Catholics and Healthcare Reform
An Interview with Bishop Robert F. Vasa

In late October, Bishop Vasa sat down with Mike Sullivan to talk about healthcare. The two were attending the Catholic Medical Association’s annual conference; Bishop Vasa is the episcopal advisor for the CMA.

Following the interview, Bishop Vasa added, “I was asked what the most critical issues were, and while the issues I have touched on are certainly identified as the most critical, they are not by any means the only issues. Others include a faithful application of the Church social teaching, which the House bill does not necessarily properly represent, as well as the principle of subsidiarity. I know that my Catholic physician friends are very concerned about conscience rights, but they are also concerned about further government intrusion into the heart of the physician-patient relationship, which must be preserved and protected as the very cornerstone of any reform efforts.”

What is the most significant issue facing today’s Catholics regarding healthcare?

As we look at the healthcare bill as it is being discussed and debated, there are two major issues we look at in the Catholic Church. First, the life issues and whether or not abortion will be covered with federal dollars. That would certainly be offensive to any Catholic who recognizes and understands the need to preserve the dignity of human life. Any tax-funded healthcare plan absolutely cannot have any complicity in the evil and crime of abortion, because it’s clear that abortion is not health care. It simply is not, and it’s offensive to me as a Catholic bishop that there would be some consideration that abortion would be looked at as legitimate healthcare funded by the nation. That’s absolutely untenable, and every Catholic should recognize the conflict that puts them in.

The other issue, and it goes right along with abortion, is the need to preserve the conscience rights of heathcare workers. In the same way that we as Catholics should not be forced to have our tax dollars used to pay for abortions, so also physicians who maintain the sanctity of life should not be coerced into providing services which they, in the intimacy of their own hearts and in their relationship with God, recognize they cannot legitimately do. We respect the conscience rights of, I think, every religion, and we really should to the extent that we can, but somehow Catholic physicians, Christian physicians who have an opposition to contraception, to abortion, to assisted suicide, are in many ways marginalized and made to feel like they are out of step with the culture and that they have no right to follow their consciences on these matters.

We’re working to change the laws, legitimately, but we’re not violating their consciences when we are defending life, whereas they are violating our consciences when they tell us that we have no right to defend life and that we have to participate in the evil procedures which they are proposing.

So those two elements, in terms of the present healthcare debate—the right to life, the dignity of human life, and the right of healthcare workers to abstain from those procedures that they legitimately find morally offensive—are absolutely major elements.

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