Chairperson’s Christmas message 2 Ministry’s holiday greetings 3-13 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
DECEMBER 15, 2022
VOLUME 38, NUMBER 20
Hand-painted winter scape warms up waiting room of SSM Health clinic By JULIE MINDA
Muralist Artemio Huerta creates a winter scene on windows in a waiting room at SSM Health Dean Medical Group's east Madison, Wisconsin, clinic. This is the third consecutive year that the former clinic staffer has painted the windows.
When the day’s high temperature hovers at or below freezing, Artemio Huerta’s chilly scenes bring warmth and cheer to patients in a waiting area of SSM Health Dean Medical Group's east Madison, Wisconsin, clinic. The former clinic staffer hand-painted the intricate winter scape on the windowpanes. Over the course of about two weeks in mid-November, Huerta spent several hours a day adorning the second-story windows with a panorama of snow-covered hills and ice-laced evergreens. There’s a horsedrawn carriage, a snowman family, snow children snowboarding, a steam locomotive rounding a bend and a cluster of cozy lakeside cottages. This is the third consecutive year that Huerta, a former member of the clinic’s housekeeping crew, has created a window mural of a winter scene for the clinic. The designs are entirely from his imagination. Continued on 2
Artist hopes CHA’s saints project promotes well-being of ministry staff St. Rita’s in Ohio offers safe place for Early this year, when CHA’s mission director invited mothers in distress emerging artist Lydia Wood to create portraits of seven for a CHA project highlighting Catholic health care’s to surrender infants saints core commitments, Wood instantly intuited that the work By JULIE MINDA
would mesh with her own approach to art and her core beliefs. And Wood, a pediatric nurse, says she felt her enthusiasm grow as CHA’s Jill Fisk told her more about the project. The association planned to publish the portraits on “huddle cards” that people in Catholic health care could use to reconnect with the fullness and beauty of healing in Christ’s name. Intended as visual meditations, Wood's portraits are Continued on 15
St. Martin de Porres
St. Josephine Bakhita
After hiatus for pandemic, Saint Alphonsus restarts foot care clinic “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” — John 13:14-15
Cassie Gillette, an administrative assistant, checks out the Safe Haven Baby Box that Mercy Health — St. Rita’s Medical Center in Lima, Ohio, installed next to its emergency department entrance. The box, one of 125 Safe Haven boxes nationwide, provides a way for someone to anonymously surrender an infant at a location where the baby will receive immediate attention.
The scriptural inspiration for Saint Alphonsus Health System foot care clinics
By LISA EISENHAUER By LISA EISENHAUER
Ronda Lehman, president of Mercy Health — Lima, won’t be disappointed if the Safe Haven Baby Box installed in October next to the emergency room at Mercy Health — St. Rita’s Medical Center in Lima, Ohio, is never used. Lehman While the box is a safe and discreet means for someone to anonymously surrender an infant, it is more “an outward sign that we are here for women who are in this very distressing situation,” Lehman explains. Continued on 16
Vicki Funaiole, left, and Valerie Mentzer tend to the feet of Lynda Reynolds during a foot care clinic sponsored by Saint Alphonsus Health System at Corpus Christi House, a shelter for those who are unhoused in Boise, Idaho. Funaiole and Mentzer are volunteers with Saint Alphonsus’ faith community nursing program. The foot clinics, once a frequent community health offering, restarted in November after being halted early in the COVID-19 pandemic.
When Saint Alphonsus Health System held its first foot care clinic at a homeless shelter back in 2015, Cari Moodie says it was no coincidence that the event took place on Holy Thursday. The volunteers were intentional in following the example set by Jesus at the Last Supper when he demonstrated his love by washing the feet of his disciples. “We stuck with our tradition and our roots,” explains Moodie, coordinator of faith community nursing for Boise, Idahobased Saint Alphonsus. The system is part of Trinity Health. The clinics had become frequent events at various locations until the COVID-19 Continued on 14