At Baltimore White Mass event, theologian warns Catholic medical professionals they are on the front lines of a cultural crisis

Catholic theologian and author George Weigel warned that the Catholic faith is facing a “great crisis,” and those in the medical profession are “on the front lines” of that battle.

Speaking Oct. 26 at the Baltimore Guild of the Catholic Medical Association’s White Mass luncheon at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Weigel said the modern West’s view of humanity – as “just congealed stardust, the fortuitous result of random cosmic biochemical forces that, in the 15 billion or so years since the Big Bang, just happened to produce us” – has created a deep divide in understanding the human person.

That worldview, the Baltimore native said, denies both humanity’s purpose and its divine origin. “There is no given nature. Our destiny is oblivion. The gratification of our desires, whatever they may be, is the most we can hope for,” he said. That outlook, he added, fuels the “mantra of ‘choice,’” manifesting in abortion, euthanasia and “gender-affirming” procedures as attempts to answer the question, “Who are we?”

Catholics, Weigel said, reject that definition of the human person. They affirm the message of Psalm 8: “That we have come from someone (and) that that someone has endowed us with a unique dignity and that we are going somewhere.”

Weigel’s talk followed the annual White Mass, celebrated by Archbishop William E. Lori at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. More than 440 people, including doctors, nurses, medical students and other professionals, attended the liturgy, many wearing their white coats. The Mass, organized by the Baltimore Guild, is held near Oct. 18, the feast of St. Luke, patron saint of physicians.

In his homily, Archbishop Lori thanked Catholic medical professionals for their dedication and urged them to serve with humility.

“Humility,” he said, “is recognizing that we are not the owners nor the masters of God’s gift of life, but rather its stewards and servants.”

He reminded those gathered that “the patient before you was created, body and soul and spirit, in God’s image,” which means rejecting “medical procedures which, by their very nature, imply complete mastery over human life and the identity of person. For example, procedures which terminate life at the beginning or the end or which violate the natural functions of the human body.”

Archbishop Lori also emphasized the church’s commitment to the poor, noting that poverty often worsens health conditions.

“Pope Leo reminds us how much God truly does love the poor and urges us to see the poor not as a statistic or a problem to be solved but rather as our brothers and sisters,” he said. “The beauty of Catholic healthcare is its love for the poor. Few people understand how much uncompensated medical care is provided by Catholic hospitals and other healthcare institutions and facilities.”

He encouraged the faithful to uphold truth and dignity in medicine.

“Distinguish clearly between the treatments and procedures that enhance human dignity and those that violate it,” he said. “You bear witness to the Gospel of life in a culture of death that is often forgetful and even adverse to sound ethical principles and practices.”

At the luncheon, Weigel offered three practical suggestions for Catholic medical professionals: follow real science, be lifelong Catholic learners and work to reform medical schools and associations corrupted by what he called “woke ideology, false notions of freedom and false answers to the question, ‘Who are we?’”

“Medical professionals are apostles,” he said. “My hope for you in this association is that you will be ardent warriors in the cause of life. Knowing that in these times, it is not permitted to anyone to be mediocre. And that when each of us meets the Lord, the question posed to us will not be whether we succeeded, but whether we tried as hard as we could.”

The luncheon drew members of the Baltimore Guild and nearby guilds, along with many medical students. Dr. Janine Danko, Baltimore Guild president, said gatherings such as the White Mass strengthen and unite Catholic healthcare workers.

“There is no doubt the secular world is ‘anti-’ what we believe as Catholics and Catholic health care,” she said. “We aim to sponsor events and host events like these not only to foster fellowship and camaraderie, but to also equip us as warriors in the faith to a better understanding what our ethics are so that we can defend the dignity of life in everything that we do.”

Email Katie V. Jones at kjones@CatholicReview.org

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