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We just posted a story about Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted's ultimatum to St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center: Follow my orders or lose my endorsement.
Mike Clancy, a reporter for The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, broke the story yesterday. He subsequently agreed to write a story for us. We didn't rush to post the story, because we wanted to see if we could get deeper into the story after the initial flurry that inevitably follows the breaking of a story like this.
As the story stands now, the outcome is very uncertain. Watch the Web site over the next days to see what plays out.
I've found two intelligent commentaries of what has transpired:
Over on the Commonweal blog, Lisa Fullam, associate professor of moral theology at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, urges the hospital to call Olmsted's bluff and "and let the canonical chips fall where they may."
Over on Bold Faith Type, John Gehring suggests that Olmsted should reconsider his ultimatum: