Tidings July 2009
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Mission: Believing in the worth and digni - ty of the human Catholic Health Association of Minnesota person made in the P.O. Box 65217 image and likeness St. Paul, MN 55165-0217 of God, the Catholic Health July, 2009 Association- Minnesota assists its members Mark Your Legislative to fulfill the calendar As I See It healing mission of Overview: the Church. September 16-18, 2009 A Challenging Session MHA Annual Meeting Madden’s, Gull Lake n a legislative year when the wide - MinnesotaCare as a Inquiring minds FFI: www.mnhospitals.org Ispread prediction was a drawn out bat - result of provisions Catholic Health Association of Minnesota tle with additional sessions, the conclusion that reduce cost Board of Directors October 1, 2009 caught many by surprise. The 2009 leg - and administrative want to know... Toby Pearson, Ms. Phyllis Novitskie, President Healthy Kids, Healthy Future islative session ended without agreement barriers. The newly CHA-MN ...what’s happening in your organization. Please send your news HealthEast St. Joseph’s Hospital Day 2009 on how to close the $6.4 billion budget enacted provisions are 651) 232-3434; [email protected] Executive Director to Toby Pearson, CHA-MN executive director. Telephone: shortfall. The stalemate centered on paid for out of existing Mr. Bret Reuter, President-Elect (651) 503-2163; e-mail: [email protected]. Ask your public February 4, 2010 Governor Pawlenty’s firm stand on no new resources in the Health Care Access Fund, St. Cloud Hospital/St. Benedict’s Senior Community relations or communications director to put us on the news Start of the 2010 Minnesota taxes and the legislature’s attempt to miti - which pays for MinnesotaCare. These (320) 251-2700; [email protected] release list: CHA-MN, P.O. Box 65217, St. Paul, MN 55165. I Legislative Session gate cuts and provide a structurally sound changes were a strong step toward the Sr. Mary Heinen, CSJ, Past-President state budget, while offering a nearly 1 bil - Minnesota Health Security Act legislation St. Mary's Health Clinics, St. Paul (651) 690-7028 February 10, 2010 lion dollar tax increase to the equation. that would ensure all Minnesotans have News cont. from page 7 World Day of the Sick In the end, as we all access to affordable health Mr. Mark Cairns, Secretary-Treasurer know by now, the governor care coverage, starting Thompson said BHS, which owns or manages about 40 long- Madonna Towers of Rochester June 13, 2010 said there would be no with children. term care facilities in seven states, is trying to rethink elder care (507) 288-3911; [email protected] As the situation 2010 Catholic Health Assembly special session and he In other legislative by providing private rooms in its long-term care facilities, new Sr. Mary Eliot Crowley, OSF Denver, CO St. Marys Hospital-Mayo Clinic would use his executive becomes darker activity, the Omnibus Tax independent-style. FFI: www.chausa.org (507) 255-6166; [email protected] powers to balance the on state levels Policy Bill was passed by • Brainerd Lakes Health (BLH), is collaborating with two other Mr. Thomas Crowley budget. With these ‘unal - both the House and health care organizations to develop a comprehensive cardiovas - St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Wabasha lotments’ now announced, throughout the Senate on May 12. cular program at St. Joseph's Medical Center. Brainerd Lakes (612) 565-4531, [email protected] the lines in the sand are country, it con - Among its provisions, this Health, the integrated health care system that encompasses St. Ms. Colleen Hegranes beginning to lay out - bill made Minnesota's tax Joseph's Medical Center and Brainerd Medical Center is collabo - College of St. Catherine, St. Paul though the nature of the tinues to push laws conform to recent rating with CentraCare Health System , based in St. Cloud, and (651)690-6501 cuts and impact on the need for federal changes, creating St. Mary’s Duluth Clinic Heart Center (SMDC). Mr. Lee Larson Minnesota children, fami - administrative updates. St. Gertrude's Health Center, Shakopee health care • SMDC Cancer Center has received an “Outstanding Achievement lies and communities Article 2 codified certain (952) 233-4408; [email protected] Award” from the Commission on Cancer recognizing excellence remain somewhat reform nationally. property tax changes and Mr. Chris Leifeld (ex-officio) in cancer care. SMDC is one of only 95 accredited cancer pro - unknown. clarified exemptions for Minnesota Catholic Conference, St. Paul grams across the country to receive this presti - From the Catholic institutions of purely pub - (651) 227-8777; [email protected] gious distinction in 2008. Health Association perspective, there were lic charity. Section 7 of this article includ - Mr. David Nelson clearly mixed results in this year’s session. ed language specifically for nursing homes • Colleen Scanlon , RN, JD, senior vice president, St. Francis Medical Center, Breckenridge On the positive side, an untold story of this On the Hospital side, there were Advocacy, Catholic Health Initiatives, Denver, has (218) 643-3000; [email protected] legislative session was the 22,000 more unfortunately many cuts that passed this been installed as chairperson of the Board of Ms. Kathy Tomlin children who will have access to year. One of the most drastic was the Trustees of the Catholic Health Association of the Catholic Charities – St. Paul/Mpls United States (CHA) for fiscal year 2009-10. I (651)291-4537; [email protected] Pearson cont. on page 7 A newsletter of the Catholic Health Association of Minnesota 1 ounded in 1968, under faith are consistent and unchanging.” Member F the direction of Central to the mission of the MCC is the principle that Without Love, Br. Sulmasy is ever, that even Taylor appreciates how far we have come. It Profile: Archbishop Leo Binz, the all life is sacred. The MCC advocates for public policies that the Clinton- is not just that the general Western culture is indifferent in Minnesota Catholic promote and support life from conception through natural We Perish Kilbride its views towards religion, such that if God exists, God does Conference (MCC) was death. The MCC actively identifies, formulates and seeks to Professor of not matter. I believe the reality is that our culture's funda - Minnesota established to be a implement public policy objectives that advance Gospel-Centered Medicine and mental views of beauty, truth and goodness have been dra - Catholic public policy voice the principles of Catholic social teaching and Health Care Is a Medical Ethics, matically transformed. Christian values no longer lurk for the Catholic promote the common good - yet in a distinctly schools of beneath the surface, subliminally directing all we think, do Conference Church in nonpartisan manner. Issues of interest include Radical Approach in Medicine and and say. At this historical juncture, I do not think it is an Minnesota. The health care, life, education, crime, poverty, eco - Today's Secular World Divinity, exaggeration to say that Nietzsche's transvaluation of the MCC’s structure nomic justice and marriage. Practically speak - University of values has taken hold of popular culture. The utter rejection reflects the United States Conference of Catholic ing the bishops and staff of the Minnesota By Br. Daniel P. Sulmasy, OFM, MD, Ph.D. Chicago. of Christian values is no longer a phenomenon limited to a few members of the intellectual elite. Transvaluation of the Bishops (USCCB), whereby the bishops collaborate Catholic Conference seek opportunities to speak This article is a with other Catholics to address issues that concern on behalf of the values is the norm. We no longer believe, as the Catholic partial text of the keynote speech Br. Sulmasy prepared for the faith holds, that human beings are essentially good even if the Church as part of the larger society. Its commit - Church to legislators, 2009 Catholic Health Assembly. tees include lay people, clergy and religious in addi - in addition to partner - tragically flawed. We have all become tion to the bishops. ing with other organi - ew York Times theater critic closet Hobbesians. We believe human The bishops themselves of Minnesota consti - zations such as the N Ben Brantley's review of the beings to be essentially self-interested rational maximizers who agree to moral tute the membership of the Conference and are Christopher Leifeld, Catholic Health recent Broadway revival of A Man for rules only out of the ultimately selfish served by a staff of approximately five lay people MCC Executive Director Association in their All Seasons can serve as an illustra - located in a small office building near the State common missions. tion of these problems (i.e., problems motive of survival. Morality is just a set of Capitol. Under the direction of Executive Director Chris Chris Leifeld serves as an ex-officio within health care: money, bureau - rules that keep us from killing each other Leifeld for the member on the board of directors cracy, indifference, burnout). In his in the war of all against all that is our true past seven for the Catholic Health Association. pointedly negative review, Brantley nature. The Minnesota years, the “The Conference of Bishops faulted not the production, nor the Am I not right? Don't our hospitals Catholic Conference Conference has have been consistently supportive acting, nor even the play, but the Br. Daniel P. Sulmasy operate this way? We are beholden to a seen many and grateful for the important work subject, Thomas More, as being out - completely secular ideology — sometimes even when we Archbishop John C. Nienstedt Recently appointed changes at the of the Catholic Health Association. dated. He found More "a bit of a bore," since he was actu - think we are acting as Christians.