who's responsible?

Dr. Cyprian Illickamuri (our theology professor) ran a column titled "The Doubting Thomas" for many years in the Assisi Magazine published from Bharananganam, Keralam (Today-15th March- happens to be his memorial day. May he rest in the Lord 🙏🏽🌹). For decades, he has been instrumental in promoting serious discussions among the faithful on biblical, theological and ethical issues.

He once wrote a response to a question questioning the financial exploitation of hospitals run by the Church. As always, his explanation was based on the teachings of the Church, its theological views and Jesus' positions in the Gospels. He admitted that there were problems, but also stated that church institutions were obliged to do things differently from institutions run totally on private capital. In Keralam it's the skilled and competent doctors who attract patients to private hospitals. Sometimes they even control the hospital management. Often things get to the point where they dictate the rules. In those days, they had to show an amount in the account and pay them in black without showing the whole amount in the accounts. If the hospital management didn't comply to do so, the situation at that time was that other large hospitals competing with Catholic hospitals would offer more than what the doctors were asking for and take away the above-mentioned competent doctors who were already famous and were pulling in a crowd of patients. I'm not sure the same situation exists even today! There is no limit to competition in the capitalist system. If Christian institutions step into the competitive capitalist race, there is a chance that we might win the race. But in the meantime we will have lost Christianity. That is what I remember him writing in that issue. It seems that he wrote it some thirty years ago.

In any case, in the context of the said article, the provincial superior of a community of nuns with their provincial headquarters in Pala decided to make their hospital look more Christian. When the famous doctor in their hospital demanded a salary hike and that too in black money, they categorically said no. They said that they could increase the salary according to the demands of the doctor but not pay in black money. He resigned from there and moved to a hospital in a big city nearby. His patients followed him to where he went. The nuns' hospital became almost empty. The management suffered a huge financial loss. But that hospital is still functioning today!

Times have changed a lot since. Today, famous doctors in Kerala earn as much or more as their peers in Western Europe or in the United States. The problem today is not only with celebrity doctors. The reality is that one can only survive in business if they have the most modern and technological machinery that is arriving in the market almost on a daily basis. It doesn't end even there. People need uncrowded huge buildings with new facilities; they need spacious waiting areas; they need parking facilities, both in the form of self and valet parking; there needs to be annexed apartments with all modern facilities so that the patients and their partners can get follow-up treatment without any hassle: and so on.

Since the ordinary people and the poor do not have effective health insurance under Government supervision, and the majority of the people do not have private insurance, there are limits to the income that can be collected from the patients. Since the largest investments in Kerala are in the health sector, the competition in the health sector is fierce. In a society where a vocal culture exists, giving importance to the 'star value' of doctors, when large-scale capital investments are required to survive in the fierce competition, it goes without saying that the rights of those without 'star value' will naturally get infringed.

In this era of social media, whether in the political sector, the film sector, the media sector, the health sector or any other sector, if the society does not handle with caution the promotional songs meant to increase the stardom of individuals, the general public will suffer losses.

In Western Europe, the cradle of capitalism, and in the United States, the current bulwark of the mass-market-industrial capitalism, there are restrictions on conglomerates and monopolies. There are policies and laws that will regulate them. It is up to the pertinent governments to carry out expert policy-making and legislation.

Any institution run by Christian churches need better imagination to build its own space on the basis of Christian moral values.

It is good to remember that the social teachings of the Catholic Church are based on seven principles.

1) Human dignity;

2) Common good;

3) Solidarity with the poor;

4) Principle of Subsidiarity;

5) Protection of rights;

6) Ensuring fair work;

7) Care for Creation.

Let there be introspection and evaluation in every field.