include donations to Planned Parenthood and Women’s Health Specialists, both of which do abortions.
“On January 6, 2011, Catholic Healthcare West awarded nearly $1.2 million in grants to various nonprofit organizations in Sacramento, Placer, Yolo and Nevada counties,” Malloy says.
CHW, which has a history of promoting abortions, is represented in the Sacramento area by Mercy Hospitals and the grants came through the Capitol Community Health Network.
“The CCHN consists of 12 member clinics, all of which are listed on its website. They include Planned Parenthood Mar Monte and Women’s Health Specialists. Members of the CCHN Board of Directors include Shauna Heckert, who is also the Executive Director of Women’s Health Specialists and Deborah Ortiz, the Vice-President of Planned Parenthood Monte Mar,” Malloy said. “The services provided by Planned Parenthood are well known. Like Planned Parenthood, Women’s Health Specialists are pro-abortion activists.”
Father Malloy says CHW has quickly become a thorn in the side of pro-life Catholic efforts.
“Catholic Healthcare West is one of the largest members of the Catholic Health Association. On March 11, 2010 the CHA issued their now famous letter to congress supporting the passage of President Obama’s healthcare bill. The letter completely undercut the position of the Church, which insists that a healthcare bill that does not defend the right to life must be opposed,” he said. “While Sacramento’s good Bishop Jaime Soto attends the Walk for Life and encourages his pastors to bring their flocks, he gets knifed in his own backyard by a “Catholic” organization.”
The grant scandal follows a decision last month by Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix to strip one of the CHW member hospitals, St. Joseph’s of Phoenix, of its Catholic designation, following its decision to do a disputed abortion on a woman for whom her pregnancy supposedly threatened her life.
“Unfortunately, subsequent communications with leadership at St. Joseph’s Hospital and CHW have only eroded my confidence about their commitment to the Church’s Ethical and Religious Directives for Healthcare,” the Catholic leader said in a statement. “They have not addressed in an adequate manner the scandal caused by the abortion.”
Olmsted also said CHW and St. Joseph’s Hospital, as part of what is called “Mercy Care Plan”, have been engaging in abortions “due to the mental or physical health of the mother or when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.”
“This information was given to me in a meeting which included an administrator of St. Joseph’s Hospital who admitted that St. Joseph’s and CHW are aware that this plan consists in formal cooperation in evil actions which are contrary to Church teaching,” he added.
The plan has been in existence for 26 years, includes some 368,000 members, and its 2010 revenues will reach nearly $2 billion.
“In light of all these failures to comply with the Ethical and Religious Directives of the Church, it is my duty to decree that, in the Diocese of Phoenix, at St. Joseph’s Hospital, CHW is not committed to following the teaching of the Catholic Church and therefore this hospital cannot be considered Catholic,” Bishop Olmsted said.
