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Duluth Diocese Restores White Mass Tradition
October 25, 2010
On October 9 of this year, Bishop Paul Sirba restored the tradition of the White Mass with assistance from CMA member Tim Egan, M.D. Read the full story below (which also provides an update on Duluth Guild activities), or read the version in the diocesan newspaper, The Northern Cross, here.
The Northern Cross - Local News
Oct. 9 White Mass at cathedral to honor physicians
By Kyle Eller The Northern Cross
This month’s White Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary — set for Oct. 9 at 4:30 p.m. — is the latest in a series of steps to foster Catholic identity among medical doctors in the Diocese of Duluth.
Marianne Fightlin, a longtime nurse and educator, says she’s been trying for nine years to get a White Mass in the diocese, but for one reason or another it didn’t work out — until now.
“I went in May and asked Bishop [Paul] Sirba if he would do the White Mass because I believe that we’re not sufficiently aware that the mercy of God flows through the physician,” she said.
She says it’s especially important for Catholic physicians to “understand who they are. We call them today ‘providers.’ They are physicians. And ‘physician’ means something.”
She said the bishop listened carefully and said he would consider it. Fightlin said she has been inspired since she was 4 by her uncle, a “very faith-filled Catholic physician.”
“I always knew how much he loved his patients,” Fightlin said. “It was obvious.”
Working along separate lines was Dr. Timothy Egan, a Duluth psychiatrist who is also in his second year of formation for the permanent diaconate in the Duluth diocese. Dr. Egan said after Fightlin’s efforts to organize the White Mass, Pastoral Center staff contacted him as well, since he has been leading the local guild of the Catholic Medical Association since September 2008. “So they asked me for some input on how to organize this thing,” he said.
Dr. Egan said he met with the bishop and also asked if he would celebrate a White Mass, with a catered dinner for physicians afterward. He also asked if the bishop would be willing to speak at the dinner. “He graciously accepted that invitation,” Dr. Egan said. The CMA efforts have also been the product of years. Dr. Egan said then- Bishop Dennis Schnurr met with some physicians from the Cathedral parish several years ago about the organization and his desire to see a local guild established.
Eventually, Dr. Egan, who had been an independent member of the national CMA, volunteered to head up the effort. From there, he was able to meet the requirements and start one fairly quickly.
The group continued meeting at St. Raphael Church in Pike Lake — the parish of the guild’s chaplain, Father Dale Nau, himself a veteran of health care issues — after Bishop Schnurr was reassigned to Cincinnati.
Dr. Egan said the whole emphasis is to try to help people “form their identities as Catholic physicians, and to do that through our guild.”
He said a solid nucleus of about 14 doctors is involved. They come from a variety of specialties, including a trauma surgeon, eye surgeons, a pediatrician, an orthopedist, a family practice doctor, general surgeons, an internist and infectious disease specialists. Dr. Egan says he was surprised at how “hungry” the group was to meet with like-minded people and talk about their spiritual lives.
There’s also a desire to know the teaching of the church on the many issues affecting them, and to pray together.
Dr. Egan said physicians in every area of medicine are facing cultural challenges, as well as increasingly technical questions, where their expertise can “provide a real service for the bishop.”
Dr. Egan hopes to keep the guild growing and expanding, and he hopes the White Mass will become an annual event and help with that process.
“I do think there’s a real interest in trying to expand our horizons,” he said.
