Keeping Catholic hospitals Catholic an uphill battle, physician says

Published: 2004-08-27

CHICAGO (CNS) -- Keeping Catholic hospitals Catholic will be an uphill battle, Dr. Eugene Diamond told the Catholic Citizens Forum in Chicago Aug.13. Diamond, a professor of pediatrics and acting chairman of the pediatrics department at Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine in Maywood, began with good news: There are 600 Catholic hospitals and 700 Catholic nursing homes nationwide. Agencies of the church maintain four of the country's 10 largest health care systems. While Catholics can be proud of all the services the Catholic health community renders, he said, they can be equally proud of what it doesn't do. "Catholic hospitals don't kill people," said Diamond, who also serves as director of the Catholic Medical Association's Linacre Institute. "They don't do or refer abortions. They don't provide abortifacient contraceptives. They don't provide services like fetal stem-cell research, cloning or the morning-after pill." He said the church is not adverse to technology, it's just that "we do all things except those which violate the Fifth Commandment."

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