What does Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted say on the moral debate over cutting off state funds for organ transplants -- a decision that may have led to two deaths of patients? Nothing I can find.

Yet it is Olmsted who made headlines last month stripping a local hospital of its Catholic status for, in his view, violating Catholic ethics spelled out by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Doctors said a young pregnant mother of four would die from pulmonary hypertension without surgery to end the pregnancy. But Olmsted viewed it as an unnecessary surgery and hence an unethical abortion, although other Catholic moral theologians disagreed.

While scolding the hospital on Catholic ethics, he's remained, as far as I can find, silent on the Catholic stance on cutting off access to organ transplants for people dependent on Medicaid. It seems surprising for a bishop so focused on life issues.

The first death, according to the Arizona Republic, was

Mark Price, a leukemia patient who needed a bone-marrow transplant...An anonymous donor came forward and a perfect match was found, but Price died Nov. 28 from complications of his disease before the procedure could be performed.

The Catholic Ethical and Religious Directives encourage organ donation. Indeed, the Phoenix diocesan web site even mentions a push by a seminarian, also with leukemia, to find funds and a donor for a bone marrow transplant. Was he cut from the same list by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer in a state budget cutting move?

Yet, nothing I can find in scouring the diocesan newspaper, the diocese's web site or the Arizona Catholic Conference site says peep about Olmsted's view on this.

The Arizona Republic recently profiled Olmsted, after his denunciation of St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in the abortion incident. The hospital declined to agree with his interpretation of the ethical standards and he stripped it of Catholic status.

Opposition to abortion is a hallmark of his public statements, according to the profile which looks at Olmsted's six years in Phoenix, The Republic describes him as " humble but committed to church teaching and principle."

However, it says he's been silent on several national and Arizona issues where the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has been vocal:

Rarely has Olmsted stood up for immigrants' rights, and church leaders involved in Hispanic ministry fear they have lost support.

He has almost never spoken out on the death penalty, poverty or other social issues, leaving those things to the Arizona Catholic Conference, the lobbying arm of the three Catholic dioceses in Arizona, or other leaders.

(Note: Olmsted joined with other Arizona bishops in a statement commending the courts for blocking Arizona's harsh immigration law this summer.)

Should Olmsted speak up on the state cutting funds for organ transplants? Or is this a public legal and financial matter where a Catholic leader should not weigh in? Why not?