Impicciche points to hopeful future 2 ‘Startlingly simple’ fix for health care 3 2023-2024 CHA milestones 6 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
JULY 2024 VOLUME 40, NUMBER 7
ASSEMBLY 2024
CHA releases 2025 to 2027 strategic plan focused on health ecosystem change
Jerry Naunheim Jr./©CHA
By JULIE MINDA
Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, CHA's president and CEO, shares the stage with Ascension CEO Joe Impicciche, center, and Damond Boatwright, president and CEO of Hospital Sisters Health System, at the 2024 Catholic Health Assembly. Boatwright handed off the baton to Impicciche as chair of the CHA Board of Trustees.
‘LET US BE BOLD’
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Assembly encourages ministry to embrace and lead change By LISA EISENHAUER
SAN DIEGO — Several hundred people from within the Catholic health care ministry heard the call to “lean into our vision and embrace bold change with bold thinking” at the 2024 Catholic Health Assembly here. CHA President and CEO Sr. Mary
Haddad, RSM, issued the appeal, which reflected the event’s theme of “Embrace bold,” at the start of the June 9-11 gathering. She challenged those in attendance to follow Jesus’ example by shaking off current assumptions and norms and embracing “radical freedom” and “to go beyond what is comfortable” in envisioning a better health care system.
Cardinal McElroy poses four questions for Catholic health care from synod
Following up on the CHA vision statement adopted last year, “We will empower bold change to elevate human flourishing,” Sr. Mary announced that the association has approved a complementary strategic plan for the next three years. The pillars of the strategic plan are: care for all, health reimagined and united for change.
By LISA EISENHAUER
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Identity, understanding and love key to promoting mission, say panelists
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Jerry Naunheim Jr./©CHA
By VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN
SAN DIEGO — How can Catholic health care’s mission and vision continue to advance care for all that promotes dignity and the common good? How can Catholic health care do that in a polarized American society? A panel of speakers addressed those issues at the 2024 Catholic Health Assembly. CHA President and CEO Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, moderated the discussion and asked the panelists about bold approaches. Cathleen Kaveny, professor of law and theology at Boston College, asked the audience to go back to their roots, to imagine what it would be like if the Irish sisters led by Catherine McAuley, the founder of the Sisters of Mercy, were to get off the boat or a
CHA’s board has adopted a strategic plan for 2025 to 2027 that advances the association’s vision to “empower bold change to elevate human flourishing.” The newly released plan focuses on three pillars of activity: care for all, health reimagined and united for change. The plan challenges the association to unite Catholic health care providers and their partners to prioritize the dignity of all people and promote the common good. CHA Chief of Staff Amy Ballance says the association will work with member groups and committees as well as with new advisory groups to get input on how best to implement the plan. Ballance calls member engagement “a critical component to the success of this plan as members will help us prioritize where to start, consider who else we should bring into the conversation and amplify our message.”
Dr. Claudia Ruiz Sotomayor discusses polarization in American culture alongside fellow panelists Michael Sean Winters and Cathleen Kaveny and moderator Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, right, at the 2024 Catholic Health Assembly.
SAN DIEGO — Cardinal Robert McElroy says four central questions for Catholic health care providers to ponder have emerged from the church’s current synodal process. The questions are: How should Catholic health care build a culture of discernment? How can the ministry contribute to Cath- Cardinal McElroy olic theology and the renewal of moral theology? How should the ministry bring a consistently Christ-like pastoral stance to Catholic health care institutions? What is the countercultural mission of Catholic health care in the present moment? “Bringing these questions to the center of your leadership and service will yield moments both of cross and resurrection, but in the end it will reflect the overwhelming grace of our God,” said Cardinal Continued on 7