Curatio Apostolate Information

The Curatio Apostolate of Catholic Health Care Professionals was founded for all those who care for the sick: doctors, nurses, nursing home, hospice and clinic professionals, with a mission to promote, support and sustain the "Gospel of life," and to see Christ in our patients and co-workers. Following the Charter for Health Care Workers, a model and guide for our apostolate, our work as health care persons "is a very valuable service to life, it expresses a profoundly human and Christian commitment, not only as a technical activity but also one of dedication and love of neighbor." What do we mean when we say "Curatio?" Curatio is Latin for "healing" and it means the complete and total healing that Christ offers everyone. It is the kind of healing that the Roman centurion experienced when he asked for healing for his son. It is what we mean when we profess during Holy Mass right before we receive Holy Communion, "Only say the word and my soul shall be healed." In a profound way Jesus' mission was primarily spiritual. He came to take away the sins of the world, to reconcile us to God and to provide for us the opportunity for eternal life as our inheritance, as being children of God; that was His mission. But as Father Joseph Johnson often reminded us, Jesus comes to us as a whole person. Jesus did not see a person and just see the spiritual dimension of that person. He saw the person who has a spiritual element, a physical element, an emotional element, a psychological component. Jesus sees us as integrated wholes. So, when He comes to us and when we encounter Him it is all of those levels. One of the fundamental mistakes we sometimes make in modern health care is to try and sort out our spiritual life from the rest of our life. Jesus didn't do that. That's why His mission wasn't to cure every one of their physical ailments although He certainly did cure many, but instead He came to bring God's healing presence to us entirely and completely. So how are we who are called primarily to work on the physical level ...