Sept. 29 Mass and banquet will honor health care professionals
By Natalie Hoefer
The annual White Mass honoring health care professionals will be celebrated at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral, 1347 N. Meridian St., in Indianapolis, at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 29.
Father C. Ryan McCarthy, pastor of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish in Indianapolis and chaplain of the St. Raphael Catholic Medical Guild of Indianapolis, will be the principal celebrant.
Following the Mass, the guild will host a banquet at the Archbishop Edward T. O’Meara Catholic Center, 1400 N. Meridian St., in Indianapolis. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Matt Will, associate professor of finance for the masters of business administration program at the University of Indianapolis School of Business. He will speak on “The Economics of Health Care.”
Three awards will be given to honor those who have provided outstanding service and served as role models in advancing Catholic values within the medical industry.
This year’s winners are Dr. Brandon Brown of Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health in Indianapolis, receiving the St. Gianna Catholic Physician of the Year Award; Agnes Therady, RN, of Franciscan Health, receiving the St. Luke Catholic Clinical Health Care Worker of the Year Award; and Mark and Michelle Overholt of the One in Christ marriage preparation program, receiving the St. Raphael Catholic Non-clinical Health Care Workers of the Year Award.
According to its website, the St. Raphael Catholic Medical Guild is a chapter of the Catholic Medical Association, which was created “in order to help medical professionals grow in the spirit of Christ, to bring his spirit to all touched by our science and art, and to assist the whole Christian community with the unique leadership and knowledge we have as Christian physicians.”
The Indianapolis guild “seeks to unite and empower local Catholic health care providers to deepen their own relationship with the Holy Trinity and to share their faith with like-minded health professionals,” the website explains.
The date of the Mass and banquet holds special significance to the members of the local St. Raphael Guild—Sept. 29 is the Feast of the Archangels: Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, whose name means “God heals.”
The White Mass, which originated in the United States in 1932 to honor medical doctors, is so named for the white lab coats doctors wear.
The Mass was resurrected in the archdiocese in 2014. In that year, Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin, then the shepherd of central and southern Indiana, appointed Father McCarthy as chaplain of the guild.
“The purpose [of the Mass] is to ask God’s grace upon the medical community as they serve all those in need,” Father McCarthy told The Criterion in 2016. “Secondly, it’s to encourage and strengthen those in the medical field. And finally, it’s to celebrate the graces and blessings God’s given us in having such a strong Catholic community in health care.”
All are invited to the Mass. To attend the banquet afterward, tickets are $35 (plus a $4.01 fee) for those ages 13 and older, $5 (plus a $2.33 fee) for medical students, and free for children ages 12 and younger.
Those wishing to have a business card‑sized ad in the program can request to do so online for $100 (plus a $7.62 fee).
All registrations and requests for a program ad can be made online at bit.ly/2xeSSGv (case sensitive) and must be made by Sept. 27.
For more information on the event, email info@indycathmed.org. For more information on the St. Raphael Catholic Medical Guild of Indianapolis, go to indycathmed.org. †