I called up the Catholic Health Association (CHA) yesterday. I
wanted to nail down the exact compensation figures for some of its
executives, including the salary and benefits of Sister Obamacare,
also known as Daughter of Charity nun Carol Keehan, who last week
helped Barack Obama engineer his latest con job — the bogus
conscience “compromise” designed to hoodwink Catholics into voting
for his reelection.
As it has been widely reported, Obama conferred with
Sister Keehan before his announcement last Friday. Then, lo and
behold, she praised his revision as an inspiring resolution to the
thorny issue of “religious freedom” soon after the sham event
concluded.
So let’s get down to brass tacks. How much is Sister
Keehan worth for such political interventions? The checkered
Catholic hospitals Keehan represents as chief executive officer of
the Catholic Health Association stand to receive gobs and gobs of
cash from the federal government if Obamacare holds up past 2012.
Consequently, the members of the association are more than happy to
pony up huge salaries to executives skilled at manipulating the
Catholic electorate for Obama.
Keehan is worth $962,467 to them in total salary and
benefits, according to the Schedule J (Form 990) 2010 document sent
to me by CHA. Theoretically, this is paid to the nun’s order,
though CHA adds an intriguing caveat to its compensation
figures:
The descriptions below provide an overview of the composition of
the five compensation figure columns (B, C, D, E and F). Note that
for Sisters Carol Keehan and Patricia Talone and for Father Tom
Nairn, all amounts in column B, except for certain fringe benefits
included in column (B)(iii), were paid to their respective
orders.
In other words, not all the money goes to their religious
orders. What are these “certain fringe benefits” to which the
caveat refers? I didn’t get a comprehensible answer from CHA. But
its spokesman assured me that these “certain fringe benefits”
weren’t large. Maybe the Wall Street Journal should drill
down into the numbers.
According to the form, base compensation for “Daughters of
Charity for Sr. Keehan” was $682,982. “Bonus and incentive
compensation” was $136,000. “Other reportable compensation” —
which is the (B)(iii) to which the caveat refers — was $131,888.
Nontaxable benefits were $11,597. All this adds up to salary and
benefits totaling $962,467.
Presumably, her 2011 salary and benefits will exceed $1
million, if the past is any measure. (Her 2009 salary and benefits
fell in the $850,000 range.)
It turns out that left-wing “Catholic Social Justice” is a
good career move. Sister Talone, to which the caveat refers above,
pulls down for the Sisters of Mercy “$416,623” in total
compensation, while Fr. Nairn’s order, the Franciscan Friars,
snatched $194,947.
Who knew that lobbying for the corporal works of mercy
paid so well? Of course, the dirty little secret of secularized
“non-profit” Catholic hospitals is that they rake in enormous
profits. Hence, some of its executives garner salaries/benefits
north of $9 million. Obamacare will release another avalanche of
federal government cash with which to feather their
nests.
“For where your treasure is, your heart will be also,”
said Jesus Christ. A pedestrian reduction of the Son of God’s
saying is: Follow the money.
But say this at least for Sister Obamacare: she displays
gumption that the waffling U.S. bishops lack. She still wears the
pants in the clerical family.
She spun Obama’s “compromise” effortlessly, while the
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) was caught
flatfooted. In his tiresomely inane and people-pleasing way, USCCB
president Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan initially praised
Obama’s con job as a first “step in the right direction.” This gave
the White House nearly a day of good publicity with which to
confuse Catholics.
“Encouraging” words from the USCCB, declared CNN’s Wolf
Blitzer last Friday. Other networks and newspapers soon followed
with rosy reports that blared, “USCCB: Obama compromise a ‘step in
the right direction.’”
Later that Friday, the USCCB issued a new statement
pronouncing Obama’s revision “unacceptable.” But the damage was
already done.
Keehan must chuckle at the cluelessness and doctrinal
timidity of the bishops. The USCCB still can’t decide if “Catholic”
pols whipping the Church in America on issues like abortion and gay
marriage should be denied Communion. This is too tough a call for
the USCCB, so no uniform policy exists. (In a typical comment from
the USCCB crowd, Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C. has said
that he won’t withhold Communion from Nancy Pelosi, as that “style”
of confrontation makes him uncomfortable.)
While the bishops dither, Keehan ruthlessly organizes the
Little Sisters of Leftism for Obama’s reelection. Her task is a
little trickier this year but she could still pull it
off.
In 2008, many bishops, priests, and nuns voted for Obama
and they probably will again. At the end of the day, they are
Democrats first and Catholics second. Besides, they agree with
Obama on issues like birth control. They, too, view the Church’s
teachings as passé.
Indeed, Saul Alinsky couldn’t have organized Obama’s Fifth
Column within the Church any better than Sister Keehan and
company.
“Obama is not a pro-abortion president,” Giovanni Maria
Vian, editor of L’Osservatore Romano, said a while back,
while former papal household theologian Cardinal Georges Cottier
congratulated Obama for his “humble realism.”
Catholic Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne,
who got Keehan’s memo and is back on the team (not that he was ever
off it) after Obama’s “compromise,” enjoys seeing traditional
Catholics in America get their wires crossed with ostensible allies
at the USCCB and Vatican. The “Vatican clearly views Obama through
a broader prism,” said Dionne after the remarks of Vian and
Cottier.
Santa Fe Archbishop Michael Sheehan told the openly
heretical National Catholic Reporter that he supported
Notre Dame’s decision to confer an honorary degree upon Barack
Obama and could not understand the “big scene” of protests about
it. Asked by NCR if other bishops agreed with him, he
replied, “Of course, the majority.”
He declared that “we don’t want to isolate ourselves from
the rest of America by our strong views on abortion and the other
things.”
The rise of the Tea Party frankly scares these bishops.
Nervous headlines they didn’t dare run in their diocesan newspapers
after the election of Barack Obama suddenly appeared after the
House Dems got clocked in November of 2010. Catholic San
Francisco ran a headline after the election that read: “Social
Justice Agenda in Jeopardy in US.”
America magazine, the Jesuit journal
of dissent, also found the Tea Party-inspired results troubling.
Steve Schneck, director of the Institute for Policy Research &
Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America, wrote in a
piece on its website that the Church’s “years of efforts in America
to support public policies that reflect its moral vision were dealt
a blow Tuesday evening.”
No doubt Obama will reassemble his “Catholic advisory
committee” and continue to generate donations from Catholic
colleges and universities. Last time around, the faculty at Jesuit
Georgetown led all college faculties, religious and non-religious,
in donations to Obama.
Several Jesuit schools joined Keehan in praising Obama for
his HHS “compromise,” which was awfully big of them since they
never needed it in the first place, given that they already hand
out condoms and contraceptives to their students.
Obama’s 2008 Catholic advisory committee included such
national co-chairs as Sr. Jamie Phelps, OP, professor of theology
at Xavier University, and Sr. Catherine Pinkerton with the
Congregation of St. Joseph. Surely, his 2012 one will be chaired by
an even worthier champion — Sister Keehan, the Daughter of Charity
worth close to a million bucks a year.
