I wish to thank our Catholic doctors and nurses for a beautiful White Mass last week, on October 18, the Feast of St. Luke (patron saint of physicians). Karin Hennings, a valued member of our parish staff for many years, is now the executive director of St. Luke’s Family Practice here in Modesto. One of the St. Luke’s physicians, Dr. RJ Heck (my own doctor!), serves as president of the local chapter of the Catholic Medical Association (CMA), and our own Dr. Paul Braaton will assume the presidency of the CMA National Office next year. These and many other local Catholic health care professionals practice their healing arts as a stewardship rather than as a business. They treat uninsured patients at no cost, and give their heart and hands to heal us from the inside out. Do you remember Pope John Paul II’s call for a “New Evangelization?” Most of the cultures where Christianity once flourished, such as Europe, America, and Oceania, have now all but excluded expressions of faith from the Public Square. Those cultures that still seem unashamed of God, such as South America and Africa, are always in danger of losing their faith because of the overwhelming firepower of secular media, economic, and government influence from the developed world. Last week Pope Benedict established a Council to promote the New Evangelization. He seems to be saying that we can’t just think wishfully about evangelizing the secular culture; we need to take direct steps to realize this dream. Catholic physicians serve on the front lines of the Culture Wars and the New Evangelization. They are immensely pressured to conform to the secularist agenda; for example, they are pressured to perform abortions, prescribe contraceptives, do sterilizations, support euthanasia, and promote bioengineering research that may be contrary to the moral law. I imagine they suffer a good deal of prejudice just for practicing their Catholicism along with their medicine. They overcome this prejudice by their authentic charity in treating their patients, and their witness to the moral law in their practices. We are humbled and grateful, and pray to St. Luke for them all.