OREST HOLUBEC
2025-2026 chairperson
CHA Board of Trustees
Chief mission experience officer Providence St. Joseph Health Renton, Washington
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." — From The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
There's an adage used by writers and content creators that says that the shortest distance between two people is a story. For me, that adage doesn't quite tell the full story, because I believe that the shortest distance between two people is our God-given, inherent human dignity. And I'll share a story to explain why I believe that.
Caught in the brutal imperialistic aggression of Russia and Germany during World War II, both sets of my grandparents chose to escape Ukraine to find a better life for their children. After spending time in displaced persons camps, they arrived in the United States. My father's side of the family was sponsored by relatives living in Cleveland. On my mother's side, my grandfather was a cantor in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and a Ukrainian church in a coal mining town in Pennsylvania sponsored their family so that my grandfather could serve as cantor.
My mother was 9, spoke no English, and was immediately enrolled in public school where she was the only Ukrainian-speaking student in her class. She felt her "otherness" acutely, was frightened and felt very alone, and one day had finally had enough and tearfully ran home during recess. Shortly after she arrived home, she heard a knock on the door, and when she answered it, there stood a classmate holding a doll. In silence, the classmate locked her eyes on my mother's, handed her the doll, and ran back to school. That seemingly simple act of kindness served to acknowledge my mother's inherent dignity and gave her the confidence and courage to return to school and feel like she was a part of the class, even though it took her some time to learn the language and fully participate. Ultimately, she become a teacher.
As the people of Catholic health care, we are called to put into practice this recognition of everyone's inherent dignity, as the girl in the story did. We are called to extend God's healing love to all, and especially our neighbors who are poor, underserved and most vulnerable, so that everyone has every opportunity to fully participate in society. We do this not because we are asked to, but because we are impelled to by our mission, as witnessed by the healing ministry of Jesus.
No matter where we serve, every day we see blatant examples of where this respect for human dignity is missing. And we see obstacles in our way, some that can make succeeding in this work feel impossible. While it is important to acknowledge these obstacles and plan around them, what is most important is that we recognize our opportunity and responsibility to continue our healing ministry in a way that is guided by the tradition of our founding congregations. And we need to look no further than the stories of our intrepid founding women religious to know that they successfully navigated obstacles as seemingly insurmountable as ours.
The vision of CHA is clear: "We will empower bold change to elevate human flourishing." And the three pillars of our strategic plan — Care for All, Health Reimagined and United for Change — set our agenda and put us on the path to achieve our vision.
- Care for All captures our belief in everyone's inherent human dignity and calls us to advocate for access to health care for all individuals and communities, especially those who are poor and most vulnerable, consistent with our faith tradition.
- Health Reimagined acknowledges that business and ministry "as usual" won't be enough — we must understand the signs of the times and advocate and innovate to remain relevant and financially sustainable in today's world.
- United for Change affirms that we accept this responsibility with humility and know that we cannot do this alone —we must collaborate more closely with our ecclesial and community partners, with all people of goodwill, as did those whose shoulders we stand on.
I am humbled and honored to serve as chairperson of the CHA Board of Trustees and commit to doing my best to shepherd our collective calling in these turbulent times. May we, the people of Catholic health care, be the girl with the doll, shortening the distance between people one person at a time. May we continue to seek out those in the margins who need us most as we extend God's healing love to all, so that everyone can reach their full human potential and get on with the work of making the world a better place.