Saint Gianna Physician's Guild Opposes Anti-Catholic Governmental Discrimination

An Association of Catholic Doctors and Nurses to Defend Life and Family against the Culture of Death

The Department of Health and Human Services has adopted new guidelines for women's "health". The guidelines are not only morally offensive, they discriminate against Catholic institutions and against doctors and nurses (and others). But the Saint Gianna Physician's Guild is taking a stand against this discrimination and serves as an example for us all.

P>KNOXVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) - The Department of Health and Human Services adopted new guidelines for women's health on August 1, 2011. The guidelines mandate coverage for contraceptives, surgical sterilization and contraceptive counseling. These guidelines are not only morally offensive, they discriminate against Catholic institutions such as hospitals, clinics, social service agencies, and schools. They also discriminate against doctors and nurses (and other healthcare professionals).

It is easy to see how these guidelines discriminate against Catholic institutions. In addition to being opposed to Catholic moral teaching, the guidelines contain an exemption for religious institutions, but in reality it does not protect religious freedom. For instance, the guidelines only exempt Catholic institutions which are non-profit and, for all practical purposes, which do not serve or employ non-Catholics. How can any institution provide quality services and survive economically if the government severely restricts its customer base and the pool from which it can hire qualified employees?

Moreover, it is not just Catholic institutions being discriminated against. Based on the medical nature of these guidelines, they dramatically affect many Catholic doctors and nurses (and other healthcare professionals), whether they work in religious or non-religious settings. These guidelines do not allow for the free exercise of conscience. Rather, they demand that Catholic doctors and nurses conform to atheistic and secular values.

The message is clear: if you do not check your ethical standards at the door, you need not apply for many employment opportunities in healthcare. It seems that Martha Coakley, the Attorney General for the state of Massachusetts, spoke prophetically in 2010 when she said Catholics who believe what the Pope teaches about birth control should probably not bother working in an emergency room. In light of these new guidelines, then, we might wonder what the future holds for good, holy, Catholic doctors and nurses. 

We may not need to wonder for long because one group of Catholics intends to influence that future. It is taking a stand against these discriminatory guidelines. I am referring to the Saint Gianna Physician's Guild. It is based in San Diego, California. Saint Gianna Molla was a doctor and a mother. She heroically sacrificed her life for her unborn child in 1962 due to complications caused by a tumor that developed while she was pregnant.

The main mission of the Saint Gianna Physician's Guild is to encourage and unite Catholic doctors and other healthcare professionals. The guild promotes and defends principles important to Catholics and to help its members grow in holiness. With this mission in mind, the guild has begun a petition in response to the discriminatory guidelines being mandated by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The purpose of the petition is to ask the government to remove its discriminatory language and provide a conscience clause that will meaningfully protect religious freedom. Thomas McKenna, the president of the guild, said, "We are going to send a message to the Obama administration that this contraception mandate is wrong, discriminatory and violates the religious rights of Catholics all across America."

The petition states that the guidelines are biased, bad medicine, encourage unhealthy and immoral sexual practices, and that they will result in the spread STD's and more abortions. It references findings by the Guttmacher Institute. According to their findings, more than "50 percent of  women go to abortion clinics because of failed birth control." And it states that the International Agency of Cancer Research, which is under the World Health Organization, has classified many approved birth control methods as Group 1 carcinogens.

The petition is short, about one page in length. If you are interested in reading it in its entirety and possibly signing it, you can find it on the guild's website at http://www.stgiannaphysicians.org/. Membership in the Saint Gianna Physician's Guild is open to healthcare professionals and all Catholics interested in the future of healthcare in the United States.

The Saint Gianna Physician's Guild not only offers us an opportunity to stand up to government discrimination, it also reminds us of the intense pressure that our Catholic doctors and nurses (and other healthcare professionals) are experiencing in an industry which is being secularized and undergoing dramatic moral changes. Thus, it reminds us to pray for them and the future of the healthcare industry.

The guild also offers us a wider perspective. It is an outstanding example of how Catholics can stand up to a government that is becoming increasingly hostile toward them in all areas of social life, not just healthcare. Consequently, in a certain respect, the guild reminds us of who we are and of our responsibility as lay Catholics. These ideas are summed up in paragraph 898 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

"By reason of their special vocation it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God's will. . . . It pertains to them in a special way so to illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are closely associated that these may always be effected and grow according to Christ and may be to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer." We have much work to do.
 
 -----

Michael Terheyden was born into a Catholic family, but that is not why he is a Catholic. He is a Catholic because he believes that truth is real, that it is beautiful and good, and that the fullness of truth is in the Catholic Church. However, he knows that God's grace operating throughout his life is the main reason he is a Catholic. He is greatly blessed to share his faith and his life with his beautiful wife, Dorothy. They have four grown children and three grandchildren.

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'

Copyright 2021 - Distributed by Catholic Online