Catholic hospitals have a long tradition of providing quality health care in the United States. As ethical dilemmas and questions surrounding affordable access to health care crop up, OSV News' Charlie Camosy spoke recently with Steven White, a doctor specializing in pulmonary medicine who serves as the president of the Catholic Health Care Leadership Alliance.
Charlie Camosy: What is the Catholic Health Care Leadership Alliance?
Steven White: The Catholic Health Care Leadership Alliance (CHCLA) is a coalition of leaders from multiple disciplines involved in the practice of Catholic health care including medicine, law, bioethics, administration, business and public policy with a vision for the renewal of this healing ministry in harmony with the mind and heart of Christ and his church.
Our mission is to defend and promote the delivery of health care in conformity with Catholic medical ethics and social teaching as well as with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' "Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services."
Following a joint session of health care organizations during the Convocation of Catholic Leaders convened by the bishops of the United States in 2017, Bishop James D. Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, called for the development of an alliance that would bring together representatives from all facets of Catholic health care to develop new models of care that would be replicable and sustainable "to bring faithful medicine to our people, and to bring our people to a deeper relationship with God."
In response to this call to establish a strong, united Catholic voice able to address the challenges confronting the ministry of Catholic health care, the Catholic Medical Association, Catholic Bar Association, National Catholic Bioethics Center, the Catholic Benefits Association and Christ Medicus Foundation with the support and guidance of an Episcopal Advisory Board of 20 archbishops and bishops, the CHCLA launched in January 2022 during the annual March for Life in Washington.
Franciscan Health of the Sisters of St Francis of Perpetual Adoration joined CHCLA as the first health system member bringing to the alliance their rich tradition and experience in the provision of Catholic medical care in the United States for more than a century. This intentional collaboration of the episcopate with religious sisters and the laity is essential for the development of the next generation of Catholic health care.
Camosy: Can you give us an example of this alliance working through a particular problem or issue since your founding?
White: The core founding principles of CHCLA directing its mission are evangelization, education, advocacy and mutual support. While each of the co-founding organizations participate effectively within their own realm of expertise in each of these activities, collaboration has resulted in the successful development of three operational objectives which would not have been possible in isolation: the Symposium for the Advancement of Catholic Health Care, the Institute for Public Policy and Advocacy and the Center for Support of the Catholic Healing Ministry to be launched this November at Notre Dame.
The symposium is a series of annual educational seminars held in conjunction with leading Catholic universities devoted to scholarly research to prepare a vision for the future of Catholic health care.
The Institute for Public Policy and Advocacy brings leaders in health care policy together with our other partners for analysis of reform proposals considering many different perspectives. The work also involves the development of legislative and regulatory proposals based upon the moral and social teachings of the church to inform the public debate on health care reform at the state and federal level.
And finally, the Center for Support of the Catholic Healing Ministry to be launched in November will be a community for all those engaged in Catholic health care to access the medical, ethical, legal, administrative and business support required in today's challenging medical environment to ensure the flourishing of the church's ministry to the sick.
Camosy: Has the alliance wrestled with the apparent findings of the "Stop the Harm" database? If I understand it correctly, it suggests even some fairly orthodox Catholic hospitals and clinics and health care systems are involved in doing gender transition surgeries on children? If this is correct, how should this very serious problem be addressed?
White: The recent release of data implicating Catholic institutions in the provision of gender transitioning interventions, either hormonal or surgical, requires a thorough, objective investigation. There are serious questions that must be answered and CHCLA is working with partners both within and outside of the organization to address these. Given the complexity and multidimensional character of this issue, the CHCLA with its medical, legal and bioethical expertise is uniquely capable of supporting the church in making its assessment and proposing solutions.
What is beyond dispute at present, based upon the "Doctrinal Note on the Moral Limits to Technological Manipulation of the Human Body" published in March 2023 by the Committee on Doctrine of the USCCB is this, "These technological interventions are not morally justified. … They are attempts to alter the fundamental order and finality of the body." Therefore "Catholic health care services must not perform interventions, whether surgical or chemical, that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex."
Along with an independent review to validate the data and to examine current practices, it will be very helpful to explore the policies and procedures of the vast majority of Catholic institutions that have not succumbed to the overwhelming political, legal, regulatory and cultural pressure to conform to the dictates of gender ideology and to determine how they are approaching this sensitive issue without compromising their Catholic mission.
Camosy: What is the future of the alliance? Can you imagine other partners joining you down the line? Where are you headed?
White: Health care in America is in crisis and the Catholic Church has the potential to contribute significantly to reforms based upon the principles of Catholic social teaching that would lead to improved access to affordable, quality, ethical care for all Americans.
In its three short years, the alliance has established the framework necessary for collaboration among bishops, religious orders of sisters and the laity to begin this renewal. Our three initiatives provide a platform for implementing the process of education, advocacy and mutual support that will be required for the development of the "sustainable, replicable models of care" called for by Bishop Conley.
We are actively engaged in developing relationships with additional partners and have recently received the support of the leadership of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious.
We are engaged in discussions with other Catholic health systems and are forming partnerships with a significant number of Catholic medical clinics and the Catholic telehealth medical service My Catholic Doctor.
We need additional assistance from the Catholic business community to build financially sound business models for delivery of medical care and we need entrepreneurs and philanthropists who will join us in building the life affirming, Christ centered health care of the future.
Finally, and most of all, we need the prayers of the whole church, because the ministry of health care established by Our Lord Jesus Christ, sustained by the church for two millennia and established in America by heroic religious sisters is in serious jeopardy.
The moral foundation of the medical profession has been seriously undermined by the culture of death, leading to a loss of respect for the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of life from conception to natural death, with devastating consequences affecting every one of us.
Going forward by the grace of God and united in this effort with all the faithful, the alliance will persevere in its commitment to Christ's command to "go forth healing the sick and proclaiming the Kingdom of God" (Lk 9,2).
Charlie Camosy is professor of medical humanities at the Creighton School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska, and moral theology fellow at St. Joseph Seminary in New York.
