“Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services,” a document created by the U.S. Catholic bishops with “authoritative guidance” for Catholic health care, stipulates that a “Catholic health care institution must treat its employees respectfully and justly,” including providing “just compensation and benefits.”
While Catholic bishops have devoted time and attention to enforcing the directives’ guidance on abortion and creating new guidance on transgender health care, they have rarely publicly spoken up when Catholic health systems have been accused of mistreating their employees or failing poor patients.
In January, a nurses’ union report raised concerns that another Catholic health giant, Ascension, was closing labor and delivery units at higher rates than all U.S. hospitals, with closures in poorer neighborhoods and Black and Latino communities. More than 15 U.S. Catholic bishops did not respond or declined requests for comment on that report from RNS.
This article originally appeared here.
