‘We’re all worn down’: Catholic health care providers find spiritual strength at White Mass

One of Dr. Marie-Alberte Boursiquot’s long-standing patients, a 55-year-old woman, had a heart attack Oct. 11 and was essentially brain dead. Just about every night of that week, the doctor consoled her patient’s daughter, preparing her for the inevitable. 

Five days later, Boursiquot’s team had to stop all life-sustaining measures, since there was no meaningful expectation of recovery. 

“I could not save my patient,” Boursiquot said, “but I was able to share the love of Christ with her daughter and help her carry her cross.” 

Boursiquot was among approximately 100 people who gathered at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore Oct. 17 for the White Mass, named for the white coats physicians, medical students and allied healthcare professionals were encouraged to wear at the celebration. 

The annual event includes members of the Baltimore Guild, Catholic Medical Association, and is always scheduled near the Oct. 18 feast of St. Luke, patron of physicians.

For Boursiquot, a basilica parishioner, and the other medical professionals, the liturgy was an opportunity to pray and reflect on the many challenges they have confronted during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Boursiquot said she offered most of her prayers at eucharistic adoration before the White Mass. She also said she will have a Mass celebrated for the repose of the souls of any patients lost in the last year, irrespective of their religious affiliation. 

“I think what we have as Catholic physicians is that we have an appreciation of the beauty of suffering,” said the internist at Johns Hopkins Medicine. “We know we can offer it up and in doing so there is hope.”  

One of the hardest challenges she faced was having to admit a number of her patients with COVID-19, she said. She is thankful most of them survived, but not all of them did.

“COVID-19 has worn us all down,” Boursiquot said of her fellow physicians. 

Dr. Mary Ann Sorra, a parishioner of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ellicott City and an obstetrics and gynecology specialist affiliated with Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, said she too has faced challenges during the pandemic.

“When people would say ‘heroes work here,’” Sorra said, “they used to almost make me cry because it did not feel heroic. We did not know how to take care of people.”

Sorra, who said she prays throughout the day, offered special prayers for patients who would die alone in quarantine, “that they would know our Lord and Blessed Mother were with them, holding their hand,” she said.

Dr. Shirley Reddoch, a parishioner of St. Louis in Clarksville and a pediatric hematology-oncology specialist affiliated with Johns Hopkins Medicine, said many physicians accompanied patients through their “difficult moments and feelings of isolation” during the pandemic. 

As former president of Baltimore Guild, Catholic Medical Association term 2020-2021, she acknowledged the need for fellowship among Catholic physicians.

Carol Thelen, a parishioner of Mount Calvary Catholic Church in Baltimore and a family nurse practitioner with a Mercy Medical Center location in Lutherville, said one of the biggest challenges during the pandemic was taking care of patients not sick enough to be hospitalized. She said telemedicine became very practical to keep in contact with them.

Her family was careful to take precautions to avoid contracting the virus and potentially exposing her patients, she said.

“My husband learned how to buy everything online,” Thelen said. “He stopped going out to do anything unnecessary and we did all our recreation outdoors.”

After the White Mass, there was a blessing for health care providers and installation of officers for the BG-CMA term 2022-2023: Sorra, president; Dr. Michael Erdek, vice president; Dr. Christine Sybert, secretary; and Reddoch, treasurer. Dr. Robert Ray Redfield Jr., former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a parishioner of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Homeland, chatted with his fellow medical professionals near the basilica’s grand portico.

In his homily, Father Michael DeAscanis, pastor of St. Louis in Clarksville and St. Francis of Assisi in Fulton as well as Catholic Medical Association’s 2021 Outstanding Guild Chaplain at Johns Hopkins, thanked all health care providers for their resilient work during the pandemic, for “not quitting” despite the risks and for answering the call to serve.

Father DeAscanis celebrated Mass along with concelebrants Father James Boric, basilica rector; Father Louis Asobi, vice president for Mission Integration at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson; Missionary of St. Paul Father Augustine Inwang, pastor of the Transfiguration Catholic Community in Baltimore and assistant chaplain for Mercy Medical Center; and Josephite Father Leo Udeagu, chaplain for St. Agnes Medical Center.

The Catholic Medical Association Awards Committee recognized the Baltimore Guild – CMA as a recipient of the 2021 St. Luke Guild Award.

“Science teaches what you could do,” Father DeAscanis said to the congregation, “and the church teaches what you should do.”

Email Priscila González de Doran at pdoran@CatholicReview.org

Also see

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CELAM report portrays long-lasting crisis in Latin America after COVID-19 hit the region

Clergy and laity: Both could have been more courageous during COVID-19

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