Introduction
Is sponsorship the same as ownership? This question has stirred Catholic health care since the McGrath-Maida debate of the 1970's.
Representatives of the new sponsoring entities will need to possess certain qualifications.
Like those of other church ministries, a sponsor's mission is to teach, to sanctify, and to serve through governance.
An official of the Holy See describes how the church weighs petitions for public juridic personality.
Perhaps the time has come to assign the sponsor role to specific persons and make sponsorship itself a calling.
By folding sponsorship and governance duties together, the ministry could put religious an theological questions at the heart of a board's work.
Five complex "communities of relationships" are involved in congregations' efforts to share health sponsorship.
Catholic Health Initiatives, Denver, has shown how a religious-lay partnership can advance the health ministry.
An organizational ethics initiative's ultimate goal should be a "virtuous organization" with a "community covenant."
An organization that expects to face critical decisions had better have an effective board in place.
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