New group gives doctors
of faith a shot in the arm

By Tanya Connor

Catholic doctors are seeking to help each other bring their faith to work and apply their work to the faith. To do so, they’ve formed a guild.

A new Catholic wanting contact with peers initiated it. Dr. John Howland, family physician at St. Luke’s Health Center in Southbridge, who became Catholic in 2003, said he called the Catholic Medical Association, a national organization of physicians, and learned of its local members.

The Catholic Medical Association was formed by diocesan guilds, the first of which began in Boston in 1912, but the Worcester Diocese never had one, he said.

“When we go to the annual meetings (of the national organization) it’s like a shot in the arm,” said Dr. Paul A. Carpentier, of In His Image Family Medicine in Gardner. “But that’s just once a year, and you feel like you’re going back to the wilderness.”

Dr. Howland said he, Dr. Carpentier and Father Peter R. Beaulieu, director of Mission Integration and Pastoral Care at St. Vincent Hospital, met with Bishop McManus last fall about forming a guild. He said the bishop was supportive and asked Father Beaulieu to be chaplain.

“I think it’s good that we have people who support the Church’s position and act accordingly,” Father Beaulieu said, explaining that priests should proclaim the teachings, but physicians have to live them out.

Dr. Howland said Catholic doctors supported forming a guild, chose an interim board of directors, and on Jan. 28 got approval for the Worcester Guild of the Catholic Medical Association. Physicians and dentists can be full members. Others, including clergy, religious, nurses and allied health care professionals, can be associate members.

“Christ calls us to be salt and light,” he said. “By coming together we can encourage each other to better share our gifts – by being outstanding physicians.”

The guild’s focuses are education, mutual support and outreach, he said. Members need to learn how Church teachings relate to health care and encourage each other to bring what they learn at Sunday Mass to work on Monday. They can witness in the community by speaking out about medical ethics. He cautioned against too quickly telling others how to live ethically, however, and said, “The first priority is knowing Christ and walking with Christ in our own lives.”

“I’m interested in improving my own spiritual life,” said Dr. Robert Perry, a family physician in Winchendon. “I think we really have to take into account the spiritual needs of our patients,” and that requires working on one’s own spirituality and praying together. He also expressed interest in discussing things like patients’ social poverty, environmental problems and end-of-life issues.

In France he was in an ecumenical physicians’ groups, he said, and suggested that other Christians might be interested in the guild, and that working together might be the best way to evangelize.

“Often you’re kind of afraid to talk about Catholic values in a secular medical setting,” said Dr. Mark Rollo, a family physician in Fitchburg. He expressed hope that doctors be courageous and help bring about change in fellow workers.

“If anywhere you need a counterweight, it’s in Massachusetts,” he said, explaining that the birth control pill was created here and now biotechnology researchers seek to make money off embryo destruction. Catholic doctors can counter such things by offering conferences and responding to information in the media, he said.

Dr. Carpentier, a Certified Fertility Care Medical Consultant, suggested using panels with a doctor addressing medical issues, a priest addressing moral issues and a parishioner offering personal witness. He said guild members, who have expertise in various aspects of medicine, can also answer clergy’s questions and give talks to clergy, the guild and others.

Dr. John Worden, a family physician in Gardner, said they can be a resource for priests who know moral teaching but don’t have a doctor to send parishioners to for things like alternatives to contraception. His wife, Dr. Rebecca Worden, also a family physicianin Gardner, said she and her husband attend national meetings, but she was looking for local support.

– For more information see the Web site, www.worcestercma.org, or call Dr. John Howland at 508-764-9800.