CHA head's resignation won't end lifetime commitment to health care

Published: 2005-01-25

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Fittingly, Father Michael D. Place's last day as president of Catholic Health Association falls on Feb. 11, the World Day of the Sick. The date was chosen to coincide with the close of a meeting of the CHA board of trustees, but it also serves as an apt symbol for the concern that has driven the Chicago archdiocesan priest for much of his life -- care of the sick and dying. Although the post of CHA president is far removed from hands-on health ministry, that care is felt by millions of Americans each year through the more than 2,000 U.S. Catholic health care sponsors, systems, facilities and other organizations that make up the association headed by Father Place for the past seven years. "The heart of what Catholic health care does is in how it helps the poor and vulnerable," he told Catholic News Service in a Jan. 19 interview at the association's Washington office. Whatever his next job turns out to be, "I'm not going to leave the issues or the themes" of health care, said the 60-year-old priest. "I'm not going to go away."

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