Go, Sisters!

Hear them roar.

The leaders of 60 orders of nuns have sent a letter to all members of Congress urging support of the Senate health care bill. Here's the punchline:

Congress must act. We are asking every member of our community to contact their congressional representatives this week. In this Lenten time, we have launched nationwide prayer vigils for health care reform. We are praying for those who currently lack health care. We are praying for the nearly 45,000 who will lose their lives this year if Congress fails to act. We are also praying for you and your fellow Members of Congress as you complete your work in the coming days. For us, this health care reform is a faith mandate for life and dignity of all of our people.

With respect to abortion, the letter says:

And despite false claims to the contrary, the Senate bill will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions. It will uphold longstanding conscience protections and it will make historic new investments - $250 million - in support of pregnant women. This is the REAL pro-life stance, and we as Catholics are all for it.

Take that, USCCB! Oh, yes, and the horse you rode in on, Archbishop Chaput! The latter, scourge of same-sex couples who would send their children to parochial schools, is in the public prints excoriating those, like the Catholic Hospital Association and Catholics United, who have dared endorse the Senate bill under the banner of Catholicism:

"Groups, trade associations and publications describing themselves as 'Catholic' or 'prolife' that endorse the Senate version -- whatever their intentions -- are doing a serious disservice to the nation and to the Church," he said.

Chaput accused these groups of "undermining the witness of the Catholic community; and ensuring the failure of genuine, ethical health-care reform."

"By their public actions, they create confusion at exactly the moment Catholics need to think clearly about the remaining issues in the health-care debate. They also provide the illusion of moral cover for an unethical piece of legislation," he added.

If there's ever been such a division over an issue of public policy within the Catholic church in America, I can't think of it.