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WFF Statement
Letter to Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital Foundation Board of Governors from Women for Faith & Family
RE: Archbishop Raymond Burke's resignation -- Sheryl Crow Concert
April 27, 2007
Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital Foundation
Board of Governors
1465 South Grand Blvd.
Saint Louis, MO 63104
Dear Governors of Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital Foundation,
We are deeply dismayed that Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital’s long tradition of care for even the most disabled and vulnerable children was betrayed by its Foundation in the choice to showcase the singer Sheryl Crow at the benefit dinner. Ms. Crow is well-known for her vigorous and very public advocacy both of abortion and of embryonic stem-cell research. Her strong, though deeply misguided, stand for choosing death for “unwanted” and utterly defenseless children flies in the face of the most basic human moral beliefs; reflects a perverse reading of “women’s rights” that finds unborn children expendable; and denies the intrinsic worth of embryonic human life — the first phase of development of each one of us.
It is incomprehensible to us that your decision-makers for this event (e.g., Allen Allred, Bob Costas) chose to undermine the hospital’s long history of service to children and their families (including many of our own) by insisting on this choice of entertainment to promote its work. It is even more incomprehensible that a hospital owned and operated by a Catholic institution, the Franciscan Sisters of Mary, is blind to the message this choice conveys, and to the effect this will have on the very community it serves.
We agree wholeheartedly with Archbishop Raymond Burke in his criticism of this choice by the Board of Governors, and who, as leader of the Catholic community in St. Louis, was compelled to voice opposition to your action — to the point of resigning as chairman of your Foundation’s Board. He was right, and we are grateful that he did not hesitate to say what is true.
It is deeply ironic, also, that your decision openly conflicts with the Cardinal Glennon Hospital’s own commitment and long tradition of reverence for all human life, and the incalculable good the hospital has done for the countless children it has served throughout the years.
As an organization representing about 50,000 Catholic women and their families in the United States, we must protest.
Sincerely,
Helen Hull Hitchcock, President
Women for Faith & Family
WFF web site: http://www.wf-f.org
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