Misleading Headline of the Day: 'Catholic nuns urge passage of Obama's health bill'

This piece of duplicitous propaganda courtesy of the Associated Press. The intent of this, obviously, is to make you believe all Catholic nuns support ObamaCare.

Some 60 leaders of religious orders representing 59,000 Catholic nuns Wednesday sent lawmakers a letter urging them to pass the Senate health care bill. It contains restrictions on abortion funding that the bishops say don't go far enough.

The letter says that "despite false claims to the contrary, the Senate bill will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions." The letter says the legislation also will help support pregnant women and "this is the real pro-life stance."

This is a lie, of course, not to mention three month old "news".

In an apparent split with Roman Catholic bishops over the abortion-financing provisions of the proposed health care overhaul, the nation’s Catholic hospitals have signaled that they back the Senate’s compromise on the issue, raising hopes of breaking an impasse in Congress and stirring controversy within the church.

I guess a rehash from late December is all part of the AP's advocacy journalism effort on behalf of their bosses in the Democratic Party. Then, as now, Catholic bishops hit back hard.

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), hit back hard Monday against the Catholic Health Association’s (CHA) endorsement of the abortion-expanding health care bill.

George’s statement came only days after CHA president Sr. Carol Keehan issued a letter to lawmakers urging them to “move quickly to enact health care reform,” and the same day that Keehan characterized the legislation as “a major first step” — despite not being “perfect” on life issues.

The Chicago cardinal emphasized that, while bishops support health care reform as such, they “were left disappointed and puzzled” when the Senate bill, which lacked the hard-won abortion funding ban of the House bill, emerged as the only bill considered for final passage.

George pointed out the slew of flaws that the U.S. bishops find “deeply disturbing” in the Senate health bill, including its lack of conscience protections, [lack of] Hyde-amendment protections against federal abortion funding, and the millions in new funds for Community Health Centers which will be available to fund abortions.

“It expands federal funding and the role of the federal government in the provision of abortion procedures,” he explained. “In so doing, it forces all of us to become involved in an act that profoundly violates the conscience of many, the deliberate destruction of unwanted members of the human family still waiting to be born.”

The cardinal directly disagreed with the Catholic Health Association’s favorable assessment of the bill.

“This analysis of the flaws in the legislation is not completely shared by the leaders of the Catholic Health Association,” stated George. “They believe, moreover, that the defects that they do recognize can be corrected after the passage of the final bill. The bishops, however, judge that the flaws are so fundamental that they vitiate the good that the bill intends to promote.

“Assurances that the moral objections to the legislation can be met only after the bill is passed seem a little like asking us, in Midwestern parlance, to buy a pig in a poke.”

Naturally the AP ignores objections of millions of Catholics and the bishops. But the damage is done and all you see and hear on the news is that "Catholic nuns" support ObamaCare.

Sr. Keehan was exposed at Big Journalism the other day. Naturally the media ignore the inconvenient facts.

You see, the Catholic Health Association is a for-profit company that works for some Catholic hospitals as a sort of trade association. It isn’t part of the Church nor does it represent any official group of religious Catholics, nor does it serve as a source of Catholic teachings.

The truth is that CHA chief Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity nun, is paid around $800,000 a year to advocate for this trade association, not the Catholic Church. She is not an altruist like nearly every other member of the actual Church that serves in an official capacity.
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So, readers are left thinking that “Catholic hospitals” are in support of Obamacare yet are never informed of the capacity in which this Catholic hospital group serves Catholics… or rather doesn’t serve Catholics. And why is this so important right now? We all know that this coming week will find Obamacare facing a crucial and perhaps final push. This report is meant to help Obamacare pass. Plain and simple.

And, shock of shocks, Keehan has links to--wait for it--SEIU.

Yesterday at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick led a conference call to release a document called "Respecting the Just Rights of Workers: Guidance and Options for Catholic Health Care and Unions." For several years, McCarrick led a working group on the text that included such labor heavyweights as John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO, and Dennis Rivera, Chair of SEIU Healthcare. Sister Carol Keehan, President and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, was also a central player in the negotiations.

As far back as a year ago Keehan was attending health care reform meetings at the White House. But we're supposed to believe her endorsement of ObamaCare today is earthshaking news.

Update: To no surprise, a bunch of lib stooges trumpets this as big news.