Abstract

Today, Catholic health care involves complex medical professional organizations, incredible technological and scientific accomplishments, prohibitive costs, and interfering governmental participation. Notwithstanding the challenges presented by the structural transformation of Catholic hospitals in recent years, Pope Francis’s instruction revives the duty of health care professionals to act as missionaries. This essay explores why Francis maintains the importance of building Catholic health care during these changing circumstances. Confronting the penchant of our modern medical culture to marginalize the weakest members of our society, Francis addresses the perils that follow when health care professionals are no longer seen as servants to the dignity of all life. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 14.3 : 421–428.