God as a Surgeon

Working within us like a surgeon, God condemns and cuts away whatever in us is infected by sin, cleansing us from corruption with the knife of affliction.
--Bl. Ogerius of Locedio

Respect for the Poor

"Assistance to the unfortunate honors when it treats the poor man with respect, not only as an equal, but as a superior--since he is suffering what perhaps we are incapable of suffering; since he is a messenger of God to us, sent to prove our justice and charity, and to save us by our works."

--Frederick Ozanam, quoted by James Patrick Derum in Apostle in a Top Hat

Separation of Church and State

The rightful autonomy of the political or civil sphere from that of religion and the Church--but not from morality--is a value that has been recognized by the Catholic Church and belongs to the inheritance of contemporary civilization.

--quoted in The Teaching of Ethics by François Primeau, MD

God's Instruments

Physicians and medical researchers must understand that they are the instruments through which a loving God cares for His creation. They must always be mindful that their hands are those of Jesus, who cured the sick with compassion, generosity, and understanding.

--William V. Williams, M.D.; Ethics in Clinical Research

Moral courage in the practice of medicine

You are probably not being called to the martyrdom of blood, but you are all being called to holiness, and this entails taking up your daily cross. Courageous men and women do not consider their own advantage, their own well-being, their own survival as greater values than their fidelity to the Gospel. Despite all evident weakness, they vigorously resist evil. In their fragility, the power of faith and of God's grace shines forth....

Fortitude goes hand in hand with the willingness to sacrifice oneself in the imitation of Christ. The age of martyrdom has not passed....

What the first community of believers asked of God in times of trial was neither protection nor vengeance. Rather, they asked for the gift of being able to "proclaim in all boldness" -- to proclaim courageously -- the Word of God (cf. Acts 4:29).

Canada's Catholic physicians can ask the Lord for nothing less: the moral courage to act always with an upright conscience, to stand up for the truth of the moral order regardless of the cost, in the service of life and of its Author.

 --J. Michael Miller, CSB; Courage and the Physician

Combat the Deception

Physicians in particular have a serious duty to combat the deception of those who believe that abortion is the solution to health, family, financial and social problems. In a health-care background frequently marked by the eclipse of the sense of the inherent dignity of life, Pope Benedict reminds us that

special fortitude is demanded of doctors so that they may continue to assert that abortion resolves nothing but kills the child, destroys the woman and blinds the conscience of the child's father, all too often ruining family life. This duty, however, does not only concern the medical profession and health-care workers. The whole of society must defend the right to life of the child conceived and the true good of the woman who will never, in any circumstance, be able to find fulfillment in the decision of abortion.

 --J. Michael Miller, CSB; Courage and the Physician 

Natural Law

Obeying the natural law does not mean submitting to an external law imposed from the outside, but rather "welcoming the law of one's own being." It expresses what is best for us, if we wish to act in an authentically human way.

 --J. Michael Miller, CSB; Courage and the Physician