THE CASE OF THE CALLOUS BISHOP

Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Olmstead of the Diocese of Phoenix, Arizona, proved once again, that just because a man holds the title "Reverend" doesn't mean that he should be revered or is necessarily a person with a better than average understanding of the will of God. Two weeks ago, Olmstead stripped St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix of its support and affiliation with the Catholic Church because last fall the hospital permitted the termination of a woman's pregnancy in order to save the woman's life. Previously, he excommunicated a Catholic nun who was one of the hospital's administrators because of the same incident. In taking these actions, Bishop Olmstead demonstrated either incredible ignorance of the core message of Christ or a callous disregard thereof. In either case, he doesn't deserve the title of respect on his letterhead.

Some background of the situation is in order. Last fall, doctors at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix were treating a 27-year old woman for pulmonary hypertension. The woman was 11 weeks pregnant. Her condition was so grave that the doctors believed that she would die of heart failure if the pregnancy was not terminated, and the fetus would die with her because the woman's pregnancy was only in the 11th week and a fetus at that point could not survive on its own.

The St. Joseph Hospital's Ethical Board, which included the Catholic nun who was later excommunicated over the incident, reviewed the patient's condition and approved the doctors' actions because it believed that there was no other alternative for saving the patient's life. For Bishop Olmstead, that wasn't sufficient justification. I say: "Baloney!"

Bishop Olmstead ignored the core message of Christ's 'Good Samaritan' parable – that exercising compassion and rendering assistance to a neighbor in need is more important than rigid adherence to a religious belief. You see, the reason the priest and the Levite didn't stop to assist the half-dead robbery victim in Jesus' parable was because Jewish religious law considered the dead as so unclean that priests and Levites could not touch them. The people hearing Jesus' parable would have automatically understood that fact, so the Gospel writer didn't mention that part in the passage, but it is critical to a full understanding of the meaning of the parable. Jesus wasn't condemning the existence of the Jewish cleanliness law. He was criticizing the strict adherence to a religious principle in a situation that clearly called for human compassion.

Like the priest and the Levite in Christ's parable, Bishop Olmstead was more concerned with maintaining strict adherence to one of his Church's religious principles than he was for the pregnant woman's life. That pregnant woman's fetus was going to die, whether due to an abortion or due to the death of its mother. The only life salvageable was that of the pregnant woman, and the hospital took the steps they did to save her life.

Clearly, Bishop Olmstead didn't approve of that decision. Like the priest and the Levite in Christ's parable, he would have wiped his hands of the matter and left the woman to die. That's not following Christ. That's just being callous!