Card. George Hearts Sr. Carol

by Michael Sean Winters

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During the health care debate, Cardinal George was a bit frosty towards the Catholic Health Association and its leader Sister Carol Keehan. But, in an interview with David Gibson over at Commonweal, Cardinal George had this to say:

"Sr. Carol Keehan is a very smart and a very dedicated lady. So she brings up things that are good for bishops to be aware of, because she’s much more involved in this. She understands insurance in ways that not many of us do, so what she says is very important.

But I think that there was a desire to create greater coverage that, at a certain moment, created a fissure between CHA and the bishops. But we’re in conversation and we’ll see where that continues to develop. Right now, the conversation is healthy.

The bigger conversation is between the CHA and the health-care industry as a whole. How are they going to maintain their Catholic identity in acute care, which is more and more under the control of the government and large insurance companies? Our ethos as Catholics doesn’t fit perfectly into either of those institutions, and that’s where the strain in CHA is going to be felt more than their difficulties with the bishops."

I hope that those who said truly nasty things about Sr. Carol (and tried to hide behind Cardinal George while doing it) will reconsider their position now. And, I recommend reading the entire interview: Whether you agree with him or not on any given issue, Cardinal George bristles with insight into the relationship of faith and culture in a way few bishops can do. There are not many bishops I would want to spend a few days with at a lonely destination with nothing but conversation to occupy the time, but George is one of them.

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