NC Register...asks who speaks for the Church...Bishops or Sr. Keehan....

Now this is getting really interesting. It appears that there may be some internal conflict within CHA if Sr. Carol Keehan is acting with board approval or as an individual. This article outlines the issues well.  

Sister Keehan was consulted ahead of the announcement by Obama of the "accommodation, but not the US Council of Catholic Bishops. So she greeted the announced accommodation with enthusiasm which was gleefully reported on the White House blog. The Bishops who had not been privy to the announcement in advance expressed "polite but wary "response until further study.  As an aside, the WH blog originally reported the support of Catholic Charities but CC has disputed that claim  and  I don't see a correction on the blog.

“Obama has made clear who is part of his ideological coalition and who is not. Discussions on the structure and restructuring of the contraceptive policy were conducted between the administration and pro-choice and feminist groups. The institutions targeted by the mandate — particularly those represented by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops — were not in the room,” stated Michael Gerson in a column published in The Washington Post today.

“The administration engaged in no substantive consultation with Catholic bishops, who were only called to receive pronouncements. Interest-group liberalism is alive and well in the Obama White House,” Gerson wrote.

Update: Head of CHA does still support HHS accomodation per media spokesperson...Sr. Keehan No Longer Supports HHS Mandate “Accommodation” | Women of Grace

 Update:  Apparently this letter was written before the mandate was announced and per CHA media spokesman  Fred Cesear answered my querry with this:

Good morning. To follow-up to your phone message, our news release statement of February 10 continues to be our statement of record ( http://www.chausa.org/Pages/Newsroom/Releases/2012/Catholic_Health_Association_is_Very_Pleased_with_Todays_White_House_Resolution_that_Protects_Religious_Liberty_and_Conscience_Rights/  . As for the message we posted February 13 ( http://www.chausa.org/Pages/About_CHA/Presidents_Page/HHS_Mandate/ ), our members wanted links to the actual documents and to hear we were working closely as the regs were developed and that is why we posted the links with that message. Also, the article posted at http://www.chausa.org/Something_has_to_be_fixed.aspx appeared in the February 15 printed version of Catholic Health World. The actual statement was posted on February 10.

Sr. Keehan No Longer Supports HHS Mandate “Accommodation” | Women of Grace

Catholics blogs push for hierarchies to remain true to church doctrine

 These two Catholic blogs show the extent of the pressure within the Church over the life issue. Good for these people holding the line and keeping their theological feet to the fire. As for Sister Keehan and CHA they probably are just getting the message that they were used but still are not ready to accept it. Sister Keehan shown in pix received one of Obama's pens upon the passage of Obamacare. She may be wondering if the pen was worth it.

Catholic Vote notes that Catholic Healthcare Association and notably Sr. Carol Keehan, who publicly supported Obamacare's passage is expressing "concern over the narrow scope of the conscience exception in the mandate." She is still denying that abortifacients are covered. CV points out her flawed thinking is at odds  with Church doctrine.

Lisa Graas writes an open letter to the Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of the Archdiocese of Louisville opposing the proposed merger of Catholic, Jewish and University hospital systems in Louisville and other Kentucky cities pointing out that he dean the faculty of U of L states that they "will continue to perform abortions while also having privileges at the hospital."