Catholic
: '
News & Herald Volume 4 Number 20 • January
Serving Catholics in Western North Carolina in the Diocese of Charlotte
Deacons
Gather...
Diocese Honors
Dr.
20, 1995
King
Annual Celebration Draws Large Crowd By
JOANN KEANE Associate Editor
—
CHARLOTTE
Eddice Martin donned a peach batik kaftan with matching headwrap.
Benedict the
The parishioner of St. in Winston Salem
Moor
was bedecked
in native African garb,
and couldn't have been prouder. Like many of her counterparts attending the 10th annual memorial birthday celebration for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Martin wore the ensemble to symbolize her heritage. Colorful kinte cloth cast a bright
backdrop on an otherwise dreary day. Outside, threatening weather provided a steady rain, but
it
did not
dampen
the
of the 1 75 gathered at Our Lady of Consolation for the annual diocesan celspirits
Bishop William G. Curlin and Msgr. Anthony Kovacic greet Rev. Mr. Ron Caplette permanent deacons held Jan. 14 at Queen of the Apostles in Belmont. Rev. Mr. Caplette is a permanent deacon for St. Joseph Church in Newton. Msgr. Kovacic is vicar for permanent deacons. Photo by JOANN KEANE
following a mini-retreat for
Cardinal Bernardin
Warns Of
ebration.
For those in attendance, the day was more than just a celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it was an educational experience. Young and old came together for workshops focusing on African contributions to the Catholic Church
and the rich culture of African Ameri-
Trend To For-Profit Health Care CHICAGO
(CNS)
— In a
cans.
"We're becoming more aware of our
talk to
tion representing more than 900 Catholic
Chicago business leaders, Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin warned that "our health care delivery system is rapidly commercializing itself and ... abandoning core values that should always be at the heart
health care facilities across the country.
"Not-for-profit hospitals sent
more than
...
repre-
three-quarters of the
existence of not-for-profit institutions is
nonpublic acute-care general hospitals in the country," Cardinal Bernardin said. "Not-for-profit hospitals are the core of this nation's private, voluntary health care delivery system, but are in jeopardy of becoming for-profit enterprises." One of the major threats to the
threatened, he said.
nonprofits, he said,
of health care."
Those developments have created an "extremely turbulent competitive environment in health care" in which the very
He argued
that business
and com-
munity leaders "have an urgent civic responsibility to preserve and strengthen
is
the "body of opin-
ion that contends there is no fundamental distinction
He urged business leaders to recog-
and health care delivery system." The Chicago cardinal made his comments in a speech Jan. 1 2 to the Harvard Business Club of Chicago. He spoke just two days after the Columbia/HCD
nize major distinctions that need to be
maintained between health care delivery
and the free enterprise model of providing goods or services for a profit. He emphasized that he was not criticizing the free enterprise system itself:
largest for-profit health care
owner and
"We are all beneficiaries of the genius of
announced a deal
to acquire
that system .... It' s contribution to Ameri-
operator,
three nonprofit hospitals in Chicago.
businessman Rick Scott, who in the late 1980s had just two hospitals in Texas entered 1995 with 199 hospitals and 128 outpatient surgery centers in the United States, England and Switzerland. It recently announced its intention to begin
can society has been most beneficial." But "not all of society's institutions have as their essential purpose earning a reasonable rate of return on capital," he said. He cited the family, education and the whole range of social services as areas where the primary purpose of the social institutions involved is not profit but the good of the persons served
acquiring nonprofit institutions to ex-
"the advancement of human dignity."
The corporation
—
series of acquisitions
the result of a
and mergers by
—
pand
its
market position
in
key
areas.
Cardinal Bernardin told the Chicago leaders that he was speaking not as a professional in health care but as a
munity
com-
leader, as an archbishop with
pastoral responsibilities in
20 Chicago-
area Catholic hospitals, and as a member of the board of trustees of the Catholic Health Association, a national organiza-
pastoral council.
See King, Page 16
CRS
—
"The primary end or essential purpose of medical care delivery should be a cured patient, a comforted patient and a healthier community, not to earn a profit or a return on capital for share-
This understanding has long been a central ethical tenet of medicine,"
holders.
the cardinal said.
See Health, Page 2
*»»».
Rwanda
war erupted
since a bloody
last April,
and
it's
a change for the better, reports
not
Anne
Smith, a Catholic Relief Services field
monitor in Rwanda. "The people are trying very hard to get back to a normal life, and it does feel normal. But that's the strange part, be-
cause murderers are walking the streets,"
Smith said. Neighbors have killed neighbors, and the guilty parties continue to
among their other neighbors.
According to Smith, justice is slow in coming due to the lack of policing and organization in the country. Yet justice is essential, she said, for the country to-be
whole again. "Until justice is carried out, these people will not live peacefully,"
Smith told the Catholic Review, Baltimore's archdiocesan newspaper. Smith monitors CRS feeding programs that serve about 18,000 people, including 8,000 children, considered vulnerable. The numbers include the elderly
and
CRS
sick.
program last July were established to help children who were either orphaned or separated from their families in the war. started the
after centers
•V>
Martin Luther King tion held Jan.
1
v
Jr.
,
birthday celebra-
4 at Our Lady of Conso-
lation in Charlotte.
The collection comes
from Mattie Reed, Curator and Director Emeritus of the African Heritage center at North Carolina A&T State University. Photo by JOANN KEANE
Field Representative
has changed in
live
^lStm'?9j^
Chloe Russell holds an African bracelet Young examines some of the artifacts of African arts and crafts on display during the 1 0th annual diocesan
Troubles Plague BALTIMORE (CNS) — The mood The
civil
'
while Otelia
New
between medical care and a
commodity exchanged for profit."
our nation' s predominantly not-for-profit
Healthcare Corporation, the nation's
more about our beginnings," said Sandy Murdock, parishioner of Our Lady of Consolation and chairperson of the African American heritage and want to learn
i
Says
Rwanda
centers receive 60 tons of food a month, including sugar, beans, rice, oil, salt and powdered milk.
Smith, who spent three years in Rwanda with the Peace Corps, has been
working with CRS since July. She said Rwandans must also deal with the return of refugees who left the country in the late 1 950s and early 1 960s
because of political and ethnic tensions then. These Rwandans bring with them money and possessions, while those who were displaced in the last year have no possessions.
"The Rwandans who are returning 30 years are optimistic," Smith said. "They have been waiting for this day for a long time. Some of them are even taking over businesses in Rwanda. "The others lost family, friends and possessions. They were witness to all the after
horrible events and suffered the most. is definitely conflict between the two groups." However, what may be Rwanda's biggest problem lies just over the border
There
There in refugee camps, thousands of Rwandan governin neighboring Zaire.
ment troops are training on their homeland.
raid
for a possible