Guild History
The Dr Jerome Lejeune Catholic Medical Guild of Northeast Indiana is a proud chapter of the Catholic Medical Association since December, 2012.
Bishop John D’Arcy first began to look into the possibility of having a local guild in Northeast Indiana in the summer of 2009. At the time there was no guild in the state of Indiana. He asked Lisa Everett of the Diocesan Office of Family Life to look for any national members that lived in the area and to initiate contact. The CMA was able to provide Lisa Everett with a single name. They kept in contact on a yearly basis until 2012, when that member felt called to start taking an active role in helping to start a local guild. Newly installed Bishop Kevin Rhoades was contacted and he expressed great interest in supporting such an endeavor.
A short list of local physicians known to be Catholic was drawn up and Bishop Rhoades invited them to an initial meeting to discuss the possibility in August, 2012. Unknown to the diocese, two of the physicians who would be at that meeting were already prayerfully considering a local guild and were happy to receive such an invitation.
The idea was enthusiastically put into action in September, 2012 when Father James Bromwich of the Sons of Philip Neri Oratory, who had previously a successful career as an oncology nurse, prayerfully agreed to be our chaplain.
The guild took its name and charism from Servant of God Dr Jerome Lejeune, the French pediatrician and geneticist who was first to discover the link between chromosomal abnormalities and diseases. He discovered that Down Syndrome was caused by an extra 21st chromosome. His case for sainthood is under investigation now.
Bishop D’Arcy, Bishop Emeritus, was made aware of our new guild status and was very pleased to hear about it, just before he died in January, 2013.
We are a nonprofit organization supported by the Diocese of Fort Wayne South Bend and an official guild of the national Catholic Medical Association. We strive to follow Catholic teachings and are eager to share with local healthcare workers and to grow in membership.
