CMA 82d Annual Educational Conference
Over 500 participants attended the 82d Annual Educational Conference of the Catholic Medical Association (USA) held the week of October 24-26 in Santa Barbara, California. An outstanding faculty, including Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago, who gave the keynote address, discussed health care delivery in the context of Catholic Social Teaching. The theme of this year’s conference was “Mission, Justice and Medicine—Integrating Catholic Social Teaching into Health Care”.
The conference chairman, Dr. Paul Braaton, summed up the theme: “The conference theme provides a framework for integrating Catholic Social Teaching into modern healthcare delivery at a particularly challenging time. Medicine is changing at a breath-taking rate and physicians are leaving private practice at a record pace. In fact, 2014 has been called a “perfect storm”, as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) takes full effect, the HHS Mandate will be fully enforced, and ICD-10 codes are implemented. Despite the impending threats, three things are clear: first, this is the best time for us to practice medicine because this is the precise time God chose for us; second, some changes introduced by Obamacare are necessary and inevitable; and, third, Catholic Social Teaching provides a rich source of guidance for these times”.
The Most Rev. Jose H. Gomez, Archbishop of Los Angeles, wrote to the participants in the Conference and repeated the recent words of Pope Francis to another group of health care providers: “Yours is a singular vocation and mission which needs study, conscience and humanity…Be witnesses and propagators of this ‘culture of life’. Your being Catholic entails a greater responsibility…a commitment of the New Evangelization which requires often going against the current…The center of medical and welfare activity is the human person…the health care structure becomes a place in which the endeavor to cure is not an occupation but a mission…the credibility of a health care system is not measured only by efficiency but above all by the care and love of persons, whose life is always sacred and inviolable.
Never neglect to pray to the Lord and the Virgin Mary to have the strength to do your work well and to witness with courage the gospel of life.”
The schedule of the conference reflected the call to pray, to understand and to work. Each day began with Mass and the Rosary; the sacrament of reconciliation was available throughout the day; and, the Blessed Sacrament was reserved for adoration 24 hours a day. The conference speakers provided an intellectual foundation for understanding Catholic Social Teaching and how it can provide a rich context for the practice of medicine. (I refer you to the “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church” by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, 2004). And, the commitment of the Catholic doctors and nurses present at the conference to strive to live out their fidelity to Christ and His teaching, made clear to our understanding by the teaching of the Church, was an encouragement to all present to confidently join in the work of bringing this wisdom to all the world. There is much to be done and much can be done when ours is a shared faith, a shared understanding and a shared work. Dr. Braaton summed up his remarks, saying: “Blessed Junipero Serra, our conference’s patron established the Catholic Church in California by walking the rugged terrain while suffering from a chronic leg ulcer and osteomyelitis. In rededicating ourselves to our Catholic faith, our patients and to the medical profession, let us take to heart the motto of Blessed Junipero: “Always forward, never backwards! “
By Kevin Murrell M.D. (Past President CMA; Officer of FIAMC)
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http://www.cathmed.org/events/annual_educational_conference/
During the Conference the last FIAMC publication was given to every participant:
http://www.fiamc.org/texts/fiamc-texts/decisions/new-fiamc-publication/
