Setting straight a wrong take on Catholic Church

Patricia Hershwitzky, Las Vegas

Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011 | 2:03 a.m.

Nicholas Kristof’s Saturday column, “Doctors versus doctrine,” falsely sets up division in the Catholic Church where none exists. Oh, there is rebellion and even refusal to accept truth as upheld for more than 2,000 years, but the devil has never succeeded in altering core Catholic teachings.

Moreover, while Kristof would like to equalize the National Catholic Reporter’s standing with the church’s papal seat, readers should know that this publication is most often at odds with the tenets of the Roman Catholic faith. A hospital, like St. Joseph’s, cannot perform abortions or any other procedures contrary to faith and remain “Catholic.”

Yet, there are three other concerns with this column.

First, who defines “humane,” and, maybe more important, for whom is it defined? According to Kristof, a mother of four would have died without an abortion at a Catholic hospital, but he does not offer any depth or supporting information to that assertion.

Kristof ignores Catholic teaching that permits the full treatment of a mother to save her life, even if a child in the womb perishes. However, this tragic death would be an undesired consequence of treatment, not an independent pre-emptive action.

Second, Kristof should choose his words, like excommunication, with greater prudence before sprinkling these and other hyperbolic charges throughout a column.

Third, Kristof ignored the very foundation of the Catholic Church. Following a public ministry that called for his followers to pick up and carry their crosses, Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper. Then he surrendered to a most ignominious death. The treasures of the Mass and the Eucharist cannot be housed at an abortion site no matter what else someone calls it.