Category: Guild Activity

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Announcing New FLG Officers!

It is with great excitement that we would like to announce the new Finger Lakes Guild Officers!

President – Angela Kristan, MD, MTS

Vice President – Bryan Stanistreet, MD

Treasurer – Alison Carroll, DO will continue in this role

Immediate Past President – Thomas Carroll, MD, PhD will move into this role to assist in a smooth leadership transition.

Thank you to our Officers, Board Members, and Guild Members for all of your hard work and dedication, especially over these past few challenging years!

We look forward to continuing our service to the Rochester Diocese.

St. Basil the Great, Pray for Us!

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Catholic Conversations – Death with True Dignity

January 15, 2022 from 8:30am to 1pm

We are excited to announce that, in cooperation with Mt. Carmel House, St. Bernard’s and the Diocese of Rochester, the Symposium has been resuscitated!

COVID-permitting we will offer an in-person option, though either way, the Symposium will be available via Zoom.

We welcome you would like to join in-person (COVID permitting) or virtually! Please register here!

We will address important topics and questions around common and challenging end of life issues, including…

  • Why does the Church teach that? (Foundations of Catholic Teaching)
  • Does Hospice mean I’m giving up?
  • I don’t need a Health Care Proxy because my wife will make decisions if I can’t.
  • I don’t want Hospice because they’re going to kill me with morphine!
  • But if I start the feeding tube, then the Church says I can never stop it…right?

…and many more…

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Catholic Wellness Answers

FLG President Tom Carroll will be the featured guest on Catholic Wellness Answers, a webcast of MyCatholicDoctor, on November 9th from 8-9pm. He will be discussing, and taking audience questions on, all things Palliative Care including symptom management, advance care planning, end of life decisions/care, and how to talk to your doctor to make sure your wishes and values are known.

Stay tuned for more details, including the video conference link!

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Ready for the next vaccine controversy?

We can only imagine that the next Pfizer and BioNTech mRNA vaccine, this time for influenza (and RSV…and likely many, many more to come), is likely to have the same ties to morally tainted cell lines as their COVID-19 vaccine.

We hope that, at worst, the new Pfizer and BioNTech’s mRNA influenza vaccines will, like COVID-19 vaccine, utilize morally compromised cell lines only in the confirmatory lab testing phase, and not in Design & Development or Production. Regardless, this is the time for each of us make our voices heard. Please reach out in writing and/or by phone to any and all of the groups listed below to let them know that morally-acceptable vaccines, in addition to be the right thing to do, will be the most commercially successful as well!

Remember…while the Holy Father, through the CDF, and our Bishops (along with others) have been clear that while we are able to accept the currently-available COVID-19 vaccines with a clear conscience, we are also obligated to both avoid scandal and advocate for the development of vaccines that are developed in morally acceptable ways. The advocacy can take many forms, including…

  • Donating to organizations that are developing such vaccines, including the JP2 Medical Research Institute
  • Thanking companies that are developing morally acceptable vaccines including Sanofi Pasture (Human Life Action provides a convenient contact template for Sanofi specifically) and urging them, if they were to create future morally acceptable vaccines.
  • Urging companies that are almost there with COVID-19 vaccine to switch utilize fully morally acceptable vaccine development processes in the future. You can contact Pfizer here and Moderna here.
  • The USCCB has sample letters to vaccine-producing companies urging them to produce morally acceptable vaccines
  • Charitably admonishing companies that are not almost there (i.e., developing very morally problematic vaccines) to change course. AstraZeneca is the company closest to getting a severely morally problematic vaccine approved and can be contacted here.
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COVID Vaccine Discussion at St. Bernard’s

The Guild would like to thank the Diocese of Rochester’s Life Issues office, St. Bernard’s, most of all, Fr. Tad Pacholczyk for a wonderful presentation and lively discussion last Wednesday!

Fr. Tad did a masterful job framing both the scientific and moral issues related to COVID vaccines. He was also extremely generous with this time, answering questions and engaging in discussion with the audience (both those in-person and joining remotely) late into the evening.

Thank you also to the many people who joined us for this talk. We were very happy to see many of you in person and were also gratified to see so much interest from those joining remotely!

If you haven’t already, please check out the National Catholic Bioethics Center’s website. In particular, keep in mind that if you ever find yourself in an ethically difficult bind, you can Ask a Question 24/7 and an ethicist will help you find the path that is true to Catholic moral teaching in an ever more challenging world!

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Fr. Tad at St. Bernard’s

Just a reminder that Fr. Pacholczyk will be at St. Bernard’s on Wednesday, July 28…LIVE AND IN-PERSON!

Please go here to sign up.

This is also an excellent opportunity to plug the NCBC’s outstanding consultation service. If ever you face an ethically challenging situation in the world of healthcare (whether as a healthcare professional or as a patient) they have a variety of ways to get help. Check them out here!