Washington D.C., Jan 18, 2010 / 16:43 pm
Massachusetts Senate hopeful Martha Coakley has come under fire recently for her comments that Catholics who oppose emergency contraception shouldn't work in emergency rooms. Analyzing the remarks in an article this past Saturday, one political commentator said her “No Catholics Need Apply” mentality is a “genuine threat to American freedom.”
Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor of the National Review Online, criticized Coakley's statements in a column on Saturday and examined what she believes to be their far-reaching consequences.
Lopez's article focused on the history and involvement of Catholics in health care, citing the Sisters of Providence as an example. In 1858, Mother Joseph and her sisters traveled some 6,000 miles from Montreal with tools in hand and literally built St. Joseph Hospital, the first permanent hospital in the Northwest, said Lopez. She also stated that similar stories about America's first hospitals, orphanages and schools “abound.”
“If Democrat Martha Coakley is elected to the U.S. Senate on Tuesday as the elected successor to Edward M. Kennedy, she might eventually encounter the statue of Mother Joseph that stands in National Statuary Hall,” Lopez said.