Catholic Health World - December 15, 2023

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CHA chair’s holiday message 2 Executive changes 15 San Antonio collaboration 16 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION

DECEMBER 15, 2023 VOLUME 39, NUMBER 20

GIVING TRADITIONS: SHELTER AND WARMTH

CHA’s Trocchio reflects on 35-plus years of trailblazing work in community benefit

Jennifer McMenamin Photography, LLC

By JULIE MINDA

From left, Lena Bradford Brown, Monyette Hopkins and Terri Clayman create winter wear for donation to Baltimore’s Health Care for the Homeless organization. For about seven years, they and other employees, retirees and community members of Baltimore’s Mercy Medical Center have been knitting and crocheting winter accessories that Health Care for the Homeless in turn gives its clients.

Winter comfort

‘This is the life’

By JULIE MINDA

By VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN

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Denver sister has fostered more than 100 children

Handicrafters’ gifts go to vulnerable Baltimoreans Last Christmas Eve, the temperature in Baltimore plummeted to 6 degrees, the coldest day there in 2022. And the Farmers’ Almanac says this winter in Maryland likely will be “frosty, flaky and slushy.” A group of volunteers at Baltimore’s Mercy Medical Center hopes to provide people who are experiencing homelessness with a little more protection from frigid temperatures this winter by supplying

Julie Trocchio is retiring as CHA senior director of community benefit and continuing care at the close of this year. During her 35-plus years at the association, she has led the Catholic health ministry’s pioneering work in developing community benefit standards for not-forprofit providers and tools for assessing the needs of the communities those Trocchio providers serve. She also played a key role in helping the Internal Revenue Service in its efforts to have nonprofit hospitals account for their community benefit work. Her more recent focus has been on providing community benefit education and resources to CHA members and other partners, to increase understanding of how providers benefit their communities and how they account for this work. Trocchio also has made significant contributions to the ministry’s progress in environmental stewardship, the social determinants of health, human trafficking, immigration, parish nursing and eldercare. As she concludes her tenure at CHA,

CHA debuts Theology & Ethics Center, With a toddler playing nearby on the floor and occasionally crawling onto her names center’s lap, Sr. Michael Delores Allegri, SCL, calmly recalls how she has cared for dozens of foster children in the last 26 years. At this point, executive director Sr. Michael Delores Allegri, SCL, of Denver has served as a foster parent to more than 100 children since 1999. Sr. Allegri, 81, says the children need safety and consistency and she tries to provide that in her home.

she’s not sure exactly how many. This toddler might be number 106. Or maybe 108. “Every time I count, I get a different number,” says Sr. Allegri. Known to her community and foster Continued on 15

PeaceHealth’s banners celebrate an array of cultures Again this winter, some PeaceHealth hospitals are undertaking their Winter Traditions campaign. The hospitals are displaying banners that educate passersby on ways that various cultures celebrate a variety of traditions that fall in the winter months. The hospitals’ cafeterias also are offering cuisine related to those holidays. INSIDE • 11

By JULIE MINDA

CHA has launched a new Theology & Ethics Center to help Catholic health care systems and facilities address complex issues that arise as they pursue their mission. The association has named ethicist Daniel Daly as the center’s inaugural executive director. Daly Over the coming year, CHA will form an advisory board and develop an operational plan for the center. The vision is for it to foster dialogue, encourage faithful and creative scholarship, and provide consultation around pressing theological and ethical concerns. CHA President and CEO Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, said that with increasingly complex moral and ethical issues faced in the delivery of health care, “our members recognized an opportunity for CHA to provide in-depth theological study to these Continued on 15


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