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Physicians’ guild hosts annual White Mass, installs new officers
By Sylvia L. White, The Catholic Sun
November 1, 2007
The medical profession has a key role to play in the promotion of the Gospel of Life, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted said during an Oct. 13 Mass.
The annual White Mass is organized by the Catholic Physicians Guild for those who work in the medical and health care fields. It recognizes the struggles they face working in a profession that condones contraception and abortion.
In his homily, Bishop Olmsted focused on Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Evangelium Vitae.
“A unique responsibility belongs to health care personnel… Their profession calls for them to be guardians and servants of human life,” the bishop quoted from the late pontiff’s encyclical.
If contemporary practice of medicine loses sight of “inherent ethical dimensions,” physicians can be tempted to become “manipulators of life, and even agents of death,” the pope said.
“This temptation turns the profession’s service upside down,” the bishop said.
Alan Sears, president of the Alliance Defense Fund, spoke at the dinner that followed at the Diocesan Pastoral Center.
“Somehow, we’re told, there must always be a tension — an inherent, entrenched, irreconcilable conflict — between the application of faith and moral principles, and the application of reason and science,” Sears said. The Alliance Defense Fund defends religious liberty.
“Doctors, nurses, and others involved in health care have faced for centuries the struggle to practice medicine as a moral person,” he said.
As an attorney with the nation’s largest religious liberty legal alliance, Sears defends and protects religious freedom, the sanctity of life, marriage and the family.
“Thinking with the Church requires honestly engaging and responding to arguments that question or oppose Catholic teaching,” he said. “Catholicism does not pit faith against reason or faithfulness against intellectual inquiry.”
After the keynote speaker, Bishop Olmsted installed new Catholic Physicians Guild officers.
Dr. Thomas Nelson, incoming president, has been active in the Catholic Physicians Guild for about five years.
“The guild provides mutual support of like-minded Catholic physicians who are serious about their faith and want to uphold the full range of Catholic teachings, even the unpopular ones like contraception,” Nelson said.
“The guild provides the opportunity for significant education on bioethics and learning to witness for your faith in the larger medical community,” he added. “It is very serious about orthodox understanding of the faith and integrating that into your life.”
Dr. Clint Leonard received the St. Luke’s Award, which the group gives to a doctor who demonstrates the core values of a Catholic physician, witnessing the faith in the practice of medicine.
Leonard is a solo practitioner and one of only two OB/GYNs in the Valley who doesn’t prescribe contraceptives.
“I’m glad I was given the grace to accept the challenges,” Leonard said as he accepted the award.
U.S. Senator Jon Kyl received the Evangelium Vitae Award, which the guild gives to a person who speaks on behalf of and defends life.
The group meets on the first Tuesday of each month at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, beginning with the 5:30 p.m. Mass, followed by a presentation on topics concerning those in the medical field. This year’s theme is “Catholic Bioethics for Health Care Professionals.”
“Our biggest issue is that health care professionals don’t understand why the Church teaches what she teaches,” said Dr. Marci Moffitt, past president of the organization. “People will be surprised by the wisdom of the Church.”
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