Nearly 60 people gathered at St. Albert the Great Parish in North Royalton on March 5 for a special daylong conference centered on fostering dignity and sanctity of life in healthcare. The event was sponsored by the Catholic Medical Association of Northeast Ohio. (See photo gallery above.)
“Most people at some point will be faced with the challenge of having to help care for a loved one or friend and interacting with their healthcare team,” said Dr. Ronald Sobecks, who organized the event and serves as vice president of the Catholic Medical Association of Northeast Ohio.
“The conference was organized for both lay people and healthcare providers as a way to raise awareness about various bioethical challenges they likely will face making decisions be it as a provider caring for a patient or a family member or friend involved in helping a loved one navigate a serious illness or challenge,” he said.
Bishop Edward Malesic celebrated Mass to start the event. He began his homily with a plea to pray for the people of Ukraine, as well as the unborn, the elderly and other vulnerable populations. In further recognition of the conference topic, the bishop shared some of the difficulties that his own family faced while trying to find a suitable rehab facility for his 104-year-old father, who recently suffered a fall. Fortunately, after some searching, they found a place with a good reputation.
“I am grateful for his caregivers who continue to do their best. I am grateful for those who want to help a 104-year-old man live what life he has left with dignity,” he said.
“Whether near the end of life or just at the beginning of it – and in every place in between – we must always remember that we are dealing with humans who are made in the image and likeness of God.”
After Mass, the bishop joined attendees in the Parish Life Center, where he opened the presentation part of the conference with a prayer before turning the microphone over to conference leaders who kicked off a series of presentations by an interdisciplinary group of medical, bioethical and theological experts.
The first speaker, Father Joseph Koopman, vice rector and professor of moral theology at Saint Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology, set the stage for the conference. He explored how the truth of Christian love embraced by Catholic values runs counter to false notions of love that often are perpetuated in certain realms of society and medicine to support anti-life practices such as euthanasia and abortion.
“This is love gone wild,” he said. “This is the time to not fall to this anti-Christ notion of love,” Father Koopman said, adding a call for healthcare providers to stay strong in propelling Christian love as the guiding principal of everything they do, treating each patient as a person and with the human dignity that Jesus showed.
The other seven speakers focused on topics ranging from the benefits that restorative reproduction medicine holds for family planning to issues faced in providing appropriate end-of-life care.
The Catholic Medical Association of Northeast Ohio became a local a guild of the national Catholic Medical Association in 2012. According to Dr. Sobecks, this was the largest conference – to date – that the local guild organized on its own. The conference also was livestreamed. Dr. Sobecks said plans are underway to make the presentations available on the web for those who could not be a part of the live or virtual audience.