Tepeyac Family Center

Dr. Bruchalski Challenging Colleagues

Comparing the present state of health care in the United States to a game of baseball could easily be one of those analogies that stretches the imagination, "just shy of the foul pole," perhaps.
But when Dr. John Bruchalski, founder of the Tepeyac Family Center, recently addressed the members of the Northern Virginia Catholic Physicians Guild (NVCPG), he hit a home run.
Bruchalski's lecture, held at St. Raymond of Penafort Church in Springfield, was entitled, "Finding Joy in Mudville: Catholic Medicine in the 21st Century."
Bruchalski founded the Tepeyac Family Center, a pro-life OB-GYN practice in Fairfax, and is president of Divine Mercy Care, the non-profit Catholic heath care organization in the Arlington Diocese.
He opened by reading "Casey at the Bat," the famous baseball poem written in 1888 by Ernest Lawrence Thayer. Curiously, he omitted from the famous last line: "Mighty Casey has struck out." Instead, it became clear that his challenge to Catholic medical professionals would be to rewrite that last line for today's health care.
The future of health care is a timely topic for Catholics to consider. In the United States, with over 47 million people uninsured, health care provision is not only a medical concern but a political and economic one.
Too often, Bruchalski said, the pressures of secular culture lead physicians to become "pessimistic about realistic and practical solutions to the core issues we face as a profession; cynical about our ability to affect change in ourselves, our patients and our communities; skeptical about government intervention . and our Church's leadership in health care issues; and resigned to the status quo of our practice, of our position and of our profession." Is it possible, then, to find joy in Mudville today?
Catholic medicine has a long history of compassion to the underserved and sick, based on the model that Jesus Christ set as the source of true healing in body and in soul. Unfortunately (or rather, all too predictably), the rich philosophy and doctrine are mostly left behind today when the practical aspects of providing health care come under consideration. It is more popular among those who will shape the future of health care to divorce the medical care from any religious implications.
For example, a recent statement from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists calls for physicians to provide or refer medical care even if the care conflicts with personal conscience - a policy that becomes especially relevant in the sphere of reproductive ethics (abortion, etc.).
Rejecting this division, Bruchalski argued that joy comes from acknowledging the unity of body and spirit, and that "seeking the guidance of authentic Church teaching is crucial to building and strengthening a well-formed conscience. . It has everything to do with who we are, and how we act with patients, how we live and breathe."
To bridge this perceived gap between faith and medicine, Bruchalski led a meditation on chapters 15, 19, and 21 of the Gospel of John - the same chapters studied by St. Faustina in the last days of her life. The messages of these three books corresponded for Bruchalski to Casey's three pitches "at the bat." On a practical level, this message was one of internal, individual conversion: "In order to change medicine, we must change ourselves."
He urged the audience to first recognize the spiritual conflict in medicine; secondly, to see in Jesus Christ the source of joy and excellence; and finally - the pitch he sees as critical to the outcome of the ballgame - to listen to and follow Jesus daily in life and medical practice.
The NVCPG was organized in 2007 to bring together medical professionals, students and health care workers and religious who strive to integrate the Catholic faith into their clinical work. Periodic lectures hosted by the NVCPG allow members and community to meet together and discuss pressing issues in health care.