Opinion: Corporate hijack or Catholic health?

A year has passed since the announcement by Denver-based Catholic Healthcare Initiatives (CHI) of the proposed merger of St. Joseph Health System (SJHS) with the University of Lousville's University Hospital and other Louisville hospitals. Much has been said and written of the merger, much of it confusing and increasingly contradictory. Merger leaders initially held that the Catholic Ethical and Religious Directives (ERDs) must be followed by merger partners. These directives prohibit procedures that the Catholic Church views as intrinsically evil such as contraception, direct sterilization, and abortion.