Showdown Near the OK Corral?

This may (repeat: may) become the showdown case between the Catholic Church and the ACLU.

The American Civil Liberties Union has attacked Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix after news broke this week that the bishop had taken further steps against a Catholic hospital that had performed a direct abortion.

Reacting to the latest clash, Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said the staff of the St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center “did the right thing” by killing an unborn child late last year to avert aggravation of the mother’s pulmonary hypertension.

The Bishop of Phoenix disagrees with the ACLU--and the hospital.

...Bishop Olmsted had offered an ultimatum to the hospital’s parent company in order to keep their official Catholic status. The bishop said the hospital would have to backtrack on its endorsement of the abortion, submit to a diocesan review, and agree to ongoing staff training on the U.S. bishops’ Ethical and Religious Directives.

Should the hospital not comply, it would still be able to call itself “Catholic,” but the diocese would officially renounce the facility and priests would no longer be permitted to conduct Mass there.

Interesting that it could still call itself "Catholic."

Oh well. Maybe Doc Holliday will ride again.