Catholic Medical Professionals' Service Founded In Faith

The Southwest Indiana Guild of the Catholic Medical Association hosted a presentation immediately following the Oct. 12 White Mass that featured a panel discussion on practicing medicine while following the tenets of our Catholic faith. This 45-minute session allowed audience members to ask questions and elaborate on the challenges that face medical providers in today’s society.

Rachel Forbes Kaufman, Secretary-Treasurer of the Catholic Medical Association, welcomed the crowd gathered in the Naomi room at St. John the Baptist Parish in Newburgh, and introduced fellow panelists Jim Schroeder, Ph.D., Pediatric Psychologist who works for St. Mary’s Health System; George Kane, medical student at Indiana University; and Dr. Aaron Dewees, neonatal specialist and chair of the ethics committee at St. Mary’s Hospital in Evansville.  

Schroeder opened the discussion by offering three questions to serve as the basis for discussion:

• How do we as Catholic healthcare providers deal with challenges that contradict our faith values?

• How do we better serve and form, both as a physician or a provider and as a church body, those who attempt to live out Catholic ideals?

• How do we as providers remain relevant to those who share differing values of various kinds?  

    Schroeder and other members of the Southwest Indiana Guild of the Catholic Medical Association will be writing about these and other relevant topics in a regular column that will appear for The Message. It is initially scheduled to appear in the six issues of the paper published annually that are distributed to every registered household in the diocese.

    For more information on the Southwest Indiana Guild of the Catholic Medical Association, contact Kaufman at kaufman@twc.com.