Saturday, March 06, 2021

Tradition of Action

 

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

The Catholic Diocese of Peoria and Social Doctrine


The two girls pictured to the right had surgery at OSF in Peoria several years ago. Both are 27 years old now and are in Haiti.

Jenny is on the left and Heurese is on the right.  

Both girls live in Port au Prince. Jenny teaches at a school for children that are deaf. Heurese lives in a slum with her children aged two and four years.

I have written about both girls in the past.

I examined both of them last week in Haiti and both need heart surgery. OSF is refusing them care. Written communication several years ago from OSF’s lawyer, Doug Marshall, stated that OSF would no longer care for Haitian Hearts patients. Thus, Jenny and Heuruese will not receive the care they need and deserve from OSF. Their chances at long-term survival are minimal.

We have buried a couple of young Haitian Hearts patients in the last couple of years and most likely will bury more.

When I talked with Bishop Daniel Jenky about Haitian Hearts several years ago, he was very afraid to support the Haitian kids and go against OSF. Simply put, I believe that Bishop Jenky was concerned about alienating the Peoria area business community and did not want to hurt his Diocesan Capital Campaign in any way. He did not want to embarrass OSF.

The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services did not seem important to Bishop Jenky or to OSF. The Directives state that collaboration amongst Catholic health care providers is very important for the good of the patient.

Neither the Catholic Diocese of Peoria or OSF offered my Haitian patients like Jenny and Heurese any alternative. 

I was totally astounded by the actions of OSF and the Catholic Diocese of Peoria and I still am in disbelief that their respect for these young Haitians lives is nonexistent.  

The Catholic Post is the paper of the Peoria Diocese. Bishop Jenky is the publisher. The September 23, 2007 issue has an article entitled: Educators Urged to Teach Social Doctrine. A speaker named Jan Rosenhauer spoke to principals of Catholic schools in the Diocese of Peoria at King’s House. She made some very dramatic statements about the church’s social doctrine.

Some excerpts from the article:

“In her address, Rosenhauer described the roots and foundation of the church’s social doctrine, including Scripture and the teachings of popes.

“Among the key Scripture passages is the parable of the Last Judgment in the 25th chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew. In that parable, Jesus says we will be judged based on how we responded to the poor, needy, and suffering in our midst.

“It’s clearly a profound message about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. There aren’t a lot of other places where Jesus is so explicit about how we are going to be judged.”

“The Eucharist commits us to the poor,” she said, quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

“As we receive the Eucharist and become more and more connected to Christ, we become more and more conformed to Christ’s life and how He associated himself so closely with the poor in so many ways in his life,” said Rosenhauer.

“The first and most fundamental theme, said Rosenhauer, is the life and dignity of the human person.

“This idea of the dignity of the human person changes everything—it’s a whole different world view,” she said.

“When teaching social doctrine, Catholic educators need to connect the “tradition of action” with the “tradition of thought”, said Rosenhauer.

“Within the social doctrine’s “tradition of action” there are two kinds of good work: the works of charity or service, and the works of justice.

“Charity addresses immediate needs, but working for justice means striving to address the underlying causes that create the needs that charity addresses…”

Bishop Jenky, OSF, and the OSF legal team in Peoria need to read this article in the Catholic Post and put the “tradition of thought” regarding sick and dying Haitian kids into the “tradition of action”.

Sunday, February 28, 2021

Haitians are Afraid

 

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Haitians Are Afraid


Everyone is scared.

Everyone is fair game to be taken. Haitians with means are leaving the country.

Mothers have no money for food for their children. They have no money for a simple doctor visit. They are afraid to go on the streets with their children.

Parents are afraid to send their children to school. One did yesterday and the child did not come back.

Hospitals do not have adequate medications or bed capacity. Doctors working for the State of Haiti are not paid and go on strike frequently.

The psychiatric hospital in Port-au-Prince is full.

A Haitian policeman told me today that when people don't "put their heads together" and work out problems, "they can act like savages". He then asked me to buy him a car.

Only a few people on both sides of the Haitian economy are paralyzing this country.

People are running to get out of the capital. People are trying to leave the country.

Everyone is scared.
-----
My Comments in 2021--

I wrote the above in December 2006. Fifteen years ago. But I could use it today in 2021 if I were to post about Haiti today. 
A pediatrician in Port au Prince was shot and killed today and his wife kidnapped. When does this madness end?
Haitians are afraid. 

Friday, September 30, 2016

Dispatches from Haiti



Dear Everyone,

For the past five years I have been posting from the Journal Star website
in a blog called Dispatches from Haiti. There are approximately 400 hundred posts.

I posted this yesterday.

Thanks for reading.

john

www.haitianhearts.org

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Haiti's New General Hospital Still Not Built Five Years After Quake


John A Carroll
 shared a link.
51 mins · 
Five years after a 7.0 earthquake damaged or destroyed more than 50 hospitals and clinics in Haiti, the heart of the country’s public health system is still struggling to recover.
MIAMIHERALD.COM
Like ·  · 
  • Hedy Elliott likes this.
  • John A Carroll The photo above is the Pediatric Ward of the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince. This Pediatric Ward is inside a large tent that was constructed after the earthquake five years ago damaged the old Pediatric Ward that had been built in the 1930's. The General Hospital is the only public hospital serving 3 million people in Port-au-Prince. And if you saw this debacle in person, you may not recognize it as a "hospital". Haitians go there fully expecting to die.
    Just now · Edited · Like
  • John A Carroll Caterpillar tractors and bulldozers are currently knocking down old buildings at the General Hospital as dust, dirt, and debris fill the nostrils of patients and mothers as you see here. The mother's are the primary caregivers for their sick children.
  • John A Carroll OSF-CHOI built a new Children's Hospital and Emergency Department for 250 million dollars while they banned Haitian Hearts patients from coming back to OSF-CHOI. This embargo by OSF has been in place now for 12 years. A number of our patients have come from the General Hospital Pediatric Ward in Port-au-Prince. See above. Does this seem like ethical Catholic health care to you?
    4 mins · Like
  • John A Carroll
    Write a comment...

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Peoria's OSF-Children's Hospital of Illinois Heart Surgeons Leaving Town

Dr. Dale Geiss, cardiac surgeon, recently moved his practice from Peoria to the Quad Cities. Dr. Geiss began his practice of adult and pediatric
PJSTAR.COM
LikeLike ·  · 
  • John A Carroll Dr. Dale Geiss established the surgical pediatric heart program at OSF-CHOI through incredible hard work, tenacity, and skill. It took him decades to do this. 

    Dr. Geiss operated Haitian Hearts patients and never sent me one bill. And neither did his perfusionist, operating team, or the myriad of pediatric speciality physicians taking care of the Haitian kids post-operatively. (Haitian Hearts did pay OSF-CHOI over 1.1 million dollars for use of their facility and excellent cardiovascular ICU staff and ancillary services.) 

    And don’t forget Dr. Geiss mentored a young pediatric heart surgeon, Dr. Randall Fortuna, for the last decade at CHOI. Unfortunately, Dr. Fortuna just left town too. 

    Pediatric heart surgeons of these doctors abilities are not found on every street corner. What a shame for central Illinois babies, children, and young adults. 

    Like most everything else in life, we don’t know what we have until it is gone.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Haiti--2014

2 hrs · 
Father Andre is the soothing force in northern Haiti. His announcements after Mass are the social media equivalent of Twitter but are much more important. Haitian officials request tourists but for...
BLOGS.PJSTAR.COM
LikeLike ·  · 
  • John A Carroll

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Inertia

Defying a judge’s order, opposition leaders in Haiti plan to visit former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was put under house arrest last week as part of an...
MIAMIHERALD.COM
LikeLike ·  · 
  • John A Carroll When a society does not have basic infrastructure (government, justice system, roads, electricity, water, food, education, medicine) the population cannot thrive. And when calamity hits (earthquakes or Ebola) there is no reserve to fight back.
    23 hrs · Edited · Like · 1
  • Micki Berthelot Morency The disappointment continues to mount in Haiti...Infrastructure in Haiti had been decimated for years by several causes, but the influx of "Aid" has crippled its people. They seem to no longer expect much if anything from its government, but live off handouts. Education, food, healthcare, agriculture, employment, roads...are provided/funded/subsidized by NGOs.
    22 hrs · Unlike · 2
  • John A Carroll Institutional inertia. And blank stares from organizations that were designed to serve. This happens not only in Port-au-Prince but in Peoria, Illinois. We are desensitized with our digital devices and have lost empathy. Our heads are truly in the sand.
    20 hrs · Edited · Like · 3
  • John A Carroll