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St. Joseph's Hospital's 30 Pieces of Silver

by Dr. Paul Ranalli
Published in Hamilton Spectator, April 26, 2001
Reprinted with the permission of Dr. Ranalli

Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked
--Bob Dylan, 1965

In September 1997, when public shock at President Bill Clinton's sex scandal with Monica Lewinsky was white-hot, would anyone have dreamed that one day, just weeks after his term of office expired, Clinton would be invited as the keynote speaker at a benefit for a Catholic hospital? In Hamilton no less?

And yet it has happened.

On May 2, over the objections of many concerned Catholics in this community, Bill Clinton will speak to an audience of a thousand $200-a-plate guests at a benefit for the Morgan Firestone Foundation, part of St. Joseph's Health Care.

Perhaps our sense of moral affront is simply dulled by the passage of time, yet the recent odiferous exit from the White House, tainted by the pardons scandal, serves as a sharp reminder that the deep character flaws embedded in William Jefferson Clinton do not change with time. Notoriety sells - the dinner speech is sold out - but what Catholic in this city thought they would ever live to witness their once-proud healing institution stoop to a level many would have once considered unthinkable?

The specific Catholic objection to Bill Clinton's appearance is that he is the most pro-abortion president in American history, and is manifestly proud of it. In twice vetoing Congressional bills limiting partial-birth abortion, which received broad bipartisan support in both Houses, Mr. Clinton revealed the radical nature of his abortion stance.

By thwarting the majority will of Americans concerned about this most heinous form of abortion, a procedure even many pro-choice advocates cannot stomach, Mr. Clinton is indirectly responsible, over the past five years, for several thousand cases of what has been termed by some as "legalized infanticide". It is not simply a matter of Mr. Clinton's "personal" beliefs: as president, he had the power to convert his own moral bias into tragic public policy, and did so. By his words and actions, Bill Clinton mocks the very heart of Catholic beliefs.

Many feel that St. Joseph's need not search around for an American flag with which to welcome Mr. Clinton on May 2; they could simply run up a hospital bedsheet, not to advertise health care, but to signify their surrender of morality to money. And where is the Catholic leadership on this? One can only guess, since both Sister Anne Anderson, president of St. Joseph's Healthcare, and Bishop Anthony Tonnos, who once criticized a visit by pro-choice New York Governor Mario Cuomo, appear to have gone to ground since the controversy broke. Bishop Tonnos is reported to have signed off on the Clinton visit over a year ago, and neither he nor Sr. Anderson have offered a direct response to press inquiries, or to the avalanche of letter and telephone protests from the anguished Catholic faithful.

Church members yearn for a more manifest show of leadership, knowing that an institution that no longer stands for something will fall for anything.

Even New York financial investment firms have displayed greater moral decisiveness: one cancelled its invitation to Mr. Clinton after the pardons scandal, while the chairman of the firm Morgan Stanley, flooded with e-mails critical of his hosting a speech by Mr. Clinton, admitted: "We clearly made a mistake."

Aside from abortion, the inappropriateness of a caring institution hosting Mr. Clinton goes further. Consider the quality of a man Mr. Clinton felt worthy of a full presidential pardon, fugitive tax cheat Marc Rich. In 1996, as his daughter lay dying of leukemia in a New York hospital bed, Mr. Rich confronted the choice of flying back, risking arrest, to see her one last time, or staying put in his Switzerland hideout, safe to continue living the high life of wealth and luxury. He chose the latter.

The public relations people at St. Joseph's Foundation have dealt with all of this by sticking to a shopworn set of talking points, claiming, plaintively, that Mr. Clinton is coming to speak on "global affairs".

Cathy Wellwood, director of development for St. Joseph's Healthcare Foundation, seemed exasperated when she implored the public to "not bring up all the dirt and crap that's in the past". Alas, a mischievous press will likely have different ideas, finding an irresistable angle in the incongruity, indeed the hypocrisy, of a Catholic hospital raking in the dollars by hosting a man whose position on the most contentious moral issue of our time can best be described as diametrically opposite to the Catholic view. Pro-choice supporters can take smug satisfaction as Clinton's visit entombs, in the minds of many, any residual pretense to a Catholic tradition of healing at St. Joseph's Hospital.

Even before the final take is counted, we know the value of funds raised by the upcoming St. Joseph's Clinton dinner: the modern Canadian equivalent of thirty pieces of silver.

Dr. Ranalli is a Toronto neurologist. He was born at St. Joseph's Hospital and raised in Hamilton.

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