Originally published at National Catholic Register
Inspired by saints like Mother Cabrini, Catholic health care must always be a work of both corporal and spiritual mercy
Health care and Christianity have been closely linked in history. The word “hospital” is taken from the virtue of hospitality, but today, many feel adrift and buffeted by the business of health care. But when Jesus Christ is secured as the anchor in our health and wellness, we grow and thrive in body and soul.
We remember the beautiful example of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the hospitals she created and the care she gave to the poor and forgotten immigrants in New York City and beyond. Before Mother Cabrini, we remember in the early 1800s St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, founder of the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph, whose order expanded after her death to include health care. They helped introduce the Catholic notion of caring for the body and soul of a patient on the road to wellness.
But today, the landscape in patient care has drastically shifted.
Health-care costs have risen dramatically, the complexity and advances in medical procedures have grown exponentially, and the secularization
