Bishop Jenky Rejects Catholic Tribunal Court

 

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Bishop Jenky's Threat

February 2003

As explained in another post, I met with Monsignor Rohlfs and Patricia Gibson on February 19, 2003, two weeks after Haitian Hearts meeting with Bishop Jenky. Both Rohlfs and Gibson said that they would go to the media and come out against Haitian Hearts if I filed a petition for a tribunal court against OSF. I couldn't understand why they were protecting bad behavior at OSF.

I told them I was going to petition for a tribunal court, left their office (Bishop Sheen Center) incredibly dismayed with the leadership of the Peoria Catholic Diocese, and walked down the street to the Chancery to make an appointment to speak with Bishop Jenky. I had been attempting to speak with the Bishop unsuccessfully for a year. His secretary, Fr. Jason Gray, had been denying me this opportunity. However, on February 19, Father Gray told me that I could have an appointment with Bishop Jenky the next day when I told him the topic--a tribunal court.

I showed up for my appointment with Bishop Jenky the next day at the Chancery. I could tell immediately that Bishop Jenky was not all that happy to see me. Patricia Gibson sat next to him. He told me that the day before was the first time he had heard that I wanted to file a petition for a tribunal court against OSF, even though I had been talking to Gibson and Rohlfs about this for 8 months. In fact, Gibson and Rohlfs even dictated a letter of petition that my brother transcribed in Rohlfs office in December, 2002. Why was Bishop Jenky just now hearing about this?

Bishop Jenky was aware of OSF's lack of respect for Haiti's children's lives as evidenced by Paul Kramer's call to the American Consulate in Haiti in December, 2002. In my opinion, this action was in opposition to what Catholic social teaching and OSF is all about. Bishop Jenky was also aware of OSF cutting all funding for Haitian Hearts children in July, 2002.

At the meeting I told Bishop Jenky about my concerns with OSF's action including their corrupt handling of pre-hospital care, Keith Steffen's comments to me in his office at OSF, the seeds of doubt that Steffen had spread in the Peoria area about my character. I asked Bishop Jenky what he would think if the same things were said about him. His eyes were very big and angry looking as he replied, "I would be mad as hell".

However, amazingly, Bishop Jenky said there would be no tribunal court against OSF and that he would not judge against OSF. He stated that OSF is a 1.6 billion dollar industry. It was very clear to me the power of OSF in the eyes of Bishop Jenky. He told me that he wore the red miter. He really wouldn't even listen to me regarding more specifics what the tribunal court would be about. He just assured me that there would be no tribunal court against OSF.

I concluded again that Bishop Jenky was very much afraid of OSF's power and their relationship with the business community in the Peoria area. Was OSF donating to the Diocese? It was at the start of the Diocesan Capital Campaign and he didn't want to imperil it any way. Bishop Jenky even told me that if I followed through with the petition for a tribunal court and Haitian Hearts fell apart, that I needed to return to him in one year and go to confession for the killing of 18 Haitian children. (I asked him to repeat this as I wrote down his comment.) I think he knew then that he would be the one withdrawing support for the Haitian kids, but needed someone to blame. He said several times, "This is not going to work..." (meaning his involvement in Haitian Hearts.)

I left the chancery fairly dejected, but it was another good learning experience for me regarding the corporate Catholic Church in the United States. I already knew the Diocese of Peoria had helped and sanctioned OSF's oral contraceptive policy, OSF-HealthPlans oral contraceptive and sterilization policies with OSF Corporate Ethicist Joe Piccione a decade before, policies which permit OSF to cooperate in the provision of artificial birth control, an action that clearly contradicts church teachings. Why? Because of money. OSF is afraid they would lose patients and important preferred provider agreements if they don't help provide birth control.

Bishop Jenky was definitely not interested in hearing about the Ethical and Religious Directives of the Catholic Bishops of the United States regarding health care and social justice.

(A tribunal is a "search for the truth". I was seeking Bishop Jenky's intervention for a moral and honest discussion with those involved. The truth would be discovered and justice would be served. I did not think that certain OSF physicians and OSF administrators had much of a chance in a court like this that would seek the truth. If a tribunal would become unavoidable even with the intercession of the Bishop, then an honest effort would have been made to follow Catholic Canon Law. Unfortunately, Bishop Jenky refused the possibility of a tribunal court against OSF.)

When I left the chancery in 2002 as I described above, I felt really let down. It seemed Bishop Jenky wouldn't listen like he should have. I know his responsibilities are huge and that the Catholic Church was never meant to be a democracy, but I expected him to consider what I was saying regarding a church tribunal against OSF, especially since Monsignor Rohlfs and Patricia Gibson had been very open to the idea for many months prior to my meeting with Bishhop Jenky. Bishop Jenky told me that he would not rule against OSF. It was over. He said there would be no tribunal court against OSF by me. I don't think OSF would have done well in this court, and I don't think Bishop Jenky thought so either. Therefore, he didn't allow it.

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Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Bishop Jenky Rejects Catholic Tribunal Court

Bishop Jenky Rejects the Catholic Tribunal Court

A Catholic tribunal court is a “search for the truth”. The church has long endorsed the principal of subsidarity, affirming that decisions should be made and disputes resolved at the lowest possible level of authority, with appeals to a higher authority only when such efforts fail. Thus, the diocesan bishop, and not the Pope, creates disciplinary policies for his local church. According to Canon Law, The bishop needs to get involved in cases where the public good may be at stake. Bishops are bound by canon law. Their actions must be in conformity with canon law. If they don’t follow canon law, their actions are invalid.

I believed that a tribunal court should be petitioned for against OSF for multiple reasons.

I will list some of the reasons below. I wrote 4 petitions for tribunal courts in 2003 and my brother wrote for one. Bishop Jenky answered only one of the five with a typed written letter. Bishop Jenky advised me to take my petition to Rome because the OSF sisters are a "pontificate of Rome". However, in his office, he told me, that there would be no tribunal court against OSF because he was the judge and he would “not judge against OSF”.

If OSF had a system of checks and balances that was functional, I would not have had to request a tribunal court from Bishop Jenky. For example, when I asked Doctor Gerald McShane, Director of the Ethics Committee, to bring up an issue regarding OSF administration to the Ethics Committee, he stated that Keith Steffen, OSF administrator, sat on the ethics board and my complaints would probably go nowhere. I asked OSF Corporate Ethicist, Joe Piccione, multiple times to take serious issues regarding abandonment of Haitian kids to the ethics committee and I never heard back any response from the ethics committee.

The American Medical Association statement on Ethics Committees in Health Care Institutions (E-9.11) state that “ethics committee members should be selected on the basis of their concerns for the welfare of the sick and infirm (which would include the pre hospital patient, the emergency department patient, and Haitian children that need heart surgery), their interest in ethical matters (Keith Steffen?), and their reputation in the community and month their peers for integrity and mature judgment (Keith Steffen?). Committee members should not have other responsibilities with their duties as members of ethics committees.”

The AMA statement was ignored by OSF. McShane, Piccione, and Steffen are all very, very high salaried members of OSF Corporate and Administration. Could they give unbiased, ethical answers regarding OSF’s actions? The governing elite of any organization can eventually think that it is the organization.

So, if Bishop Jenky would have allowed a Catholic tribunal court, in chronological order, these would have been some of the issues that would have confronted him and he would have had to search for the truth, as the tribunal dictates. However, he chose not to.

Reasons for a Catholic Tribunal Court vs. OSF:

1. The public good was at issue, with long waiting times in the ER and lack of bed capacity within OSF-SFMC. Tim Miller had stated that the “main campus had been ignored” (while the Center for Health was being built on the north side of the city). Keith Steffen had told me that there had been serious problems with leadership in the ER at OSF and Sue Wozniak said there had been "poor planning" regarding our dysfunctional Emergency Room. The ER had the lowest patient satisfaction and employee satisfaction in the medical center.

2. In my opinion, my firing from OSF had been punitive and retaliatory for pointing
out obvious problems when I wrote Keith Steffen on September 27, 2001 and copied all of the Emergency Department physicians including Dr. Hevesy. I was to learn that Dr. George Hevesy, Director of the ER and in control of all the ambulances in the Peoria area for many years, was on the payroll at Advanced Medical Transport, and according to the Peoria Fire Department had “obstructed” them as they desired to give better care for people that call 911 in an emergency. I felt that there was a very negative conflict of interest here with Hevesy on OSF’s and AMT’s salary. Also, Sue Wozniak, CFO at OSF, is on the AMT Board of Directors which I did not think was a healthy relationship either.

3. During my first meeting with Keith Steffen in October, 2001, he metaphorically referred to me as a malignancy and an “uncontrolled hemorrhage in the ER at OSF”. He also told me repeatedly that “when this comes out about you, it is not going to be good”. He called me a “bad person” to other people who told me and spoke inside outside the hospital inapprpropriatley multiple times about my termination. This was defamatory behavior on his part and very destructive. His comment that when he sees Haitian children “it makes me want to puke” seemed very wrong. Open and honest communication, and respect for Catholic social teaching, an OSF mission statement, was destroyed by Steffen.

4. Keith Steffen also brought up the concept of fear amongst employees as being a good thing. Fear plays a big role in the medical community in Peoria. Steffen shouldn’t promote this. Even Joe Piccione emailed me in November of 2005, deploring administrations fear concept.

5. Chris Lofgren, OSF spokesman, spun the truth to the media regarding the fate of Haitian Hearts after I was fired. The medical center should be honest in all forums. He also spoke to a hospital employee about my termination and on one occasion laughed and told me that “maybe Sister Canisia started the rumors”.

6. Keith Steffen stated that he was going to stop all funding for Haitian Hearts which he did on July 12, 2002. This seemed to be in opposition to what Sister Judith Ann had stated that “OSF will never turn away a child”. Again, the Sisters Mission Statements were violated as were the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.

7. OSF-CHOI executive director, Paul Kramer, told the pediatric cardiology office to not schedule a Haitian child for cardiac catheterization, thus delaying her surgery. I watched him walk into a cardiology exam room while a 24 year old Haitian lady was being examined by the cardiologist. The host mother was enraged with Paul Kramer and he later apologized. OSF administration seemed to be controlling surgeries and procedures for certain Haitian Hearts children. I believe the pediatric cardiologists are afraid of the administrators at OSF. After I reported Kramer’s actions to the Pediatric Resource Center for negligence, the Haitian child was immediately placed on the schedule.

Also, Haitian Hearts had many questions regarding OSF-CHOI and Foundation handling of funds for Haitian children. Kramer admitted to asking Linda Arnold to ask for funds from Rotary Club North that were not intended to go to OSF…they were dedicated to Haitian Hearts out of hospital expenses for the Haitian children (medication, food, flights, etc.) OSF withholding donor lists to Haitian Hearts also seems very unethical. We have no idea who to thank and how much money is owed to us from OSF. And what happened to the majority of Catherpillar Foundation’s generous contribution in 2001?

8. OSF refused to accept full charges for Willie Fortune who needed his pacemaker changed. He was dying in Haiti and OSF refused him. (He was emergently operated at another medical center in the United States.) This action is in direct opposition to Catholic social teachings, the Ethical and Religious Directives, and the Sisters Mission Statements. (Since, OSF refused Willie, other former OSF patients have been denied treatement at OSF, and at least one has died (Jackson Jean-Baptiste), after 20,000 dollars was offered for his care.)

9. The OSF Corporate Ethicist and the Director of the Ethics Committee (Piccione and McShane) did not seem to respond in an “ethical fashion” to my requests for certain important topics to be brought up to the ethics committee. I never heard from the ethics committee in 5 years over any of my requests.

As a Monsignor in the Diocese of Peoria told me, there is significant “corporate malaise” at OSF. I think the people of Peoria could be much better served by OSF.

Why did Bishop Jenky not give the tribunal a chance? A review board would have looked at the above and made a recommendation to him. I could support everything reported above.

It is interesting that in 1993, the Catholic Diocese with Joe Piccione had devised a way for OSF physicians to prescribe birth control pills from OSF offices. Without the help of Bishop Meyers, this would have been much more difficult for OSF to accomplish. Bishop Jenky apparently agrees with this protocol. According to the Peoria Journal Star, OSF thought they would lose business without the ability to provide birth control pills.

Does OSF donate to the Catholic Diocese of Peoria, and if they do, how much? Do you think the Diocese or OSF will answer this question?
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