‘Catholic’ hospital admits abortions and vasectomies continuing, priest says

by Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

• BARCELONA, October 24, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Despite orders from Cardinal Archbishop Lluís Martínez Sistach and continuing protests, Barcelona’s Holy Cross and Saint Paul (Santa Creu i Sant Pau) Hospital continues to do abortions, according to Rev. Custodio Ballester, a Barcelona priest who recently discussed the matter with a member of the hospital’s board of directors.

Ballester says that on September 6 he had a meeting with Msgr. Josep Forcada, a priest who serves on the hospital’s governing board, called the “Very Illustrious Administration” (MIA).  According to Ballester, “Fr. Forcada recognized that for more than ten years there have been, above all, eugenic abortions of embryos with deformities and Down Syndrome, although there have been other reasons as well.”

In addition, says Fr Ballestra, Forcada, who is one of three priests on the five-member board, “also recognized that, in spite of the order that the Very Illustrious Administration has given to the Medical Management to not practice abortions, they continue and will continue to carry out abortions in case of ‘danger to the health of the mother”.

The “health of the mother” is an amorphous concept often used to justify abortions in a wide variety of circumstances, including the mere presence of an illness at the same time as the pregnancy.

“Fr. Forcada had no other remedy than to recognize that one cannot trust the same medical professionals who have been deceiving them for more than ten years with these immoral practices,” according to Ballester.

The hospital’s Chief of Gynecology, whom Ballester says is “a public defender and promoter of abortion in its various forms,” is also doing vasectomies and tubal ligations in the hospital, according to Ballester, who says that Fr. Forcada admitted that the topic “hasn’t yet been addressed” by the board.

The hospital is only one of serveral in the Barcelona area that are accused of performing abortions and sterilizations despite their historic identities as Catholic hospitals and their connection to the dioceses of Barcelona and Terrassa. They include the Hospital of Granollers, the Sant Joan de Déu (Saint John of God) de Esplugues de Llobregat Hospital, which is run by the Saint John of God order, and the the Sant Celoni (Saint Celedonius) Hospital.

The St. Andrew’s Cross (Cruz de San Andres) Association will continue its monthly protest outside of the Holy Cross and Saint Paul Hospital on the 25th of October, at 8:30 pm at the hospital’s entrance, which is at the intersection of Sant Antoni María Claret 167 and Cartagena, at the end of Gaudi Avenue. Following the protest, demonstrators will march in a Rosary procession to the Holy Family Basilica.