Catholic leaders stress 'moral urgency' of plight of the uninsured

Published: 2006-04-28

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- At an event in Detroit for last year's Cover the Uninsured Week, Mercy Sister Mary Ellen Howard spoke about what it's like at the St. Frances Cabrini Clinic of Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church, which she directs. "The telephone at Cabrini Clinic never stops ringing," she said. "And it's story after story of despair." A year later, the situation hasn't gotten much better for the uninsured in Detroit -- or any other U.S. city, for that matter. The "magnitude and moral urgency" of the problems facing nearly 46 million uninsured Americans call Catholics to respond "with compassion and a commitment to justice," two Catholic leaders said in a letter for the 2006 Cover the Uninsured Week May 1-7. Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, N.Y., chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Domestic Policy, and Sister Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity who is president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, asked for support for the initiative, now in its fourth year, in a joint letter April 20.

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