Addressing a group of Italian nurses and doctors in 1981, Pope John Paul II stated, “Bring to the sick-room and to the operating room something of God’s charity, of the love and tenderness of Christ, the Great Doctor of the soul and of the body.” Members of Curatio, a lay apostolate of Catholic health care professionals founded in the Twin Cities in 2001, make every effort to bring the words of the Holy Father to life.
The group’s motto, Curatio Ex Corde Christi, means “healing from the heart of Christ.” Through the grace of the sacraments and by supporting each other through daily prayer, monthly Masses, retreats and other liturgical and social events, Curatio members find the strength to bring God’s charity to the bedside of the sick.
The original impulse to found Curatio came from Dianne Johnson R.N., a graduate of the Department of Catholic Studies (1998 B.A., 2006 M.A.), who was aided by several priests of the archdiocese and by a number of St. Thomas professors.
Members of Curatio include all those who care for the sick: doctors; nurses; nursing home, hospice, and clinic workers; and those in the medical business community. As they care for the sick, Curatio members pray for each other and for their patients, seeing in their daily mission an encounter with Christ.
Curatio members have learned that bringing God’s charity to the bedside means being present in the hardest of situations with sometimes the most challenging of people. It means seeing patients, families and coworkers as children of God and trying to love them as God loves them. It means, above all, not reducing their patients to facts on a chart, a computer screen or a particular disease but, rather, conceiving of their work as an instrument of God’s outpouring love for the sick and suffering.
For more information about Curatio, contact Dianne Johnson R.N., (763) 786-4945.
