Dear Friends in Christ,

Happy Eastertide! Christ is risen! Alleluia!!!

As we journey through the Easter Season anticipating the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, we realize that Christ is risen. Even in the relentless assault on life and religious freedom in health care, we have confidence that truth and life will prevail because Jesus reigns.

However, recent events serve notice that the battle in defense of life and liberty may be entering an even more contentious phase than we have previously experienced in America. The unprecedented leak of a Supreme Court majority draft opinion in the Mississippi abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, along with the subsequent vicious vandalism of pro-life pregnancy help centers and Catholic Churches is cause for deep concern.

In this environment, the mission of the CHCLA to promote and defend Catholic moral, ethical and social principles regarding the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of life is all the more important. The restoration of these foundational principles to the ministry of healthcare will require us to unite as the Body of Christ. Failing to do so will have untold devastating consequences.

Success will require our unwavering trust in the Providence of God, along with a level of cooperation and collaboration that we’ve not previously witnessed in health care delivery and medical care. This is precisely why the Alliance exists – to bring together the best in medicine, law, bioethics, administration, public policy and pastoral care, with the guidance and support of our Catholic Bishops. The secularized, bureaucratized, politicized medical industrial complex in America is deeply infected by the culture of death, and represents a growing threat to authentic health care. The Alliance stands for a pro-life, pro-family, Christ centered medical ministry that fosters a culture of life and love. This is what our country needs to heal, and this is what we intend to do with your help and participation.

Visit our website today, and find the membership opportunity that’s right for you, whether you are an individual, small group, clinic, hospital, health system, or non-profit that shares this vision for Catholic healthcare.

Even in the chaos and confusion of today, we proceed with confident assurance that our faithfulness, united in the Holy Spirit, abiding in the Love of Christ, our Father’s Will – will prevail.

Sincerely in Christ,

Steven White, M.D.

President, CHCLA

For Individual Catholic Health Care Professionals who are practicing Catholics and are actively practicing in the field of health care, such as physicians, nurses, or other allied health care professionals..

For Individual Catholic Health Care Administrators who are practicing Catholics and are involved in administration at any health care facility or system.

For Retired Individual Catholic Health Care Professionals or Administrators who are practicing Catholics and are no longer practicing in the field of health care. It may include retired physicians, nurses, allied health care professionals, or administrators.

For Individual Catholic Health Care Students in a pre-medical program, medical school, or residency program who are practicing Catholics.

For Catholic Health Care Practice Groups of 2 to 20 employees whose practice is in compliance with the Ethical and Religious Directives and the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Catholic Health Care Organization (Contact us for additional information)

For Catholic Health Care Organizations including any individual hospital, clinic, laboratory, research group, nursing home, or other health care related entity, who agrees to comply with the Ethical and Religious Directives and the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Catholic Health Care Systems (Contact us for additional information)

For Catholic Health Care Systems including any organization comprised of multiple health care facilities who collectively agree to comply with the Ethical and Religious Directives and the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Non-Profit Organizations (Contact us for additional information)

For Non-Profit Organizations that are supportive of the mission of CHCLA and desire to partner with the work of CHCLA.

On April 8, the CHCLA met with government officials from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to oppose the anticipated gender identity rule under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. HHS intended to propose the rule by April 2022 but it still hasn’t been published. It would redefine sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity. This change would require that hospitals, doctors, clinics, and other health care professionals, would have to provide harmful medical interventions and to perform mutilating transgender surgeries on both adults and children against their best ethical and medical judgments. Dr. Steven White, President of CHCLA participated at this meeting with HHS and said: “As faith-based health care institutions, we have a right to practice medicine according to Catholic ethics and our conscience, and not be forced to participate in harmful and dangerous procedures on our patients. We went into medicine to heal, not to harm our patients.” For the full press release, please click here.

Louis Brown, Jr. J.D., executive director of the Christ Medicus Foundation, and Board Member for CHCLA, wrote for The Hill that HHS should do more to protect human dignity in America. HHS is expected soon to roll back medical conscience protections and coerce unethical procedures that are harmful for patients. The new HHS regulations would in effect devastate access to Catholic medical care and other faith-based care across the board that are the backbone of caring for patients, especially the poor, in our country. The HHS regulations would also undermine human dignity in the medical care of patients and would seriously damage pro-life care in America. For the entire article, click here.

At the end of April, the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) issued an updated statement on vaccine mandates. They clarified that they do not endorse mandated COVID-19 immunization with any of the three vaccines. They stressed that several key points should be kept in mind by any institution that is considering incentivizing or requiring the use of COVID-19 vaccines. First, the Catholic Church has consistently pointed out the ethical problems with vaccines produced and/or tested using abortion-derived cell lines. The Church has judged it permissible for people to either accept (under protest) or reject the use of such vaccines. Second, the best ethical decision-making occurs when individuals have sufficient information for discernment and are able to reflect without undue external pressures placed on them. Mandates, by their very nature, exert pressure that can be severe if employment or the ability to further one’s education are threatened. Joseph Meaney, Ph.D., a Board Member at CHCLA, is the President of the National Catholic Bioethics Center. See the NCBC’s full statement here.

Arina Grossu, CHCLA consultant and strategist, published a Washington Insider piece in the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly highlighting pro-life updates regarding the upcoming Supreme Court decision in the Dobbs case and what a post-Roe America would look like at the state level; other state pro-life updates; federal regulatory updates including threats to conscience and religious freedom for doctors; information about the state of chemical abortion and the abortion pill reversal; and information about CHCLA. To read the original article, click here.

Roger Severino, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he heads the HHS Accountability Project, recently wrote about gender regulations at HHS. He pointed out the unlikeness of recent developments at HHS--the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an HHS sub-agency, just abandoned its plans to force millions of people to pay for other people’s transgender treatments by declaring them “essential health benefits” under proposed Obamacare insurance regulations. See the full article here.

June 12-19, 2022 in Ave Maria, Florida

September 8-10, 2022 in Denver, Colorado

The 2022 Conference will be October 13-15, 2022 in Dallas, Texas

https://catholicbar.org/event-4565336