Drs. Michael and Paula Giudici present the gifts to Bishop Dennis Walsh during the White Mass Oct. 19 at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Davenport. A talk followed with Deacon Alan Rastrelli on end-of-life care.
By Lindsay Steele
The Catholic Messenger
DAVENPORT — Bishop Dennis Walsh encourages Catholic healthcare professionals to find inspiration in St. Luke, the patron saint of doctors. “Luke, the physician and artist, paints this beautiful image of discipleship… a life dedicated to love, empathy and forgiveness.”
The bishop shared this message during a White Mass on Oct. 19 at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Davenport. Like St. Luke, healthcare professionals can use their unique and powerful voices to promote life, protect the dignity of the human person, care for the poor and marginalized and cure the sick, he said.
Traditionally, White Masses are celebrated on or near St. Luke’s feast day, Oct. 18. This year’s Mass coincided with the Feast of the North American Martyrs. The eight Jesuit missionaries proclaimed the Gospel in a hostile world and suffered martyrdom because of it. Luke experienced a similar fate, according to Catholic tradition.
Faithful healthcare professionals may be called to martyrdom as well. “It may not be a martyrdom of our lives but a martyrdom of being ridiculed, loss of employment, being canceled, being disregarded,” Bishop Walsh said. “I know that the occupations in which you are engaged can sometimes be morally difficult.” He hears from exhausted healthcare professionals who fear the industry is becoming too focused on profit and productivity. Laypersons “are called to transform the world and the workplace,” the bishop said. He thanked the healthcare professionals for “saying yes to serving all of our brothers and sisters.”
Deacon Alan Rastrelli, M.D., the attending physician with St. Francis of Assisi Supportive Care and Emmaus Catholic Hospice in Denver, assisted at the Mass and later offered a presentation on life-affirming, end-of-life care.
“I don’t know if it’s Deacon Doctor, or Doctor Deacon,” Dr. Tim Millea joked while introducing the ordained physician to the gathering in Denning Hall for a post-Mass reception. “Just say, ‘Hey,’” Deacon Rastrelli quipped as the gathering burst into laughter. Dr. Millea, president of the St. Thomas Aquinas Medical Guild of the Quad Cities, met Deacon Rastrelli seven years ago at a Catholic Medical Association meeting in Denver. “If you’ve been to Clinton (and eaten at) Rastrelli’s, those are his cousins,” Dr. Millea said.
Deacon Rastrelli originally practiced anesthesiology but shifted his focus about 20 years ago to the emerging field of palliative and hospice care. Physician-assisted suicide, which the Catholic Church opposes, is legal in his home state. Colorado’s End-of-Life Options Act permits terminally ill residents to request and receive prescribed medication for the purpose of ending their life (denverhealth.org).
Deacon Rastrelli fought against the 2016 legislation. He follows Church teaching in his practice by attending to the needs of the patient while allowing natural death to occur. Still, he understands why some people view physician-assisted suicide as an act of compassion. “Advances in medicine have allowed us to live longer … we’re able to sustain the body in chronic illness for a much longer time,” he said. “There’s a lot of unrelieved pain and suffering that has been going on with these prolonged illnesses that sometimes medication does not adequately address.”
Financial, familial, societal and emotional factors can also cause distress. “You don’t want to kill the sufferer to end the suffering” but physician-assisted suicide “is very tempting if you’re not adequately addressing the suffering someone is going through.”
Humans are conditioned to embrace pleasure and fulfillment and to fear suffering and death, he said. Jesus experienced this in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before his crucifixion. Someone who is not religious may fear the idea of total extinction while a person of faith may experience fear of the unknown. “We have to address intensive caring of the body and soul by addressing the physical, psychological, social, financial (needs). All of these different things are intertwined.”
An update on Edmund
During the reception, Dr. Millea offered an update on Edmund Katusabe, a Tanzanian medical student. The guild learned about Katusabe several years ago through Father Fortunatus Rwehikiza, a Tanzanian priest who at the time was completing graduate studies at St. Ambrose University in Davenport. Katusabe, a former student of Father Rwehikiza, was accepted to medical school in Tanzania but could not afford the $2,000-a-year tuition. The St. Thomas Aquinas Guild raised money to help Katusabe pay for schooling. He will graduate from medical school Nov. 15. “I’m so grateful to everybody in this room who helped out with this through their prayers and their financial support,” Dr. Millea said.
