EDITOR’S NOTE

eople long to connect with community, to believe their work is meaningful and to feel spiritually whole. At CHA, we’ve certainly been asked by the membership to focus on well-being and caring for the whole person.P

And this issue of Health Progress, along with previous ones, reinforces that shared identity can make a difference in Catholic health care systems. In the opening article of this issue, two authors with longtime ties to Catholic health care, John Shea, STD, and John Mudd, JD, JSD, explain that they’ve found one of the best ways to allow Catholic identity to thrive is to not water it down. This includes not only using language and examples that others understand, and finding connections that resonate with people who have diverse backgrounds and experiences, but also knowing that the faith’s central messages resonate broadly and remain timeless and powerful.

Health Progress has included a few articles in recent issues where health care executives in human resources, mission and formation are increasingly collecting data, while from relatively small sample sizes, showing that the Catholic identity of the ministry work can be a recruitment and retention factor for some employees. Ascension’s Vice President of Ministry Formation and Mission Integration Sarah Reddin, D.HCML, makes that point in this issue as well, noting that one of Ascension’s leadership programs has found participants much more likely to stay with the system for at least two years than those who do not take part.

This resonates as being all the more striking

because from the 1970s to the 2010s, Catholic Mass attendance in the United States dropped by roughly half, according to a survey highlighted in a recent National Catholic Register article. The less populated pews have become even more pronounced after the height of the COVID pandemic, as parishioners have not returned to prepandemic BETSY numbers.1 If we know the central, beautiful truths of CaTAYLOR tholicism have lifted believers across millennia, and we know that people are actively seeking ways to feel connected and whole, is it possible that Catholicism needs to improve its invitation and approach, perhaps to focus less on what divides us, and more on what we share in common? That is, maybe not further refine the message itself, but instead its delivery? While it is not a Catholic concept, one that I return to is tikkun olam from Judaism, the concept of engaging in acts of kindness to repair the world. As we embark on a new year, I am always filled with hope — hope that I may bring my best self both to my work and my life outside of it. And I also hold hope that as people search for meaning and healing, we may offer the hand of hope or healing they seek.

NOTE

1. Joan Frawley Desmond, “The Catholic Church Battles to Fill the Pews,” National Catholic Register, Dec. 1, 2022, https://www.ncregister.com/news/ the-catholic-church-battles-to-fill-the-pews.

VICE PRESIDENT, COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING BRIAN P. REARDON

EDITOR BETSY TAYLOR btaylor@chausa.org

MANAGING EDITOR CHARLOTTE KELLEY ckelley@chausa.org

GRAPHIC DESIGNER NORMA KLINGSICK

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2022 AWARDS FOR 2021 COVERAGE

Catholic Press Awards: Magazine of the Year — Professional and Special Interest Magazine, Second Place; Best Special Issue, Second Place; Best Layout of Article/Column, Second and Third Place; Best Color Cover, Honorable Mention; Best Guest Column/Commentary, First Place; Best Regular Column — General Commentary, Second Place; Best Regular Column — Pandemic, Second Place; Best Coverage — Pandemic, Second Place; Best Essay, First and Third Place, Honorable Mention; Best Feature Article, First Place and Honorable Mention; Best Reporting on a Special Age Group, Second Place; Best Writing Analysis, Third Place; Best Writing — In-Depth, Third Place.

Produced in USA. Health Progress ISSN 0882-1577. Winter 2023 (Vol. 104, No. 1).

Copyright © by The Catholic Health Association of the United States. Published quarterly by The Catholic Health Association of the United States, 4455 Woodson Road, St. Louis, MO 63134-3797. Periodicals postage paid at St. Louis, MO, and additional mailing offices. Subscription prices per year: CHA members, free; nonmembers, $29 (domestic and foreign); single copies, $10. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Health Progress, The Catholic Health Association of the United States, 4455 Woodson Road, St. Louis, MO 63134-3797.

Follow CHA:

chausa.org/social EDITORIAL ADVISORY COUNCIL

Trevor Bonat, MA, MS, chief mission integration officer, Ascension Saint Agnes, Baltimore

Sr. Rosemary Donley, SC, PhD, APRN-BC, professor of nursing, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh

Fr. Joseph J. Driscoll, DMin, director of ministry formation and organizational spirituality, Redeemer Health, Meadowbrook, Pennsylvania

Tracy Neary, regional vice president, mission integration, St. Vincent Healthcare, Billings, Montana

Gabriela Robles, MBA, MAHCM, vice president, community partnerships, Providence St. Joseph Health, Irvine, California

Jennifer Stanley, MD, physician formation leader and regional medical director, Ascension St. Vincent, North Vernon, Indiana

Rachelle Reyes Wenger, MPA, system vice president, public policy and advocacy engagement, CommonSpirit Health, Los Angeles

Nathan Ziegler, PhD, system vice president, diversity, leadership and performance excellence, CommonSpirit Health, Chicago

CHA EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS

ADVOCACY AND PUBLIC POLICY: Lisa Smith, MPA COMMUNITY BENEFIT: Julie Trocchio, BSN, MS CONTINUUM OF CARE AND AGING SERVICES:

Julie Trocchio, BSN, MS

ETHICS: Nathaniel Blanton Hibner, PhD;

Brian Kane, PhD

FINANCE: Loren Chandler, CPA, MBA, FACHE INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH: Bruce Compton LEGAL: Catherine A. Hurley, JD MINISTRY FORMATION: Diarmuid Rooney, MSPsych,

MTS, DSocAdmin

MISSION INTEGRATION: Dennis Gonzales, PhD

THEOLOGY AND SPONSORSHIP: Fr. Charles Bouchard,

OP, STD