By Marlene Quaroni - Florida Catholic
Photographer: MARLENE QUARONI | FC
Father Alfred Cioffi, center, chaplain of the Miami Guild of the Catholic Medical Association, celebrates Mass in the Mercy Hospital chapel. At left is Deacon Norman Ruiz Castaneda, a medical doctor and the guild's vice-president, and at right is Father Eric Zegeer, Mercy Hospital chaplain. This was the guild's third annual Hippocratic Oath celebration at Mercy Hospital.
MIAMI | Deacon Norman Ruiz-Castaneda brings his faith into his medical practice.
“I go to daily Mass,” said the pediatrician after attending Mass in the Mercy Hospital chapel with fellow members of the Catholic Medical Association’s Miami Guild.
Ruiz-Castaneda, the organization’s vice president, assisted Father Alfred Cioffi, the group’s chaplain, and Father Eric Zegeer, Mercy Hospital chaplain, during a Mass April 30 that marked the group’s third annual Hippocratic Oath Celebration.
Photographer: MARLENE QUARONI | FC
Dr. Manuel Garcia Rodriguez, psychiatrist, recites the Catholic Hippocratic Oath after Mass in the Mercy Hospital Chapel. This was the third annual Hippocratic Oath celebration of the Miami Guild of the Catholic Medical Association.
At the conclusion of Mass, those present professed the Catholic Hippocratic Oath, committing themselves to the health care values upheld by the Catholic Church.
“I start off my day with prayer. I ask the Lord to let me be an instrument of his love. It changes what you do. Everything becomes ministry.”
The deacon, who has been married 38 years, with six children and nine grandchildren, says 90 percent of his ministry is done in his medical practice.
“I get to minister to people who would never step into a church,” he said. “I tell parents they’re not alone when their children are sick or hurt. I tell them God is with them. I became a deacon in order to grow in my faith and increase my knowledge and grace.”
What makes the Catholic Medical Association different from secular groups is that its members follow Catholic doctrine, said the Miami guild’s president, Felipe Vizcarrondo, a retired pediatric cardiologist.
“We respect life from conception to natural death,” he said. “We respect marriage between a man and a woman. The family is the basic unit of society. We respect the freedom of conscience and religion.”
Other dioceses in Florida have their own guilds, said Father Cioffi, who directs St. Thomas University’s Institute for Bioethics and is its Florida Blue Endowed Chair in Bioethics and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
“A group of medical professionals, doctors, nurses, physicians’ assistants and medical students started meeting in the 1990s,” Father Cioffi said. “In 2011, Father Scott Francis Binet (also a physician) helped us to incorporate. One of Father Binet’s responsibilities was to promote the establishment of CMA guilds in the southern states.”
The University of Miami and Florida International University have student guilds, and now Nova Southeastern University has started a guild.
Photographer: MARLENE QUARONI | FC
Nova University medical students recite the Catholic Hippocratic Oath after the Mass celebrated by members of the Miami Guild of the Catholic Medical Association. This was the guild's third annual Hippocratic Oath celebration at Mercy Hospital.
