BALTIMORE (RNS) — As the U.S. Catholic bishops gathered for their conference’s fall meeting on Tuesday (Nov. 12), they were expected to discuss their response to the presidential election, implementing Pope Francis’ agenda and the recently ended Vatican summit on the church’s future.
A group of nurses was there to remind them that Catholics wanted them to talk about the Catholic Church’s role as a major provider of health care in the United States too. At a rally outside the Marriott Waterfront Hotel, members of National Nurses United demonstrated to bring to the bishops’ attention their concerns about Ascension, one of the largest Catholic hospital systems in the country.
“Church fathers, tell Ascension it’s time to start acting Catholic,” Meghan Ross, a Catholic nurse who has been at Ascension St. Agnes in Baltimore for eight years, said at the rally.
In January, National Nurses United, a union representing about 225,000 registered nurses, released a report charging that Ascension had closed labor and delivery units at a rate higher than the national average between 2019 and 2021. Those closures disproportionately impacted areas with high poverty rates and Black and Latino communities, the report said.
Beyond the union’s concerns, national reporting from The New York Times has raised concerns about Ascension’s staffing practices, and Stat, an online magazine focused on health care, characterized the hospital system as “moonlighting as a private equity firm.”
Nurses from Ascension hospitals in Wichita, Kansas, and Austin, Texas flew in to join the Baltimore nurses.
The nurses asked the bishops to intervene to ensure Ascension complies with the bishops’ stated guidance for Catholic health care, officially called the Ethical and Religious Directives.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meets at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront hotel in Baltimore. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)
Some nurses went inside the Marriott to distribute handouts alleging that Ascension has failed to follow those directives by disproportionately divesting from hospitals in impoverished communities, closing labor and delivery units and pediatric units, understaffing hospitals and engaging in unfair labor practices, including retaliation, threats and intimidation.
“Right now, were Jesus to come into a hospital, he would not get the care that he deserves,” said Monica Gonzalez, a Catholic nurse who works on the neurological unit at Ascension Seton Medical Center in Austin. “Ascension isn’t doing that. As a Catholic, that hurts the most because I know what Jesus’ mission was.”
“Ascension is doing their utmost to not abide by his teachings. And it’s unfortunate because that’s all we want to do, is make sure we are caring for our neighbor,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said she had spoken with several bishops, who mostly seemed “open” and said the issue was “on their radar.”
“But I feel like being on the radar is not enough. We want them to pressure the hospital to call them to do what their mission statement says and provide for our patients,” Gonzalez said.
Union leaders told RNS they had invited the bishops of Baltimore, Austin and Wichita to join their rally, but none of them appeared outside along the chilly, windy waterfront.
Fort Worth, Texas, Bishop Michael Olson, chair of the health care issues committee, declined a request for an interview, indicating the nurses’ concerns would be better addressed by the doctrine committee, which issues the Ethical and Religious Directives. The incoming leader of that committee, Brooklyn, New York, Auxiliary Bishop James Massa, also declined a request for an interview.
Baltimore Archbishop William Lori’s executive director of communications, Christian Kendzierski, told RNS in an email that the “Archbishop recognizes and commends the dedication and commitment of nurses and the critical care they provide and is looking forward to a hopeful outcome as the negotiations continue in good faith.” Lori declined an interview request.
Baltimore Ascension nurses voted to form a union last November and have been in negotiations since February of this year. The union says that Ascension has failed to bargain in good faith on safe staffing levels, protections from cuts to patient services and protections against lawsuits over billing disputes and surprise billing and excess charges.
Melissa LaRue, a member of the collective bargaining team and a nurse in the intensive care unit, said in a statement, “The church teaches that all human beings should be treated with dignity, but at our hospital, we see indignity on a daily, even hourly, basis – with rampant unsafe staffing and workplace violence due to Ascension’s relentless pursuit of profit.”
She told RNS she frequently sees unsafe staffing on her unit, where each nurse is supposed to tend to two patients. “A lot of times we have to flex and take care of three, and that’s just dangerous,” she said.
In a statement, Justin Blome, director of marketing at Ascension St. Agnes, said the hospital’s approach to staffing and patient care “is rooted in evidence-based practices and flexible staffing models designed to respond to our patients’ needs.” The hospital works to recruit and retain associates, part of a commitment “to supporting our associates and ensuring safe, quality care for our patients,” he added.
Ascension St. Agnes also said that it had “engaged in good-faith bargaining since contract discussions began” and is committed to continuing “in alignment with the principles of Catholic Social Teaching that call on us to respect the human dignity of all and ensure we are acting in a fair and just manner with our associates and our union partners.”
At their rally, the nurses were supported by Baltimore City Council President-elect Zeke Cohen and several local Catholics.
The Rev. Ty Hullinger, pastor of Transfiguration Catholic Community in Baltimore, told the nurses that the bishops “have the duty and the obligation to listen to you.” He said, “They need to hear it and then they need to act.”
As the first workers in a Catholic institution in the archdiocese to form a union, Hullinger told the nurses that they were drawing on the legacy of Moses, who formed the first labor union.
“How many times was Jesus doing the exact same work that you do?” Hullinger asked of the nurses’ healing. “With Jesus at your side, with Moses at your side, with all of our sisters and brothers throughout the millennium at your side, you will win this fight.”
