VANCOUVER (CCN) — Just days after the conclusion of a B.C. Supreme Court trial that could determine whether faith-based hospitals can operate according to their religious ethics, Archbishop Richard Smith used his World Day of the Sick homily to call on Catholics to defend the mission of Catholic health care.
“It is very important that we not take their existence for granted but be vigilant to strengthen and secure them,” Archbishop Smith said during the Feb. 11 Mass at Our Lady of Sorrows in Vancouver. The Mass marks the Church’s annual observance of care for the sick and suffering.
On Feb. 6, proceedings wrapped up in B.C. Supreme Court in a case examining medical assistance in dying and Catholic health-care institutions operated within the provincial health system.
At the heart of the case is the 1995 Master Agreement between the province and the Denominational Health Association, a framework that has allowed Catholic hospitals to receive public funding while operating according to their faith-based ethics.
Speaking on the Church’s long-standing mission to care for the sick, the archbishop said that from “the beginning of her existence, the Church has understood care of the sick and suffering as an integral part of her mission,” rooted in the healing ministry of Jesus Christ.
“In this year’s World Day of the Sick, I would like to draw particular attention to the great importance of our faith-based institutions,” he said, noting the distinctive role of Catholic hospitals in B.C. and describing them as standing “at the centre of the Church’s healing ministry.”
The archbishop thanked doctors, nurses, administrators, support staff, chaplains, and volunteers working in Catholic health care, saying that “to those who suffer, they are the face of the Church.”
He said Catholic institutions are guided by “the inalienable dignity of each and every human being, from conception to natural death,” and that this principle must “permeate the entirety of their operations.”
Within the provincial health-care system, which he described as having grown “from those early Catholic hospitals as from a root,” he said faith-based institutions continue to serve as a visible reminder of the dignity of the human person.
“Since they stand as a visible reminder that the sick and suffering are especially close to the heart of the Lord himself, the mission and integrity of our Catholic hospitals must be recognized, valued, and guarded as integral to our entire health-care system,” he said.
