We often use the word “patient” when speaking of men and women who are receiving medical care without giving much thought to what that word means. That is not necessarily a problem. The word “patient” is a helpful signifier in Read more…
Every year on the first of November, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of All Saints, the great commemoration of all the holy men and women whom God has raised up throughout the two thousand year history of the Church. On Read more…
There are great joys that people in health care get to experience. Patients get well, receive favorable diagnoses, overcome difficult bouts of illness, and emerge from sickness with deepened gratitude and fresh perspective. Those who care for those patients feel Read more…
We are accustomed to evaluating people according to professional standards. “She’s a good doctor.” “He’s a good accountant.” “Their second baseman is terrible!” These kinds of statements are familiar to us. We understand what they mean because we understand that Read more…
The sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, when administered to the dying, is called by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “sacramentum exeuntium (the sacrament of those departing)” (CCC 1523). Nevertheless, it is not the sacrament of Anointing, but the Eucharist as Read more…
I am writing this on September 29, the feast day of the archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. They are the three angels who are named in the Bible, whom God sent to his people for specific purposes. Those purposes are Read more…
The Anointing of the Sick is a sacrament that is frequently misunderstood. When I receive emergency calls asking me to come to a hospital to minister to a dying patient, the requests are usually for “last rites.” When, during more Read more…
I have set before you life and death . . . choose life! The choice that Moses set before the Israelites as they prepared to pass into the Promised Land (Deut 30:19) is a choice that is set before us Read more…
Our society generally uses the term “reproductive rights” to refer to the options that should be made available to a woman insofar as she is a potential (or sometimes actual) mother. The Catholic Church teaches that mothers and fathers and Read more…
Christian revelation tells us that seeking what is truly good — and seeking the one who is Truth and Goodness — is not just something we do, but something God does in us. It is only by the power of Read more…
“The Church draws her life from the Eucharist.” With these words, Pope Saint John Paul II began his 2003 encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia. He continues, In a variety of ways, she [the Church] joyfully experiences the constant fulfillment of the Read more…
That illnesses can now be diagnosed and treated when a child is still in the womb represents a significant advance in modern medicine. Some diagnoses can be achieved by testing the genetic make-up of an unborn child either in utero Read more…
Every year at Pentecost the Church commemorates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary as they gathered in Jerusalem awaiting the “promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4): the gift of the Holy Spirit that Read more…
Conscience, according to Saint Thomas Aquinas, is the act of the human intellect by which “we judge that something should be done or not done.”1 This judgment is to be based on our knowledge of what is right and wrong Read more…
In recounting the events of Easter Sunday, The Gospel of Luke presents us with the beautiful narrative in which Jesus walks with the two disciples travelling on the road to Emmaus. The disciples were speaking to each other about their Read more…
On Easter Sunday the Church is full of rejoicing! That rejoicing is expressed in many ways, but never more beautifully than in the Exultet, the Easter Proclamation, which is sung at the solemn beginning of the Easter Vigil. In the Read more…
Throughout our lives, and most especially in the season of Lent, the Church invites us to reflect upon and more fully share in the sufferings of Jesus. The practice of praying the Stations of the Cross is a characteristic of Read more…
In a recent Reflection (Feb 19, 2017), I characterized four common attitudes about death as those of “the secular, the scientist, the suicide, and the saint.” I now wish to suggest that the proposals of the suicide are, in large measure, Read more…
The ninth chapter of the Gospel of John relates a healing encounter between Jesus and a man born blind. Let us consider some key passages from this chapter and what they tell us about our healing encounters with Jesus. As Read more…
Proponents of physician-assisted suicide have used the term “death with dignity” to present their cause in a positive way. The Catholic Church uses the word “dignity” to articulate the exact opposite view about assisted suicide. According to the Church’s official Read more…
We have already considered how the ethics of the Christian gospel embrace both rigorous moral standards and extravagant forgiveness of sin. Let us now consider another both/and of gospel ethics: its moral precepts are both commandments and promises. The precepts Read more…
Throughout the forty days of Lent, the Church invites us to practice penance by praying, fasting, and giving alms. As the gospel reading for Ash Wednesday (see Matt 6:1-6, 16-18) reminds us, that penance is not meant to be a Read more…
G. K. Chesterton, the early 20th century Christian apologist, wrote that, while “paganism declared that virtue was in a balance; Christianity declared it was in a conflict: the conflict of two passions apparently opposite. Of course they were not really Read more…
In the eyes of God, death is the negation of the life He created. God permits death as a consequence of sin, but only so He might destroy sin and death in and through Jesus Christ. What is death in Read more…
“I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.” These are the first words of the Apostles Creed, articulating the first article of Christian faith: belief in the creator God. And what did God create? “Heaven and Read more…
“We hold these treasures in earthen vessels,” Saint Paul says (2 Cor 4:7). These “earthen vessels” are human bodies, which like earthen vessels or clay pots are subject to decay and destruction. The “treasure” is the human heart that is Read more…
“Hope” is a word that can mean different things. It can mean looking forward to something good that might happen in the future. One might hope for good weather on the day of an upcoming picnic. It can mean thinking Read more…
Having considered the topic of advanced directives in health care in general, and the kinds of directives that can be made, let us draw some practical conclusions about what is to be done and when. Are there directives you should Read more…
We have considered in a general way the topic of advanced directives in health care. Let us now consider some of the particular kinds of directives that can be made, namely, (1) health care proxies, (2) living wills, and (3) Read more…
Making advanced directives about one’s health care is frequently encouraged in our society and, in many ways, that is a good thing. Advanced communication about the kinds of medical treatment a person wishes to receive can be helpful in guiding Read more…
One of the saddest experiences I have as a hospital chaplain is ministering to patients who die alone. Thankfully, that is unusual. In the great majority of cases, the dying person is surrounded by family. Friends are often there too, Read more…
Christmas is a time of giving. It is the celebration of the greatest gift of all: Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was given to us at his birth on Christmas day. One of the ways we celebrate that great gift Read more…
To “cooperate with evil” sounds like a horrible thing to do—and it can be. But some cooperation with evil is inevitable and unavoidable for almost everyone. The reason for this is that human beings are inherently social creatures. We live Read more…
People faced with dire circumstances often pray to God for miracles. The patients in the hospitals I serve, along with their families and loved ones, frequently offer such prayers. In the church of St. Catherine of Siena, where I live Read more…
“I am angry with God” I often hear this from patients in the hospitals. They are expressing disappointment, the feeling that God has let them down. It may be a woman who has prayed to God for healing and the Read more…
For he assumed at his first coming the lowliness of human flesh, and so fulfilled the design you formed long ago, and opened the way to eternal salvation, that, when he comes again in glory and majesty and all is Read more…
I was ill and you cared for me. (Matt 25:36) So the king will say, seated on his glorious throne with all his angels in attendance and all the nations assembled before him: some on his right and some on Read more…
The virtues that characterize excellent ministers of Holy Communion was the subject of our last reflection. We considered the virtue of religion, by which human beings render fitting reverence to God, and also adoration, an exterior act of religion by Read more…
One of the most important parts of Catholic health care ministry is the administration of Holy Communion. This much needed ministry and sacred charge is carried out by bishops, priests, and deacons who, by virtue of their ordination, serve as Read more…
Saint Thomas Aquinas, in his great Summa Theologica, begins his treatment of ethics with the Christian understanding that human beings are created in the image of God. Following Saint John Damascene, he observes that human beings image God most especially Read more…
For human beings, doing good means choosing a good moral object for the sake of a good end. If a man chooses something morally bad as a means to achieving something morally good, his action is bad altogether. Likewise, if Read more…
Good is to be done and pursued, and evil is to be avoided. This is the first principle of ethical human action as articulated by Saint Thomas Aquinas, who relies on the classical wisdom of Aristotle and represents much of Read more…