{"id":220153,"date":"2020-03-16T14:20:15","date_gmt":"2020-03-16T19:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=220153"},"modified":"2020-03-16T12:39:29","modified_gmt":"2020-03-16T17:39:29","slug":"health-care-pro-life-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/health-care-pro-life-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Catholic health care model with pro-life principles is coming to the United States"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In 1940, an Italian Catholic priest known as Padre Pio announced his plans to found a “Home for the Relief of Suffering<\/a>” (Casa Sollievo Della Sofferenza<\/a>), a hospital that would serve as “a haven of relief\u00a0from suffering for all of God\u2019s children in pain in body or\u00a0soul.” The Casa’s doors opened in 1956, with 300 beds. At the same time, Padre Pio developed a worldwide prayer ministry to support the work of the Casa. Today, the Casa is a thriving 1,000+ bed hospital facility, considered “a model of community of Catholic Christian health delivery<\/a>.” All this is despite its location in “one of the most remote, desolate and poorest parts of Italy,” some four hours from Rome.<\/p>\n

Fifty-three years later, Padre Pio is a canonized saint in the Roman Catholic Church, and in October of 2009, the administration of the Italian Casa entered into formal agreements with the administration of Catholic Healthcare International to bring the Casa model to the United States.<\/p>\n