title: Catholic healthcare as "leaven". To penetrate and renew society, Catholic healthcare must meet five requirements.
abstract: Pope Paul VI described the church as the "leaven" of civil society. Catholic healthcare should strive to be the leaven of U.S. healthcare. To achieve this, it must do five things: Immerse itself in civil society. Catholic healthcare professionals and organizations should participate in efforts to improve public health, even when they are not in full agreement with those efforts. Provide high-quality care. Such care is not always easy to define, but Catholic healthcare can and should set high objective standards for the well-being of its patients. Minister to the suffering and dying. The Catholic view of suffering and death as necessary for human fulfillment is a countercultural idea in our society. Catholic healthcare should, while eliminating physical pain when possible, help people to die in a holy atmosphere. Be a responsible, just employer. Catholic healthcare should treat employees as individuals worthy of respect, not as economic units. Be advocates for the poor. Catholic healthcare should not only provide charity care for the poor; it should also work for universal coverage, care based on need rather than on ability to pay for it.
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Care Ethics, Saint Louis University, USA.
authors.forename: K D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: O'Rourke
mesh_terms: D002410:Catholicism; D018672:Community Health Planning / Q000592:standards*; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D028681:Moral Obligations; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D010344:Patient Advocacy; D011203:Poverty; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012935:Social Justice; D012945:Social Values; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D013727:Terminal Care; D028725:Theology; D014481:United States