Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, the president's chief advisor on health reform, jokingly made the implication during her keynote dinner speech to ministry leaders here that "divine intervention" may have played into the serendipitous timing of CHA's Catholic Legislative Advocacy Conference late last month.

On Sept. 9, as I sat in the gallery of the House of Representatives listening to President Barack Obama address a joint session of Congress on the importance of health reform, I was thrilled to hear him say clearly no federal funds will be used for abortion and conscience protection will be in the final bill.

In the protracted national debate over health reform, much of the attention has centered on the 46.3 million Americans without health insurance.

To keep the pressure on for meaningful health system reform, ministry systems and facilities are voicing their support for change, Catholic health care leaders told Catholic Health World.

Extensive "intelligence gathering" late last year and early this year has given Community Health Partners of Lorain, Ohio, new insight into how community members feel about health care and the types of improvements they want to see.

During an Oct. 11 celebration at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI will canonize Jeanne Jugan and four other people as saints.

People who want to contact the chaplains at St. John's Mercy Medical Center in St. Louis now have many more options for doing so.

Homeless men and women seeking help at the CHRISTUS Our Daily Bread center in Galveston, Texas, now have access to free psychiatric services via videoconferencing, through a partnership between CHRISTUS Health Gulf Coast and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

Two Catholic institutions in Indiana have joined together to address a nursing shortage that is being felt in the Hoosier state and across the nation.

CHA received an enthusiastic early response to a website the association launched last month to help ministry facilities prepare for the demands that could be imposed by major outbreaks of H1N1 flu this season.

Pursuing a medical career takes a lot of time, energy and money. To help young people determine whether they are heading in the right direction before they commit to medicine, many health care facilities invite students to experience what it's like to work on the frontlines.