Understanding Catholic Healthcare
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To Heal as Jesus Heals: Catholic Service to the Poor and Vulnerable
The theme of Catholic service to the poor and vulnerable is familiar to us, perhaps so familiar that we can pass over it too quickly. We speak often about service, mission, compassion, dignity, access and care for those most in need. These words rightly belong to Catholic healthcare and to the wider mission of the Church...
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How Do Charisms Animate Our Work? New Times Need New Narratives
I recently visited Nano Nagle Place in Cork, Ireland, a heritage and community center that tells the story of Irish Catholic educator and social reformer Nano Nagle and the origins of the Presentation Sisters, the congregation she founded in 1775. During her lifetime, Nagle, called the "Lady of the Lantern," made nightly visits with her lantern to poor families in Cork and championed education as a path out of poverty. Although she spent most of her life serving as a layperson, she later founded a religious order with an active ministry in education and social reform.
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Sponsors as Co-Laborers: Relationship at the Heart of Meaningful Sponsorship
Many rich metaphors have been offered to describe the role of sponsors in Catholic healthcare, and I want to propose three descriptions, not as replacements for others, but as complementary to them. Viewing the sponsor’s role as vessel, witness and covenant partner allows us to highlight the relational nature of sponsorship roles and the importance of engaged collaboration among sponsors, governing board members and executive teams.
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Building Trust, Shaping Culture: The Praxis of the Ethicist in Catholic Healthcare
As two ethicists with CommonSpirit Health, we wanted to share how we foster relationships in our respective roles as a vice president, primarily focused on organizational ethics, and a clinical ethicist, working alongside front-line caregivers.
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Disruptive Change: Leadership Lessons Along the Road to Emmaus
The Catholic health ministry in the United States, and perhaps all modern healthcare organizations today, exist within a liminal space. We know change is both required and inevitable, yet we are not completely sure what the Catholic health ministry will look like in the future.
Features
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The Challenge of Welfare: Deciding Who Is Deserving of Our Help
From that place he went off to the district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice. Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.
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Accompanying the Dying: A Catholic Response to Assisted Death
Should we choose the means of our own death? We all know, with certainty, that we will die. The immediate question at hand for many is whether we should bring our own lives to an end because of a terminal or painful illness. With a grim prognosis, is it more human to choose to end our lives or to continue to live through the process of dying? These questions arise because of legal changes to assisted dying, both in the United States and internationally.
Departments
Editor's Note — Fall 2026
BETSY TAYLOR
Aging — Home and Community-Based Services Provide a Lifeline for Older Adults, Caregivers and Health Systems
INDU SPUGNARDI
Formation — Facilitation Inspired by Jazz Improvisation
DARREN M. HENSON, PhD, STL
Mission — Well-Being: So That All May Flourish
DENNIS GONZALES, PhD, and HERBERT SCHUMM, MD, MBA
Community Benefit — From Strategy to Measurement: Why Alignment Matters in Community Health
ALEXANDER GARZA, MD, MPH
Thinking Globally — Catholic Healthcare at a Global Inflection Point
BRUCE COMPTON
Pope Leo XIV — Finding God in Daily Life
Prayer Service — A Litany for Patients Waiting
PATTY BREEN McNEIL, MA, Mission Leader, Trinity Health, Muskegon, Grand Haven and Shelby, Michigan