Lorsung, Mary J.

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The Linacre QuarterlyVolume 39 | Number 3 Article 13August 1972Catholic Physicians' View: St. Luke's Guild ofBoston: A Study Conducted for St. Luke's Guild ofCatholic PhysiciansMary J. LorsungFollow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnqRecommended CitationLorsung, Mary J. (1972) "Catholic Physicians' View: St. Luke's Guild of Boston: A Study Conducted for St. Luke's Guild of CatholicPhysicians," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 39 : No. 3 , Article 13.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol39/iss3/13,· a middl:: ground between romantic fantasy ..tnd continued hostility. It's here t hat they develop a working relationship which is real, human, and satisfying. Marriage counseling will not solve everyone's problems, and many couples should not have mar-ried in the first place. But the priests in New Jersey feel that their ef-forts at least break the destructive pattern of unhappy marriage in some cases, and are therefore of greater value for future generations. These examples - referral agent and marriage counselor- certainly do not describe all the roles that the priest can play. They are chosen to illustrate the possibilities and the limits of pastoral care in regard to persons with some specific problems. Are You Moving? All priests, however, should ha a basic confidence in and respl for the counseling disciplin· psychiatry and psychology. At t same time, the priest should t cautious about sending everyo. with some anxiety or insecurity the mental health profession: And, as indicated at the outset this article, the priest should se• out new ways of cooperating wi physicians, psychiatrists and ps chologists, and community ment health facilities. Accepting his own limitation and spurred on by a deep reveren• for personal integrity as well , dedication to his pastoral respor sibilities, the parish priest can t a valuable member of the ment. health team, and also a great he! to those persons who need a st<. bilizing influence on their way t personal maturity. If the next issue of this journal should be delivered to a differ-ent address, please advise AT ONCE. The return postage and cost of remailing this publication is becoming more and more costly. Your cooperation in keeping us up-to-date with your address will be most helpful. 2 10 Li nacre Quarterly Catholic Physicians' V ~w- St. Luke'f Guild of Bo. ·~on A Study Conducted for St. Luke's Guild of Catholic Physicians Synopsized by Mary J. Lorsung Assistant to the Editor "At a time when traditional moral values are challenged and the fun-damental question of human life is attacked, the need for intelligent direction, guidance and counsel especially within the discipline of medical ethics seems conspic-uously appropriate today. "Through this study Catholic physicians say they recognize the need and have the strong desire to receive such counsel. " In fact , these physicians both recognize and endorse the efforts and contributions of St. Luke's Guild. They say that the guild has been true to its purpose: to promote a better understanding of the moral and ethical principles that should guide the medical profession." Thus begins the summary of a survey of active and inactive mem-bers of the St. Luke's Gui ld of Boston by Becker Research Corpora-tion conducted in the fall of 1970. One hundred and five physic ians (50 inactive members; 55 active members ; For purposes of the sur-vey inac tive members are referred to as "non-members".) were the sample questioned by the independ-ent resea rch group to: determine the August, 1972 present image of the Gui ld as per-ceived by its members and the d if-ference in this image between active members and potential but inacti ve members; obtain the membership's evaluation of the Guild's present purposes and activities; determine whether the membership believes that the Guild still has an appro-priate role to play in 1970's, and if it does what they feel the organiza-tion 's objectives, activities and programs should be; explore the rea-sons why inactive members are not active, and to examine ways in which they might be motivated to undertake more active participa tion in the Guild. Those physicians, surveyed by telephone, were selected by sys-tematic sampling procedures from alphabetized lists of both active and inactive members - a tota l of 509 names. Some of the results and highlights of this survey are pre-sented in this issue of Linacre Quarterly because of continuing in-terest in the study by many people associated with local guilds, as well as the National Federation of the Catholic Physicians' Guilds, and because the information gath-211 . ·. ·. .. .. ·-' . . : •' ' . . ered w. ! undoubtedly be of in-terest to many guild members and offi cers facing similar questions within their own organization . Among the "highlight and i mplica-tions" listed in the summary sec-tion of the reports of find ings of the survey, prepared by the re-search organization, are the follow-ing points: (numbering below is not that of the survey) I. Ph ysicians strongly endorse the G uild to have an appro-priate role for this decade and they fee l that it provides a forum that is not found elsewhere. 2. Likewise they feel that ad-dressing itself to those med-ical-moral issues is the ap-propriate role today for the Guild, a valid reason for its continuance. 3. Catholic physicians favor direct involvement of the Guild in active lobbying efforts in the legislature as well as pledging professional services to health-care projects in the inner city. 4. The majority of physicians believe a wide range of med-ical eth ical opinion may be found among the Guild mem-bers. 5. Younger physicians are dis-posed to beco me Guild members but presently the majority of the members are over fifty years of age. 212 6. Membership appeals equal-ly to physicians who have not received undergraduate de-grees from Cathol ic colleges and universit ies and those who have received these degrees. 7. Personal religious thinking does not determine Guild membership. A balance of thought from conservative to liberal is to be found among the members. Some of the questions - an responses - which were used b the researchers in obtaining th information from which the cor e lusions and implications of th survey were formed are presente below. In determining the image of th Guild and whether physicians fe, it is fulfilling its purpose, they we t asked the ir opinion of each of set of six positive statements. Among these statements wert The Guild successfully promott a better understanding of the mora ethical principles that should guit the medical profession. Reply: Agree Disagree Not sm : Total 67 % 20% IJ 'H Members 73 % 18 % 9 'H Non-members 60% 22 % 18 'H The Guild provides visible leader-ship in proclaiming the mediad -ethical implications on curren f medical practices. Linacre Quarterly Reply: Agree Disagree Not sure To ta l 61 % 25 % 14 % Members 75 '1c 18 % 7 % Non-members 46 ':~ 32 '1c 22 % It is providing a forum for val-uable discussion that is not found elsewhere. Reply: Agree Disagree Not sure Total 56 'it 34 '1c 10% Members 62 'it 3 1% 7 % Non-members 50 'it 36 % 14 % The respondents were also asked their opinions o n a set of six negative statements which included: The Guild is old-fashioned and behind tlte times. Reply: Agree Disagree Not sure Total 20 'it 58 '7o 22 % Members 9% 78 % 13% Non-members 32 'it 36 '1c 32 ~'(; The Guild seems to have resisted the changes in the Church urged by Vatican II. Reply: Agree Disagree Not sure Total 20 'it 46% 34 % Members 2Z% 58 % 20 % Non-members 18 % 32 % 50 C,i; A th ird set of statements mea-sured the present and future role of the Guild. Three of these state-ments were: It should contribute financially to needy medical missionaries: Reply: Agree Disagree Not sure Total 70 '/t; 21 '7o 9% Members 73 '/t; 20 % 7% Non-members 66% 22 '/t; 12 '/l A ugust, 1972 Tit Guild should actively obby in th l' legislature in medt , '-m oral man , ··~ . Repl)' : Agree Disagree .'\ot sure Total 58 'ic 30% 12 '1c Mem ber' 58 'i(; 29 % 13 % Non-members 58 (( 32 % 10 % The Guild should pledge its pro-fessional service to projects con-cerned with the inner-city health care. Reply: Agree Disagree Not sure Total 53 % 28 ~'c 19 ' ( Members 60% 27 '/(. 13 ~', on-members 46 % 28 % 26 ' ( The range of medical-ethical opin-ion represented among Guild-associated Catholic physicians was ascertained by including a general statement as to this subject among the six positive statements and later asking specific questions re-garding att itudes toward abortion and birth control: A wide range of medical-ethical opmton may be found among the Guild members f rom very liberal to very con-servative. Reply: Agree Disagree Not sure Total 69 % 9% 22 '/t; Members 7 1 'It; 13 '/t; 16% Non-members 68 '/t; 4 '/l 28 '1c Would you be for or against passing a state law in Massachusetts mak-ing it legal for a pregnant woman to have an abortion on demand? Quali- Don't Reply: For Against fied know Total I 0 '1c 77 % II % 2ttf Members 5 '/t; 76% 15 % 4 '/l Non-members 14 '/l 78 'it 8 'it O'it 21 3 .. ·.·. ,. . ·. .. .. ' • !··· ' .·. •' .. t: • . Would you be for or against ex-tending the present state birth con-trol laws in Massachusetts to make it legal for unmarried f emales to obtain birth control information, ?ills, and devices? Quali- Don't Reply: For Agains t fied know Tota l 30 % 60 '(; 5% 5% Members 33% 62 % 2% 3% Non-members 28 % 58 % 8% 6% The physicians were also asked: In your religious thinking, esoecially in relation to the current changes in the Catholic Church, do you consider yourself more of a liberal, more of a conservative, or more middle of the road? Lib- Con- Mid- Don't Reply: era I servative die know Tota l 30% 30 % 38 % 2% Members 33 % 27 % 38 % 2% Non-members 28% 34 % 36% 2 % Using results from a list of var-ious activities planned or pro -posed by the Guild about which respondents were asked to in-dicate the strength of their in-terest in participating or attending, the researchers concluded that, "Cathol.ic physicians want in-formation on current medical-moral problems and they want to discuss these issues with non-Catholic physicians." It is a lso noted that " ... a program designed to help physicians with personal alcohol and/or drug problems elicit very positive responses from th e maj ority of physicians." Besides many other specific ques-tions relating especially to the de-tails of Guild functions, leader-214 ship, meetings, etc. the followi i question was asked : If you we the President of the Guild, wh would you consider its princip role over the next few years? The following are just a few ' the many and varied respons. received which might be of ii terest to any Guild member c officer and, we expect, many othe of our readers. Members Guild should build up opportun i for in terchange of opinion b tween Catholics and non-Cathol i• as well as more programs in ti medical-legal field. Voluntary group for religious e ercises for discussion on mor problems especially with men bers of other professions. Evaluate medical-morally curre1 documents in scientific medici r and delivery of medical care 1 include pre-med and medic students from the standpoint 1 moral problems . Keep as active as possible c medical-moral issues - keep up ' date and participate in sta1 legislation. Delivery of medica l care to di ~ advantaged people . Role: medica l-moral aspects < youth - young adults - educa tiona! aspects. Professional group should providL Li nac re Quarter! lectures with leading figure less emphasis on lobbying, more inner city activity - providing funds. Non-members Coming to grips- basic changes in modern theological thinking and thusly re-evaluating moral prob-lems in medicine. To encourage active theological controversy among physicians. Get involved in politics, in church politics, drugs, alcoho lism. Should give post-graduate courses m medicine-moral issues relating to Catholicism. More interest in community health problems. Our readers are reminded that the thorough, authoritative interpreta-August, 1972 tion ' of the findings obtained thr ugh the use of forty-e i 1t ques-tions took nearly fifty tyr-. written pages The present collec on of sampl. questio ns and conclusiOns are m..:ari t only to acqu aint our readers '' ith those points which seemed to be of most general in-terest, without repeating lengthy rationale for questions and/or interpretations or results. We also have not attempted to present the Becker Research Corporation's full explanation of methods and pro-cedure. We have attempted to briefly indicate sample areas of concern by the officers of one of our member guilds and a sampling of responses rece ived which, de-pending on many factors of size, geography, activity, will be of greater or lesser pe rtinance and interest to other affili ated guilds. 2 15 .. . ·-.. .. .·. ·, 

Catholic Physicians\u27 View: St. Luke\u27s Guild of Boston: A Study Conducted for St. Luke\u27s Guild of Catholic Physicians

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Catholic Physicians\u27 View: St. Luke\u27s Guild of Boston: A Study Conducted for St. Luke\u27s Guild of Catholic Physicians

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