Gruenewald, M. J.

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The Linacre QuarterlyVolume 8 | Number 1 Article 1January 1940Physician, Heal ThyselfM. J. GruenewaldFollow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnqRecommended CitationGruenewald, M. J. (1940) "Physician, Heal Thyself," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 8 : No. 1 , Article 1.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol8/iss1/1'l'HE L INA C RE QUARTERLY THE LINACRE QUARTERLY Editor-i11-Chie!, JAl\IES J . WALSH, M.D., Ph.D., 344 West 72nd Street, New York City . Address all communicatio ns as follows : Articles and notes for publication- to Mas. JosEPH A. DILLON, 155 E ast 77th Street , New York City . Business com-munications, subscriptions and renewals should be sent to the Business Manager, A. P . D ILLoN, 155 East 77th Street, New York City. Make checks payable to THE LINACRE QuARTERI.Y. Informa tion 'p erta ining t o the formation of N ew Gu ilds a nd application blanks-Mrss MADELINE McGREGOR, E xec. S ec., 477 Madison Avenue, New York City. VOL. VIII JANUARY, 1940 NO. 1 PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF By the VERY REV. MSGR. M. J. GRUENEWALD B elleville, Illinois From their earliest inception ir. England in the seventh century , guilds had for thei L' purpose, in addition to their socia l and com-merci a l obj ectives, a well-defined religious or spi1'i tual program. Thus r eligious observa nces formed an importa nt pa rt of early Guild life and the members a ss isted one another both in spiritual and tem-p oral necess ities, some of the guilds associa ting their members in alms-giving, care of the sick, buri a l of the dead and in provid-ing Masses for deceased members. When in his encyclical letter "Rerum Nova rum," the celebrated Pope of the workingma n, Leo X III, encouraged Chris tian work-ingmen to form guilds or unions after the manner of the historic guilds of workingmen, he directed tha t these unions or guilds, which were prima rily called into being for economic reasons, were to help each member better his condition to the utmost in body, soul and property. P ermit me to quote some of the words of the Ency clical in question : "It is clear that they (these unions or guilds) must pay special attention to the duties of 1·eligion and momlity and that so-cia l betterment should have th is · chi efly in view. For the founda-tion of social law being thus laid in r eligion, it is not h a rd to estab-lish the r elations of members one to a nother in order that they may live together in concord and achieve prosperity ." The late Pope Pius X I in his Encyclical "Quadrages imo Anno" sees "the glad signs of a coming social r e-cons truction" in the existing a sso-ciations of workingmen, among whom "great masses of youthful workers ... listen readily to the call of divine grace and strive rf• ith splendid zeal to win their f el-low workingmen to Christ ." When we see the Catholic Phy-[ 3 l r l THE LINA C RE QUARTERLY sicians ' Guild aga inst this histori-cal background, it is not hard to see that this Guild of our day must first, last and all the time be a Catholic organization. It must have a definite spiritual objective, not only with regard to our fel-low man but also with regard to the individual members that make full instruction in sound doctrine, high moral character, a supreme devotion to Catholic A ction as above personal, class or party in-teTests. Its expected r esults ar e the promotion of the common wel-fa re in every country , the union of Catholics of all p a rties, winning of souls to the faith and law of the up the organizations. It has been Gosp el, r es toring of Catholic prin-st yled the Catholic Action organ- ciples to public life, public peace ization for phys icians who a re and pt·osperity. When we super -members of the Church. It will be impose this summary of the com-well, then, that we ascertain the mon principles and foundations of mind of our lat e Pontiff, P ope Catholic Action as given us by Pius XI, the Pope of Catholic Ac- Father Vermeersch, upon the con-tion, on the essence a nd the va r- stitution of our Ca tholic Phys i-ious qualities of Catholic Action . cians' Guilds, we find tha t the Father Vermeer sch, the learned Guild admirably measures up to Jesuit th eologian and canonist, these r equirements. There is in gives us the following summary of the constitution of the Guild its common principles "and foun- among the manifold purposes of da tions, conta ined in the letter of the organization , the evident ob-Pope Pius XI to Cardinal Ber- j ect of Catholic Action, namely tram, under dat e of N ovember 13, ( a ) the upholding of the p rinci-1938. The object of Catholic Ac- pi es of Ca tholic fa ith and moral-tion is the p articipa tion of the ity against un-Christian and un-laity in the apostolate of the hier- scientifi c materialism; (b) the fa-a rchy . It is based on the mandate cilita ting of intercourse between received from the bishops and the Catholic physicians and the priest s, na mely those who a re sent clergy , as well as with the mem-by Christ . Its essence cons·is ts in hers of the other learned profes-the pu,rsuit of one's own perfec- sions, such as judges, magistra t es , tion, plus a n apostol at e which is lawyer s, educators, and lawmakers common to Catholics of ever y who a re interest ed in the study rank. It is organized under the a nd di scussion of medico-religious authority of the bishops, has a questions and those touching on membership of Catholics who are the science of duty and ethics; ( c) a t the ca ll of the hiera r chy for r e- its investigation of the relations ligious a ctivit y in matters per- of medical theory and practice to taining to faith and morals. Its Catholic theology and philosophy ; end is to advance the kingdom of (d) r endering such assist ance to CJu·ist . The ]JOSi tive Tequire?nents Catholi c medical institutions and in its membership a re solid piety, miss ions as may be practicable; [ 4 ) 1' H E LIN AC RE and (e) promoting among Catho-lic members of the profession such solidarity as may be advantageous to both their religion and their profession . The Guild has r e-ceived its mandate from the Most Reverend Ordinaries of the Dioce-ses in which it function s. Its end is a purely spiritual one, to ad· Yance the kingdom of Christ. Al-though there is present tha t p a r-ticipation in the apostola t e of the hier a rchy , in the humble opinion of the writer it would be well to lay more stress upon the impor--tance of the pur-suit of one's ow11 per-fection . This last point is also in strict a ccord with the positive requirements of Catholic Action, namely solid piety, full instruction in sound docti"ine, high moral cha r a cter , a supreme devotion to Catholic A ction as above personal , class or p arty interest s. · "Physician, heal thyself." There can be no question th at unless we t ake ca r e of ourselves first, we are not fit instruments to work for the spread of the kingdom of Chris t and for the sanctification of oth-et·s. "If the blind lead the blind, both f a ll into the pit" (Matt. xv. 14). 'To r einforce our st at ements in this r egard, let me quote the words of His Excellency, the Most Rev. Apostolic Delegate to the United States, Archbishop Ciog-nani : "Ca tholic Action is based upon, a nd pre-supposes the fidel-ity of the Catholic to those means of p er sonal sanctification and those evidences of public worship without which there can be no Chris tia n life at aH. First of all, Q UA R 1' E R L Y the Ca tholic will be not only faith -ful to, he will diligently cultiva t e! t he spirit and the practice of p rayer ; a ttend ance a t Holy Mass ; the frequent reception of the Sacraments, particularly the life-giving Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, and that liturgical life of the Church which manifest s the mys t eries of Christ's life whereby we both imitat e and a re able to imita t e Him . ... The Holy F a ther would have us bring home to our-selves the truth that we should be 'alive,' both as individuals and as members of the Church which is th e living union of the faithful un--der and with their bishops. The Catholic must ever remember tha t he is a member of this great living union. His duty as such a member is exp ressed by the Holy Father as follows : 'As ever y Christian re-ceives the supernatural life which c irculates in the veins of the mys-tical Body of Christ- that abun-dant life that Christ Himself said H e came to bring on earth, so he must transfuse it into others who either do not possess it or who p ossess it too spa rsely and more in appearance than r eality .' (Let-ter of Pius XI, M ar ch, 1934, to Cardinal P at ria rch of Lisbon.)" "Martha, Martha ," said the Lord to the over-solicitous and very busy woman who was so a t-t entive to His physica l needs, "thou art careful and a rt troubled about many things : but one thing is necessary" (Luke x ., 10--41). Would not our Lord address the same r eproach to many of our very busy Catholic phys icians [ 5 1 II , I . I THE LINA C RE QUARTERLY who are · so tied down by office hours and by the cares of their · practice that they do not have time to attend to that one thing necessary, the work of their per-sonal sanctification? If they get to Mass a t all on Sunday morn-ing, it is to the shortest possible service that is offered, at which there is either no sermon at all or only a very short one. They are too busy, also, to go to the Sacra-ments frequently and content themselves with confession and Communion at rather long inter-vals during the year, if they do go more often than the one time required to make their Easter duty. "For what doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world. and suffer the loss of his soul?" (Mark viii., 36) . Aye, what profit, if our physician becomes most successful and skillful in his particular field, if he accumulates a comfortable competence of the things of this world and even if he performs certain act s of philan- · thropy by contributing to various deserving enterprises, if, in the end of all, the Catholic physician fail s in that one all-important business, the salvation of his soul? Many physicians find ways and means of taking a holiday each week from their duties in the office, but they have no tilme to be present at the two or three meetings of the year which are held by their Physicians' Guild to promote the work of Catholic Action and for the pur-suit of their own perfection plus one or the other works of the Catholic lay apostol ate. One of these three meetings is the annual Communion meeting which is con-nected with Sunday Holy Mass, already of obligation for every Catholic. It, therefore, leaves but two meetings a year which will r e-quire a sacrifice of some kind on the part of our Catholic physi-cians to attend. It is this evident indifference on the part of a large number of our Catholic medical men that calls forth the general complaint from the Moderators and other officers of the existing Guilds throughout the country, about the difficulty of carrying on this work, which merits the active interest and the best zeal of even · individual Catholic physician. Thank God that our Catholic doctors are not all the over-busy Marthas whom the Saviour re-bukes about neglecting the one thing necessary and that there are amongst th em a number of model Catholic men who are exemplary in their attendance a t Sunday Mass, who r egularly frequent the Sacraments and who have caught the spirit of the lay retreat move-ment and annually go to some house of retreat to adjust the af-fairs of their soul and to gather new strength and resolution for the coming year. They have heard the message : "Physician, heal thy-self," and they a re doing every-thing within their power to comply with this injunction . Cardinal N ewman, in a p assage which is quoted from his "Idea of a University," saw very clearly the place tha t a Catholic physi-cJan occupies in a community and [ 6 l THE LINAORE QUARTERLY how valuable particularly to Cath-olic patients are his ministrations. H e said : "There cannot be a worse calamity for Catholic p eople than t o have its medical attendants alien or hostile to Catholicity; there cannot be a greater bless ing than when they are intellige~t Catholics who acknowledge the claims of religious duty and the subordin ations and limits of their own functions ." An uninformed physician who is a poor Catholic and who knows little of his own faith and cares less about it, who is indifferent to the theological principles which govern the prac-tice of medicine, is a definite point of weakness and danger, not only to himself as a Catholic physician, and to his patients who entrust themselves to his care, but also to the Church, the laws of God (which a re r eally the laws of na-ture) and the proper a ttitude to-ward the work of his profession. Such a physician will generally do more harm than good. It is the mind of the Church, as can be seen from Canon L aw and from the particular applica tions of the general canons of the Church found in the statutes of the variou s diocesan synods that the faithful, if possible, go to a Catholic doctor for treatment and medical advice. But this attitude on the part of the Church and the wish which she expresses to her f a ithful children connotes a corre-sponding obligation on the part of the Catholi c physician to fit him-self to fully discharge this duty, by leading a good Ca tholic life and by a correct and thorough knowledge of the laws of God and of the Church in as far as they concern the practice of medicine. U ntold harm is done by physicians who a re culpably ignorant of their obligations toward their patients and of the ethics of medicine. The Federation of Catholic Physicians' Guilds of th e United States is on the threshold of what is possibly the greatest expansion movement in its history. The Ex-ecutive Committee of the Federa-tion has already held several meet-ings and is looking forward to others to make plans for a splen-did meeting of delegat es to the F ederation as well as of a ll Catho-li c physicians attending the con-vention of the American Medical Association next June at New York. For this reason the writer feels th at it will be timely to r ec-ommend that the Guild " sell'' it-self to prospective Catholic physi-cian members on the ide·a of Cath-olic Action in the complete sense of the word, comprising not only the apostolate in the lives of oth· ers, but first and foremost the ele-ment of personal sanctification. 'iVhile our older men, who h ave ta ken a hand in the affa irs of thei r Physicians' Guilds, have shown commendable zeal a nd intelligent interest in this work, according to the words of the R ev. Ignatius W. Cox, S.J., Modera tor of the F ed-eration, "It is the young doctors [ 7 l THE LINACRE QUARTERLY whom we ought to get more and more, in order to inoculate them with the Guild idea while they are still young." The writer, there-fore, appeals to those responsible for the training of our physicians to impress upon them the neces-sity of looking beyond the narrow confines of this life and of making provi sion for their et ernal inter-est s by actively identifying them-selves with a Catholic Action or· ganization such as the Catholic Physicians' Guild. Furthermore, we take the lib-erty to recommend that the con-stitutions of Guilds already in ex-ist ence throughout this country be revised, particularly in the statement of the objects of the Guild and that the clause "to con-stitute a brotherhood of physi-cians who will teach and practice the ideals of the Catholic relig-ion" be given its proper place first in order amongst the purposes of the Guild; th at this first purpose of Catholic Action be amplified according to the recommendations of the Apostolic D elegate and th t> r ecommendations of the Holy See by adding the positive instructions to this paragraph "by diligent !y cultivating the spirit and practice of prayer by attendance at Holy Mass even on week days, if pos· sible, by the frequent reception of the Sacraments, particularly the life-giving Sacrament of the Ho1y Eucharist, and by annual atten-dance at a r etreat for laymen." In the America of F ebruary 11, 1933, we find the following quota-tion: "Unless our professional men listen to the voice of the Vicar of Christ , a force of great power for the establishment of the kiug--dom of God on earth, the end of all Catholic Action, will be lost ." I am certain that the Guild will treasure amongst its most pre-cious documents the letter of com-mendation received through the late Cardinal Hayes of N ew York from Cardinal P a celli, then Sec-retary of State, now gloriously reigning as Pope Pius XII: "It is with the most lively plea sure and appreciation that the Holy F ather has received Your Eminence's ac-count of the est ablishment of the Catholic Physicians' Guild in your Archdiocese, and of the fruitful work which the Guild is now pro-moting while at th e same time it gives hope of still grea t er fruits for the future by vind-icating, as it does, Catholic doctrine and morals which i ts membe1·s further confirm by their activities and e.r:a1nple as well as by the a uthoritative pro-nouncements of their science. To each of these beloved Sons, the Holy F ather impa rts his special Apostolic Benediction with the de-vout wish that their apostolic work nourished by the Lord's choicest graces may sprou t into mOTe v igorous fnti tf~~lness for the salvation of souls and for the spread of the k ingdom of onr Lord J es~tS Christ.' ) [ 8 l 

Physician, Heal Thyself

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Physician, Heal Thyself

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