THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 24, 1996 TAG: 9609240284
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT AND MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 81 lines
With the hymn's words, ``Lord, you give the great commission: `Heal the sick and preach the word,' '' came the beginning of the end for the Daughters of Charity's health care mission in Hampton Roads.
Within an hour Monday afternoon, the religious order had transferred sponsorship of DePaul Medical Center to another order, the Sisters of Bon Secours, and to the Bon Secours Health System.
Although the legal transfer will happen next month, Monday's ceremony marked the passing of a 140-year religious institution. The Daughters of Charity opened the Hospital of St. Vincent de Paul, as it was called then, in 1856.
The event was an unusual public recognition of something that goes on behind closed doors - shifts of health care ownership and alliances.
Catholic Bishop Walter F. Sullivan gave the homily at Monday's service, lauding both religious orders and praising the fact that the health care system will remain in Catholic hands.
``That sense of community, that sense of oneness, that sense of family - the DePaul family - is so very, very important,'' Sullivan said in his homily. ``The charity (the Daughters) have done is beyond even imagination. It is known only to God.''
Sullivan and other American bishops have reason to be concerned about the future of Catholic hospitals. Beds stand empty because of managed care, a type of insurance that reduces costs in part by keeping people out of the hospital or reducing their stays.
Hospitals are being absorbed by big, for-profit chains. American bishops worry that mergers with nonreligious and for-profit companies endanger the values of Catholic hospitals, such as a commitment to caring for the poor, and a refusal to perform abortions or surgical sterilizations. The DePaul sale avoids those problems.
Monday's ceremony included a symbolic passing of a Bible from Sister Virginia Ann Brooks of the Daughters of Charity to Sister Ann Marie Mack of Bon Secours. Each read a blessing for the other's religious community.
``All of us are here for one purpose, and that is to spread God's kingdom. None of us is given to responsibility forever, and so it is our time to turn over our responsibility, but the work of the spread of God's kingdom will go on,'' said Sister Ann Brooks.
Before a large audience at Blessed Sacrament Church, they embraced and then parted.
Bon Secours and Daughters of Charity hospitals are run mostly by lay administrators. But members of the sponsoring orders serve in leadership roles, and the hospitals are guided by policies established by bishops.
The Bon Secours emblem - a stylized blue fleur-de-lis - was displayed on the altar cloth and on the stole worn by the bishop. The incoming chief executive officer for DePaul, Richard A. Hanson, carried the cross in the recessional.
Hanson already serves as chief executive officer for Bon Secours' Maryview Medical Center in Portsmouth. Maryview recently bought Portsmouth General Hospital and is shutting it down.
Officials will not disclose the amount of the DePaul sale. It involves not only the hospital at Granby Street and Kingsley Lane, but also doctors' practices and other holdings.
The new owners say DePaul will continue as a full-service general hospital.
But details of the health company operation were not discussed at Monday's event, which focused on the values that the orders share. ``Bon Secours'' is a French term that, loosely translated, means ``good help.''
``I would hope,'' Sullivan said, ``that this is our prayer together, that that sense of community will continue as vibrant and alive at DePaul Hospital, that the whole spirit of the Daughters of Charity is continuing on.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
VICKI CRONIS
The Virginian-Pilot
Sister Mary Carroll receives a goodbye hug from Jackie Ward, nurse
manager for patient care services at DePaul Hospital. The Daughters
of Charity ended their work there Monday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sister Virginia Ann Brooks of the Daughters of Charity leads the
recessional out of Blessed Sacrament Church Monday. In a service
there, the order ended its 140-year sponsorship at the hospital,
which has been sold to the Bon Secours Health System. The sisters of
Bon Secours will assume their tasks.\ by CNB