“Health care seems to be the fault line developing between the bishops and within wider society,” said the Rev. Steven Avella, a Catholic priest and professor of religious history at Marquette University in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, an Oregon bishop terminated the church affiliation of a large medical center, saying it had abandoned Catholic ethical guidelines. In April, the bishop of Providence, R.I., demanded that the state’s only Catholic hospital quit the CHA over the group’s support of the health care bill.<\/p>\n
Rusty Reno, a senior editor at the conservative Catholic journal First Things, said such conflicts are likely to continue as Catholic health care follows the lead of its secular counterparts.<\/p>\n
“The bishops recognize they have a problem, which is that you have a health care system that calls itself Catholic, but refuses to conform to Catholic principles,” he said.<\/p>\n