RECENT ARTICLE IN KAIROS JOURNAL AND CATHNEWS.COM REGARDING THE LAUNCH OF THE ASSOCIATION

A new Catholic Doctors Association of Victoria (CDAV) has been formed in the hope of assisting Catholic doctors in the integration of their faith and their clinical practice.

DR EAMONN MATHIESON writes.

The formation of this new Catholic doctors association is in response to requests by doctors who have felt relatively isolated and unsupported in their faith in the workplace. Heavy workloads, time pressures, an increasingly secular culture of healthcare and seemingly evermore complex bioethical issues are just some of the contributing factors.

The CDAV intends to assist Catholic doctors by providing a network of supportive peers, access to relevant resources and by organising meetings and events dealing with faith and work-related issues. In so doing it hopes to promote the practice and provision of medical health care in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church.

It should be remembered that the Catholic Church is the oldest and largest provider of healthcare in the world. It has shaped the very history of hospice and hospital care from its beginning basing it’s care on the Christian principles of fraternal charity and the virtue of hospitality. To this day it remains the largest single provider of healthcare worldwide and continues to provide very significant resources and services in Australia as well as other parts of the world. However, despite this its voice and influence has been increasingly marginalised, especially for many doctors of recent generations. Many factors including rising secularism, mainstream utilitarian health policies and a perceived confusion about the interface of technology and ethics, may account for this.

The result has been a reduction of confidence in the Church’s teaching on Health-related issues and a tendency to separate the relevance and applicability of faith from clinical practice. One of the tangible consequences of this has been the dissolution and stagnation of many, but fortunately not all, Catholic doctors groups in Australia.

Happily, there have been many significant changes in recent years that may provide the ground for a reversal of this trend. It is hoped that the current environment will provide a positive opportunity for the re-establishment of a Catholic doctors groups in Victoria and may lead to a return of self-confidence and solidarity amongst Catholic doctors and an increasing awareness of the relevance and centrality of faith in our working lives. All of these changes make for a positive opportunity to attempt to re-establish a vibrant Catholic doctors association in Victoria.

The recent developments that may allow this include the increasing clarity and depth of the philosophical and theological articulations which support and underpin much of the Church’s teachings on the human person as well as health and work-related issues. This work reflects a very rich period in the intellectual life of the Church and offers serious and profound challenges to the current dominant philosophies of our day.

Also the emerging receptivity of our youth to the message of the Church in the growing recognition of the emptiness of popular mass-culture, coupled with John Paul II’s call to a “New Evangelisation” will hopefully encourage a culture of hope and relevance to help young doctors and medical students persist in the practice of their faith and permit an appreciation of their tradition.

Added to this, the introduction of new and forthcoming intellectual institutions to Australia such as the first Catholic medical school through the University of Notre Dame and the opening of Campion University in Sydney next year, as well as the recent opening of the JPII Institute in Melbourne, and other Catholic institutes around Australia, will provide the resources and scholarship to participate in and benefit from this reinvigoration of the Church’s intellectual and pastoral life.

Unfortunately, much of this newness in the life of the Church remains largely unknown or poorly appreciated by many health professionals today. Therefore the association intends to hold regular meetings and events, not only to provide communion and support to Catholic doctors but also with a view to provide resources to allow a deeper appreciation and understanding of Church teachings on healthcare and work-related issues thereby allowing an opportunity for doctors to deepen their faith and further their spiritual life.