http://www.onenewsnow.com/Church/Default.aspx?id=942230WASHINGTON - Catholic nuns are urging Congress to pass President Barack Obama's healthcare plan, in an unusual public break with bishops who say it would subsidize abortion.
Some 60 leaders of religious orders representing 59,000 Catholic nuns Wednesday sent lawmakers a letter urging them to pass the Senate healthcare bill. It contains restrictions on abortion funding that the bishops say don't go far enough.
However, Sister Simone Campbell says she and other nuns who signed the letter support the legislation because their analysis "indicates that there are adequate protections that maintain the status quo so that there is no federal funding of abortion."
The letter from the leaders says "despite false claims to the contrary, the Senate bill will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions." The letter adds that the legislation will help support pregnant women and says: "this is the real pro-life stance."
According to Campbell, the leaders' response is a "response to the gospel...not a response to what the bishops have said or what anybody else has said."
"Jesus, over and over in the Christian scriptures, responded to people who were in need of healing," she says. "That's what we're trying to do is follow that example."