{"id":112848,"date":"2013-10-28T13:16:16","date_gmt":"2013-10-28T17:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?p=112848"},"modified":"2013-10-28T13:20:35","modified_gmt":"2013-10-28T17:20:35","slug":"la-times-offers-a-gentle-shallow-catholic-health-care-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/la-times-offers-a-gentle-shallow-catholic-health-care-story\/","title":{"rendered":"LA Times offers a gentle, shallow Catholic health-care story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe>\n<\/p>I was encouraged, and a bit surprised, that the editorial team at The Los Angeles Times<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/latimes.com\/local\/la-me-white-mass-20131028,0,7729536.story\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">elected to cover the local White Mass<\/a> honoring Catholics who work in health-care jobs, in Catholic hospitals and in other settings.<\/p>\nI was also happy, and surprised, that the story focused on the spiritual side of this story with several professionals talking about the degree to which it is natural to consider the needs of souls while attempting to heal the bodies of those who are suffering. <\/p>\nI was surprised, you see, that this story didn\u2019t focus on some of the very real political conflicts that are currently threatening faith-based health institutions. Instead, the story offered \u2014 appropriately so \u2014 kind voices of pastoral experience that blended into the reporting like this:<\/p>\n<blockquote>An annual tradition since 2009, the event has outgrown several local churches that once hosted the mass. Sunday was the first time it was held at the cathedral.<\/p>\n\u201cPeople think healthcare and God go together automatically, but work isn\u2019t always a God-filled place,\u201d said Kathleen Grelich, a physical therapist who attended the mass for the first time. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to merge that here.\u201d<\/p>\nNamed for the white lab coats worn by many in the medical profession, the service is held around the Feast of St. Luke, the patron saint of healers. Archbishop Jos\u00e9 Gomez urged attendees to bring \u201cGod\u2019s love and care to every person and patient\u201d they meet to heal the body and spirit. He called healthcare professionals \u201capostles of love.\u201d \u2026<\/p>\nWorshipers, some wearing white coats, stood with their hands cupped in front of them while the Archbishop performed the \u201cblessing of the hands\u201d to pray for their strength, skill, sensitivity and steadiness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSo what is missing?<\/p>\nAt first, I was happy that this story contained very little, if any, political content. However, the more I thought about that hole in the story the more troubled I became.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nIs it possible right now to write about Catholics and health care without talking about the increasing pressures on Catholic institutions to water down their teachings on issues related to abortion, contraception, euthanasia and other hot-button topics linked to what the Blessed John Paul II called the \u201cculture of life\u201d and its struggle with the powers linked to the modern \u201cculture of death\u201d?<\/p>\nIs it possible to completely ignore the church\u2019s decades of support for universal health care, yet the divisions that now exist in Catholic institutions caused by the fine details of the new Obamacare regime? <\/p>\nI also noted, when watching the White Mass sermon by Cardinal Gomez (found on YouTube), that he consistently urged his listeners to dare to be \u201cquiet missionaries of the culture of life.\u201d He also stressed the importance of Catholic health-care workers remaining totally committed to the faith and teachings of the Catholic Church, even seeing their work as a doorway to effective evangelism of the the lost. It is important for the society and for the church for health-care workers to let their faith touch every detail of their work, he said.<\/p>\nIn the current context, those words have pastoral, doctrinal and<\/em> political implications. The Los Angeles Times<\/em> team missed that side of the event.<\/p>\nThe closest the story came to any of these debates? There is a slight hint in the words of Dr. Eli Ayoub of the local St. Francis Medical Center, who was named the national Catholic doctor of the year:<\/p>\n<blockquote>The first local recipient of the mission organization\u2019s honor, Ayoub said he often works with patients who don\u2019t have insurance. He has brought a mobile clinic to his native Lebanon every year for three decades, and his five children now travel with him abroad to bring healthcare to people in need.<\/p>\n\u201cThere\u2019s nothing like working with a lady who is gasping for breath in the ER and seeing a smile on her face the next day,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a pleasure to take care of those patients.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSo this is a lovely little story. That\u2019s good. <\/p>\nUnfortunately, we live in an era in which faithful Catholic health-care work is often linked to tensions and problems that are far from lovely and the strife is real. Sadly, that was part of the story in this event \u2014 as the cardinal gently noted.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I was encouraged, and a bit surprised, that the editorial team at The Los Angeles Times elected to cover the local White Mass honoring Catholics who work in health-care jobs, in Catholic hospitals and in other settings. I was also happy, and surprised, that the story focused on the spiritual side of this story with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,3,12,106,29,4,24,48],"tags":[1029,2515,660,253,658,2514],"class_list":["post-112848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholicism","category-politics","category-religion","category-religious-liberty","category-science","category-social-issues","category-world","category-worship","tag-archbishop-jose-gomez","tag-catholic-hospitals","tag-health-care","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-obamacare","tag-white-mass"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>LA Times offers a gentle, shallow Catholic health-care story<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I was encouraged, and a bit surprised, that the editorial team at The Los Angeles Times elected to cover the local White Mass honoring Catholics who work\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/la-times-offers-a-gentle-shallow-catholic-health-care-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LA Times offers a gentle, shallow Catholic health-care story\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was encouraged, and a bit surprised, that the editorial team at The Los Angeles Times elected to cover the local White Mass honoring Catholics who work\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/la-times-offers-a-gentle-shallow-catholic-health-care-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GetReligion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-28T17:16:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-10-28T17:20:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/la-times-offers-a-gentle-shallow-catholic-health-care-story\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/la-times-offers-a-gentle-shallow-catholic-health-care-story\/\",\"name\":\"LA Times offers a gentle, shallow Catholic health-care story\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-28T17:16:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-10-28T17:20:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"I was encouraged, and a bit surprised, that the editorial team at The Los Angeles Times elected to cover the local White Mass honoring Catholics who work\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/la-times-offers-a-gentle-shallow-catholic-health-care-story\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/la-times-offers-a-gentle-shallow-catholic-health-care-story\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/la-times-offers-a-gentle-shallow-catholic-health-care-story\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"LA Times offers a gentle, shallow Catholic health-care story\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/\",\"name\":\"GetReligion\",\"description\":\""The press . . . just doesn't get religion." - 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