Health care workers have duty to share Christ, says Wisconsin bishop

Published: 2006-03-31

DETROIT (CNS) -- Catholic physicians and health care workers have a duty to share the love of Christ with those to whom they minister, said Bishop Robert C. Morlino of Madison, Wis., in a March 26 talk at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. The bishop said that message is found in Pope Benedict XVI's recent encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est" ("God Is Love"). Fundamental to the Catholic understanding of health care is that "the practice of medicine is more of an art than a science," said Bishop Morlino in a talk that followed the annual Rose Mass for health care workers in Detroit. He also stressed that health is "more than the absence of sickness." The bishop, who is chairman of the board of the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, noted that those in health care, especially physicians, are in a special position when it comes to talking to people about God. "When people go to the doctor, they actually pay attention. I wish I could say that was true about the homily at Mass," he said.

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