Healthcare is a vocation for Catholics

Jim McManus

Catholic staff are an asset to the National Health Service, was the message of Jim McManus, Joint Director of Public Health in Birmingham, as he delivered the annual Catholics in Healthcare lecture at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool. The lecture entitled: 'Mission, ministry and identity for Catholics in modern healthcare' took place in the Gibberd Room on Sunday, followed by Mass in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel celebrated by Bishop Tom Williams, Auxiliary Bishop of Liverpool and Chair of the national Healthcare Reference Group for the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

In his address Jim McManus, who also serves on the Healthcare reference group, said that there is a clear mission and ministry with a distinct identity for Catholics to discover in the vocation to healthcare. He said that the mandate for this comes directly from the Gospel message of Jesus: 'I have come that all may have life in its fullness...' He went on to say that the Healing Ministry is central to what Jesus did and to his teaching. He said that people can bring their Christian values to the NHS not least because such values are underpinned by Catholic Social Teaching.

He paid tribute to the role played by volunteers in the Catholic Church using as an example the 700 volunteers, from all walks of life, who had contributed to the Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI in Cofton Park, Birmingham. He said that there is a distinct identity across the board for Catholics working in healthcare whether paid or unpaid and that both the NHS and civil society need us, not to claim that we are better but to be part of a diverse NHS and society.

He concluded by saying that as Catholics we have a contribution to make and we need to show the NHS what we can bring to healthcare both in terms of our values and our work.

More information can be found on the Archdiocese of Liverpool website where the lecture can be heard in full: www.liverpoolcatholic.org.uk