Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, Sixth Edition
Notes
1. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Health and Health Care: A Pastoral Letter of the
American Catholic Bishops (Washington, DC: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops,
1981).
2. Health care services under Catholic auspices are carried out in a variety of institutional settings (e.g.,
hospitals, clinics, outpatient facilities, urgent care centers, hospices, nursing homes, and parishes).
Depending on the context, these Directives will employ the terms “institution” and/or “services” in
order to encompass the variety of settings in which Catholic health care is provided.
3. Health and Health Care, p. 5.
4. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity (Apostolicam
Actuositatem) (1965), no. 1.
5. Pope John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation On the Vocation and the Mission of the
Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World (Christifideles Laici) (Washington, DC: United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1988), no. 29.
6. As examples, see Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration on Procured Abortion
(1974); Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration on Euthanasia (1980);
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and
on the Dignity of Procreation: Replies to Certain Questions of the Day (Donum Vitae)
(Washington, DC: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1987).
7. Pope John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Peace on Earth (Pacem in Terris) (Washington, DC: United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1963), no. 11; Health and Health Care, pp. 5, 17-18;
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: Libreria Editrice Vaticana–United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2000), no. 2211.
8. Pope John Paul II, On Social Concern, Encyclical Letter on the Occasion of the Twentieth
Anniversary of “Populorum Progressio” (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis) (Washington, DC: United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1988), no. 43.
9. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic
Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy (Washington, DC: United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops, 1986), no. 80.
10. The duty of responsible stewardship demands responsible collaboration. But in collaborative
efforts, Catholic institutionally based health care services must be attentive to occasions when the
policies and practices of other institutions are not compatible with the Church’s authoritative
moral teaching. At such times, Catholic health care institutions should determine whether or to
what degree collaboration would be morally permissible. To make that judgment, the governing
boards of Catholic institutions should adhere to the moral principles on cooperation. See Part Six.
11. Health and Health Care, p. 12.
12. Cf. Code of Canon Law, cc. 921-923.
13. Cf. ibid., c. 867, § 2, and c. 871.
14. To confer Baptism in an emergency, one must have the proper intention (to do what the Church
intends by Baptism) and pour water on the head of the person to be baptized, meanwhile
pronouncing the words: “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the