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| February 3, 1999 Theological/Spiritual Formation of Laity Holds Key for Health Ministry's Future Naples, Florida --- A chorus of Catholic health care leaders meeting with the nation's largest private foundations with Catholic interests were united in their plea for more programs and resources to form future leaders in health ministry. "We are grossly under spending for the theological education of lay Catholic health leaders," charged Daughter of Charity, Sr. Carol Keehan, chief executive officer of Providence Hospital in Washington, who delivered the keynote address during FADICA's midwinter meeting here, January 22-23, 1999. The meeting, attended by over eighty foundation representatives and health care experts, sought to identify the top challenges facing Catholic health leadership in the future. Catholic health ministry is vast in scope treating 70 million patients in the U.S. yearly and employing over 679 thousand persons. "Do we have sufficient people who can articulate the ethical and spiritual vision of the church in health ministry?" asked Georgetown University scholar, Sr. Carol Taylor, CSFN. "It is not enough to have people of good will working in Catholic health care." Sr. Taylor said, "We need people who can structure opportunities for dialogue on ethical and spiritual care." The medical ethics scholar said that it is essential that Catholic health institutions have leaders who can regularly "call us back to who we are" in the church's healing ministry. Numerous speakers at the FADICA conference noted diminishing numbers of religious working in health care. "We had 1,000 sisters forty years ago working in health ministry," declared Franciscan Sister Margaret Mary Kimmins of Allegany, NY ". . . now we have four hundred," she said. "We have committed ourselves to working with laity, so how can we work together with FADICA to become partners in pursuing alternative solutions for the future?" The FADICA forum provided a look at award-winning health initiatives that reflected moral and spiritual values of importance to Catholic health ministry while expanding participation of the parish and local community members as caregivers. Included were the Community Campus for the Frail Elderly sponsored by Loretto Health Systems of Syracuse, New York, the Parish Nurse Partnership Program serving Latino communities in Mission Hills, California, and the DePorres Health Center in Marks, Mississippi, a rural health ministry of several congregations of U.S. sisters. Speaking of the need for healing professions to connect with the spiritual dimension of their work, Yale medical professor, Thomas Duffy, MD narrated a story to the foundation audience of a 65-year-old patient dying from leukemia. He said that the man's eventual death left him as a physician "exhausted and limp" while the priest chaplain working with the same patient felt "healed and empowered". The moment was an occasion for a personal awakening said Dr. Duffy. He gained a new appreciation for the "difference between curing and caring and new awareness of God's presence in every moment a doctor spends with a patient." Foundations at the Florida meeting were also introduced to the emerging field of health care philanthropy. Sr. Maryanna Coyle, a Sister of Charity from Cincinnati, Ohio, Sr. Margaret Mary Kimmins, OSF, and Sr. Joan Kuester, a Daughter of Charity of St. Louis discussed the scope and interests of large grant making foundations established after the sale of Catholic health facilities. An edited transcript of the conference entitled: Catholic Health Care Leadership in a New Era will be available in late April through FADICA. Return to List of News Releases | Back to Top |