On April 30th, the traditional feast day of its namesake, the Dominican parish of St. Catherine of Siena in Manhattan honored three individuals with the St. Catherine of Siena award, for their activity in health care work and ministry.

The St. Catherine of Siena award is given typically given to an ecclesial leader, or a local doctor or chaplain for his work in healthcare ministry. The award was given to His Eminence, Donald Cardinald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, Sr. Elaine of the Congregation of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and Br. Ignatius Perkins, O.P., upon the establishment of the St. Catherine of Siena chair in Catholic health care ethics at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception (PFIC) in Washington DC.

Dr. John F. Brehany, Ph.D., STL, of the Catholic Medical Association, stated that the “Dominicans really want to provide more and better education than ever to their own friars, so that they can bring Catholic wisdom to bear on people who teach about and those who provide and support Catholic health care.”

Rev. Jordan J. Kelly, pastor of St. Catherine’s church, explained that  “regardless of one’s political affiliation, we can readily observe that matters relating to medical care and life issues will impact each one of us now and in the future.”

Most Rev. Steven Boguslawski, O.P., president of the PFIC in Washington, explained that  “the friar must provide the immediate pastoral care that brings sacramental and personal solace – the cura animarum [care of souls] -  while simultaneously guiding patients and caregivers about moral and ethical obligation arising from the faith during their treatment.”

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In light of the recent controversy surrounding Catholic conscience and healthcare, reprinted below is an article by Br. Ignatius Perkins, O.P., a cooperator brother of the Province of St. Joseph.  Br. Ignatius currently serves as the Dean of the School of Nursing at Aquinas College in Nashville, Tennessee.  Before that, he served as professor and chair of the School of Nursing and dean of the College of Health and Natural Sciences of Spalding University in Louisville, Ky.; executive vice president and staff ethicist of the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Boston; and chair of the Department of Nursing at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio. While at Spalding, Brother Ignatius established the Center for the Study of Human Dignity, Ethics and Caring in Nursing.  This article first appeared on the Catholic Exchange website on October 11, 2008.

Conscience and
Catholic Health Care Professionals

“When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking”
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, n.1777)

Brother Ignatius Perkins, O.P., PhD., RN, FAAN, FNYAM
October 11, 2008

Br. Ignatius Perkins, OP

We live in a culture where health services are driven by moral relativism, commodification of the human person, the technological imperative, profitability in health services, the creep of utilitarian and impersonal ethical paradigms, escalating costs of health care, and increasing numbers of persons who are uninsured or underinsured.  The exercise of a moral conscience both in those who are sick and clinicians who have promised to help and to heal the sick is seriously compromised in this culture.   One of the major effects of the current culture is the violation of human dignity, the diminution of the human person of the clinician, and the disregard for the formation of an informed conscience in providing answers to ethical issues in health care. Further compromising human dignity in health care today is the enactment of legislative mandates that limit or compromise the clinician’s freedom in making decisions and relegates this role to that of a treatment technician.  This growing dilemma, founded on moral relativism and unbridled autonomy, prohibits Catholic clinicians and others of good will from applying the principles of the natural law, the findings of the confluence of faith, science and reason, and the process of moral assessment, analysis and judgment that can inform health care decisions. Within this culture human dignity, freedom and the right and duty to form the moral conscience, both of the sick as well as all those who care for them is removed from the person of the clinician and assumed by the state.

What does the Church teach us about the relationship between an informed conscience, the moral teaching of the Church and participating in mandated procedures that are contrary to both the conscience of health care professionals and Church teaching?  While we cannot look to the Church to solve every ethical dilemma, we do know that the Church has a centuries-old teaching authority that can be brought to bear on the threat to the freedom and obligation to act only from an informed conscience of clinicians caring for the sick and vulnerable in our world.

Fr. Gabriel Gillen, O.P. hosts another edition of Word to Life with Fr. Bruno M. Shah, O.P. for the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time. They are joined by Brother Ignatius Perkins, O.P. to speak about the HHS Mandate. Br. Ignatius serves as the Dean of nursing at Aquinas College.

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Bro. Ignatius Perkins, O.P. gave the following presentation last Tuesday at Aquinas College in Nashville, TN. Br. Perkins serves at the College as Dean and Professor of Nursing. 

Saints Martin de Porres, O.P. a seventeenth century Dominican Friar, was born in Lima, Peru on December 9, 1575 and lived with three other saints, Juan Macias, Rose of Lima and Turibius of Mongrovejo, Archbishop of Lima. Their lives and ministries are the cause of great interest in the work of evangelization, not only because of their holiness, but also because of their presence and importance for the Church in Lima at that time.

Martin de Porres’ ministry was expressed through caring for the sick and the dying of his Dominican community, of those among the despised of the streets of Lima, and of those who had no hope. Assigned as the community infirmarian of Holy Rosary Priory, which at the time numbered nearly three hundred friars, Martin applied his skills acquired as a barber-surgeon to the brothers of the community. Caring for his brothers in his community was his first preaching.

Martin’s compassion and charity for the sick and the aged, bringing the Gospel of hope and healing to those who were orphaned and homeless in the slums and barrios of Lima, to those suffering from stigmatized illnesses or lifestyles, was his lived expression of the life of St. Dominic as consoler of the sick and those in distress. His influence in caring for the poor and the sick of Lima resulted in the establishment of an orphanage and a hospital for children. Martin also had a devotion to all God’s creatures especially those who were suffering. He had a special affection for animals, which is often displayed in Dominican iconography.

What does the life of St. Martin mean for us today?