Month: September 2020

Denver Newsroom, Sep 10, 2020 / 03:01 am (CNA).- A young Portland, Oregon area medical professional this year was fired for objecting to certain medical procedures on the grounds of her Catholic faith.

She was fired not from a secular hospital, however, but from a Catholic healthcare system— one that purports to follow Catholic teaching on bioethical issues.

“I definitely didn’t think that there was necessarily a need to hold Catholic institutions accountable for being pro-life and Catholic, but I’m hoping to spread awareness,” Megan Kreft, a physician assistant, told CNA.

“Not only is the fact that the sanctity of human life being undermined in our Catholic healthcare systems unfortunate— the fact that it’s being promoted and tolerated is unacceptable and frankly scandalous.”

Kreft told CNA she thought medicine would align well with her Catholic faith— although as a student, she did anticipate some challenges as a pro-life person working in healthcare.

Kreft attended Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. As expected, in medical school she encountered procedures such as contraception, sterilization, transgender services, and had to excuse herself from all of them.

She was able to work with the Title IX office to get a religious accommodation while in school, but ultimately her medical school experience led her to rule out working in the fields of primary care or women’s health.

“Those areas of medicine need providers who are committed to standing up for life more than any,” she said.

It was a tough decision, but she says she got the sense that the medical professionals who work in those fields tend to be more accepting of objectionable procedures like abortion or assisted suicide.

“We’re called in the field of medicine to really care for mind, body, and spirit,” she pointed out, adding that she as a patient has struggled to find life-affirming medical care.

Still, Kreft wanted to be open to whatever God was calling her to, and she came across a physician assistant position with Providence Medical Group, her local Catholic hospital in Sherwood, Oregon. The clinic is part of the larger Providence-St. Joseph Health system, a Catholic system with clinics across the country.

“I was hopeful that at least my desire to practice medicine consistent with my faith and conscience would be at least tolerated, at a minimum,” Kreft said.

The clinic offered her the job. As part of the employment process, she was asked to sign a document agreeing to conform to the institution’s Catholic identity and mission, and to the US bishops’ Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, which provide authoritative Catholic guidance on bioethical problems.

To Kreft, it seemed like a win-win. Not only would a Catholic approach to healthcare be tolerated in her new workplace; it seemed it would, at least on paper, be mandated, not just for her but for all employees. She happily signed the directives and accepted the position.

Before Kreft started work, however, she says one of the administrators at the clinic reached out to her to ask what medical procedures she would be willing to offer as a PA.

On the provided list— in addition to many benign procedures such as stitches or toenail removal— were such procedures as vasectomies, intrauterine device insertions, and emergency contraception.

Kreft was quite surprised to see those procedures on the list, because all of them go against the ERDs. But the clinic offered them to patients quite openly, she said.

It was discouraging, she says, but she vowed to stick to her conscience.

Within the first few weeks of work, Kreft said she had a physician recommend that she refer a patient for an abortion. She also found out that the clinic encouraged providers to prescribe hormonal contraception.

Kreft reached out to the clinic’s administration to tell them that she did not plan to participate in or refer for those services.

“I didn’t think I had to be explicit with that, because again, the organization said these were not services that they provided,” Kreft pointed out, “but I wanted to be up front and find a way forward.”

She also reached out to the National Catholic Bioethics Center for advice. Kreft said she spent many hours on the phone with Dr. Joe Zalot, a staff ethicist at the NCBC, strategizing on how to approach the ethical dilemmas she was facing.

Most people are not aware of the nuances of Catholic bioethics, and the NCBC exists to help healthcare providers and patients with those questions, Zalot told CNA. 

Zalot said the NCBC frequently gets calls from healthcare professionals who are being pressured to act in a way that violates their conscience. Most of the time, it’s Catholic clinicians in a secular system.

But every once in a while, he said, they receive calls from Catholics working in Catholic healthcare systems, like Megan, who are being similarly pressured.

“We see Catholic healthcare systems doing things they shouldn’t do, and some are worse than others,” he commented.

Kreft talked to her clinic manager and the chief mission integration officer about her concerns, and was told that the organization “does not police providers,” and that the patient-provider relationship is private and sacred.

Kreft found the clinic’s reply unsatisfactory.

“If you’re a system that doesn’t value the [ERDs], and you see them as red tape and aren’t going to put in the effort to see that they’re integrated or that staff and providers understand them— it’s almost better not to [sign them]. Let’s be consistent here; I was receiving very mixed messages,” Kreft said.

Despite the clinic’s insistence that it “does not police providers,” Kreft believed her healthcare decisions were being policed.

Kreft says her clinic manager at one point told her the clinic’s patient satisfaction scores could go down if she didn’t prescribe contraception. Eventually, the clinic prohibited Kreft from seeing any female patient of childbearing age— explicitly because of her beliefs about contraception.

One of the last patients Kreft saw was a young woman whom she had seen previously for an issue unrelated to family planning or women’s health. But at the end of the visit, she asked Kreft for emergency contraception.

Kreft tried to listen compassionately, but told the patient that she could not prescribe or refer for emergency contraception, citing Providence’s own policies on the matter.

However, when Kreft stepped out of the room, she realized that another healthcare provider had stepped in and was prescribing the patient emergency contraception.

A few weeks later, the regional medical director called Kreft in for a meeting and told Kreft that her actions had traumatized the patient, and that Kreft had “done the patient harm” and thus had broken the Hippocratic Oath.

“Those are big, significant claims to make about a healthcare provider. And here I was operating out of love and care for this woman, care for her from a medical and spiritual standpoint,” Kreft said.

“The patient was experiencing trauma, but it was from the situation she was in.”

Later on, Kreft approached the clinic and asked if they would allow her to take a course in Natural Family Planning for her continuing education requirement, and they refused because it was “not relevant” to her job.

The ERDs state that Catholic healthcare organizations have to provide NFP training as an alternative to hormonal contraception. Kreft said she was not aware of anyone at the clinic being trained in NFP. 

Eventually, the clinic’s leadership and HR informed Kreft that she had to sign a performance expectation document, stating that if a patient requests a service that she herself does not provide, Kreft would be obliged to refer the patient to another Providence healthcare provider.

This would involve Kreft referring for services that she in her medical judgement saw as a detriment to the patient, such as tubal ligations and abortions.

Kreft says she wrote to the health system leadership, reminding them of their Catholic identity and asking why there was such a disconnect between the ERDs and the hospital’s practices. She says she never received a response.

In October 2019, she was given a 90-day notice of termination because she would not sign the form.

Through mediation facilitated by the Thomas More Society, a Catholic law firm, Kreft agreed not to sue Providence, but was fired in early 2020.

Her goal in settling, she says, was to be able to  tell her story freely— something litigation may not have allowed her to do— and be a source of support for other medical professionals who have similar objections.

Kreft also filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services, which works with employers to come up with a corrective action plan to remedy civil rights violations, and could even pull federal funding if violations continue.

She says there are currently no major updates on that complaint; the ball is currently in the HHS’ court.

Providence Medical Group did not respond to CNA’s request for comment.

Kreft says by practicing pro-life healthcare, she had wanted to be “one small light” in her clinic, but that was “not tolerated or permitted in the organization at all.”

“I expected [opposition] in a secular hospital, where my training was, but the fact that it’s occurring within Providence is scandalous. And it’s confusing to patients and their loved ones.”

She recommended that any healthcare professional facing an ethical dilemma contact the NCBC, as they can help to translate and apply the Church’s teachings to real-life situations.

Zalot recommended that all Catholic healthcare workers familiarize themselves with the conscience protections in place at the hospital or clinic where they work, and if necessary seek legal representation.

Zalot said the NCBC is aware of at least one physician within the Providence Health System signing off on assisted suicides.

In another recent example, Zalot said he received a call from a healthcare worker at a different Catholic healthcare system who was observing gender-reassignment surgery taking place in their hospitals.

If workers or patients observe Catholic hospitals doing things contrary to the ERDs, they should contact their diocese, Zalot advised. The NCBC can, at the invitation of a local bishop, perform an “audit” of a hospital’s Catholicity and present the bishop with recommendations, he said.

Kreft is, in some ways, still reeling after being fired six months into her first medical job.

Though she is not entirely sure what God is calling her to next, she is looking to get involved with My Catholic Doctor, a national telehealth platform, to teach NFP and provide primary care services, with the goal of someday transitioning back to a brick and mortar clinical practice.

In the meantime, she’s trying to be an advocate for others who may be in a situation similar to hers, and hopes to encourage Catholic hospitals to choose to reform, and provide “the life-affirming healthcare that they were founded to provide.”

“There are probably other healthcare providers, even within Providence, that have experienced similar situations. But I imagine Providence is not the only Catholic healthcare system in the country that struggles with this.”

[…]

Denver Newsroom, Sep 10, 2020 / 12:23 am (CNA).- Boise, Idaho is one of the fastest growing boomtowns in the U.S. The state as a whole is increasing in population by 2% or more each year as more and more people come for the relatively cheap cost of living and natural beauty of the state.

But that population and prosperity boom is coming at a cost. Home prices and rents are soaring, and some residents teeter on the brink of homelessness as a result.

For Ralph May, executive director of St Vincent de Paul of Southwest Idaho, helping the poor is a task in which he finds great joy— and one which has brought him and his family to some of the most poverty-stricken areas of the entire world.

“I’ve always been driven by the Gospel message of ‘Loving your neighbor as yourself.’ It’s just been a driver in my life, and I have felt inadequate at times, not even being able to come close to fulfilling that. But I’ve always been able to feel and touch God through other people, and particularly the poor,” he told CNA.

“That’s a tenet of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul— that we need the poor to teach us, that we need to be taught and understand God through the poor. I guess I’ve felt that strongly from the very beginning, and I’ve been blessed to have had the opportunity to do something about that at times.”

‘We have to go’

Ralph is a cradle Catholic, born and raised in the small town of Wendell, Idaho. After getting a degree from the University of Idaho— where he met his wife— Ralph returned to Wendell to start a joint farming venture with his father. He and his father eventually built their partnership into a successful 1,100 acre farm.

At the same time, Ralph was very involved with their local Catholic parish, and also got involved in Cursillo, a Spanish lay community founded in 1944.

In 1997, Ralph heard about a Catholic orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico, that was in dire need of aid— a building falling apart, and many children suffering from disabilities and various illnesses, including a few that were HIV positive.

While many people of good will might be moved to pray or donate to try and help, Ralph had other ideas.

He remembers thinking at the time: “There’s no other choice. We have to go.”

As soon as the school year ended, the whole May family, including the kids, drove down from Idaho to Tijuana, working for five days at the orphanage doing as much as they could to help.

When they left to head home, Ralph said they vowed to come back the following October, which they did, leading an extensive renovation of the entire orphanage upon that second visit. 

Ralph even worked out a deal to bring the sisters and kids from the orphanage to Idaho for Christmas one year. He estimates he made nearly 30 trips to Tijuana over the next six or seven years.

‘A beautiful experience’

It was around this time that Ralph realized he had the heart of a full-time missionary. So he left his farming partnership with his father, and he and his wife, Theresa, set about changing their career paths.

Ralph and Theresa wanted to learn Spanish, so they moved the family to Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2003 for a three-month intensive language course.

Eventually, the family landed in a very poor area of Peru, near the large city of Trujillo. The area was very dangerous at the time, with high crime, no paved roads, most houses having only a dirt floor, and water available only once a week.

In terms of the Catholic community, there were 180,000 people living within the local parish boundaries, which had one main church and 5 small chapels spread throughout the area. Ralph started building gardens at all of them, and Theresa did a lot of youth ministry and music ministry work for the parish. 

A large Catholic school, run by Spanish and Peruvian nuns, recruited Ralph to teach horticulture classes to the kids three times a week, which he did for the next two years.

Eventually Ralph paired up with another Catholic to form a nonprofit in Peru. He would go house to house to figure out the most critical needs for each poor family, and then recruited services to come in and help the poor neighborhoods. He also liased between university students who wanted to do service and the poor neighborhoods that needed their help.

His organization supported working mothers, teaching them skills such as cooking, and classes on how to build businesses. They also launched seven medical campaigns, bringing in doctors, dentists, and psychologists to poor villages and neighborhoods. 

Another project they undertook involved the hiring of local people to collect garbage and plant over 2,000 trees in the community.

After a brief vacation in Europe, the family returned to the Peruvian jungle in 2011, and bought a dairy farm there which eventually became very productive and successful.

“It was such a beautiful experience to be with these humble people in their time of need,” Ralph said of his time in South America.

A new start

Family matters— including Theresa’s mother being diagnosed with cancer— led the family to come back to the U.S., to Boise, in 2015.

Teresa began working as an accountant, and Ralph took a “vacation” of several months, laying low and working in their garden.

Eventually, he started volunteering with the Red Cross, helping with disaster assistance, rising to the position of logistics manager for the region.

Then, in 2016, Ralph met a woman who was volunteering with the Red Cross as a nurse, who was also the incoming president for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVDP) for the area.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is an international lay Catholic organization whose members operate food pantries, provide housing assistance, and make house visits to the needy.

St. Vincent de Paul has around 4,400 locations across the U.S., falling into two main categories— conferences, which are associated with parishes; and councils, which are organized roughly at the diocese-wide level and tend to be bigger operations with more partnerships.

Ralph started doing some special projects for SVDP, starting a ministry for men and women coming out of prison— a ministry he had never done before, but which he very much enjoyed.

In 2017, SVDP applied for a major grant to get an executive director for the southwest Idaho council. Ralph was selected to serve as the region’s first executive director.

‘We can do something about this’

In southwest Idaho, Ralph says, a lot of people are new to the area and don’t have community ties or friends to support them, which provides a good opportunity for SVDP volunteers to act as good neighbors for those in need.

Ralph says even though he has been away from South America for five years, his experience working with the poorest of the poor there has given him valuable perspective.

When he approaches the poor in the United States, his knowledge and experience from working in Peru “allows me to continue to roll up my sleeves and say ok, we can do something about this.”

The poverty he encountered in South America is “so much graver” than the poverty he generally encounters in the US, he said. In Peru, there are fewer resources available in the communities, and it is much more difficult to make a real difference.

In contrast, there are many good people and nonprofits in Idaho that are willing to answer SVDP’s pleas for resources. That simply didn’t exist in Peru, he said.

“I have never felt despair here, working with the poor. There’s a lot of poor, and in their circumstances it is grave. But I think that perspective has been a very strong thing and a very good thing in my life.”

At SVDP, Ralph says, the biggest things they do is rental and housing assistance, working to prevent homelessness. They also provide clothing and household goods, and do home visits to the elderly— though during the pandemic they have adapted to doing patio visits or regular phone calls.

SVDP also runs five food pantries throughout the state that serve some 1,500 families a month. When COVID-19 hit, Ralph says their pantry converted to drive-thru service.

Ralph says SVDP Southwest Idaho has provided at least half a million dollars in direct aid in the last year, handling some 40-60 calls per day.

Despite the continued challenges of the coronavirus and changing demographics, “we’re on a great path these days,” he said.

[…]

CNA Staff, Sep 9, 2020 / 06:11 pm (CNA).- A priest in Omaha who was removed from ministry in 2018 following claims of boundary violations is suing the Archdiocese of Omaha, saying he was treated unfairly and denied due process.

Last month, Fr. Andrew … […]

Washington D.C., Sep 9, 2020 / 05:54 pm (CNA).- On the feast of St. Peter Claver, bishops in the U.S. preached on overcoming the sin of racism through God’s grace.

On August 27, the chair of the U.S. bishops’ anti-racism committee, Bishop … […]