Health progress (Saint Louis, Mo.)最新文献

As the structures of U.S. health systems evolve, a number of Catholic systems have found it necessary to transfer ownership of their hospitals to other-than-Catholic entities. In such cases, the selling sponsors have a key decision to make: Can the hospital maintain its Catholic identity after the sale?

I have a confession to make: I was a mission leader for seven years before I had a good understanding of what sponsorship in Catholic health care is all about. I used to be embarrassed by it, until I discovered that many other senior leaders and middle managers also have no idea what sponsorship is. Many leaders are not able to tell you the names of the individuals who make up their sponsoring board or PJP. And the term PJP — public juridic person — is understood by even fewer leaders within Catholic health care. Unfortunately, for many leaders and front-line associates, sponsorship and the individuals who make up our sponsoring boards are shrouded in mystery. One of the goals of this Health Progress issue is to pull back the curtain and begin to demystify sponsorship. This article will show the relationship and conections between sponsorship, governance and mission integration.

Spirituality” names an important domain of human experience that has contours influenced by varied religious traditions, but it is not always tied to any religious tradition in particular. It is influenced by the vast array of individual experiences of inner life, especially as transformed by the transcendent.¹ These individual expressions sometimes become part of religious traditions, spiritual classics handed on from generation to generation.²

We often don’t see the extent of life-transforming changes, and the circumstances and decisions that led to them, until we look back. That’s because in the midst of such a transformation, we are busy taking the next step, and then, based on reflection and evaluation, the step after that. We are deeply involved in being present to the moment, knowing we are being led by something much greater than ourselves and trusting that movement. For 18 years, the Franciscan Sisters of Mary (FSM) have been in such a process. They still are deeply immersed in the next steps.

They’re all over the place today — Star Wars characters, superheroes, pirates, Minnie Mouse, witches, Minions from “Despicable Me” and, of course, nurses dressed as they usually are in your health care institutions, in white fishnet and 6-inch heels!

The story of Catholic health care spans generations, continuing to serve as an unbroken link to the healing ministry of Jesus. Through the Spirit’s creative provision, the unique charisms that strengthened and sustained the sisters and brothers who went before us continue today in the hearts and minds of lay and religious alike.

In 1999, the Sisters of the Holy Cross and the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas came together, assessed the past, examined the present and created a new future for Trinity Health. Their goal was to preserve Catholic health care; their mission was to ensure that the human right to health care become a social right as part of a national understanding of promoting and providing for the general welfare. Thanks to the work of those prescient and courageous women religious, Trinity Health now is governed by a “mirror board” — a group of persons who carry canonical and civil responsibilities both as sponsors of Catholic Health Ministries and as directors of Trinity Health’s civil board.

Life in the church changes and evolves. So do the ministries of the church, for the church’s works must remain relevant as the times change and evolve. Thus the relationship between the church and the Catholic health care ministry has been adapting to a modern era in which founding congregations gradually relinquish control of the entities they created.

Since the very beginning of his papacy, Pope Francis has provided a field day for the media. With well over 10 million people following him on Twitter, it is no wonder that many of his statements have become quotable quotes. One in particular has garnered much attention: “I see clearly that what the Church needs today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity [to the people]. I see the Church as a field hospital after a battle.”