Sponsorship of Catholic institutions, particularly healthcare institutions, by the Sisters of Providence in the western United States.

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the canonical implications of sponsorship, neither a civil law nor a canon law concept, as it has developed over the last three decades with the Sisters of Providence in the western United States, particularly as it relates to healthcare institutions. Through sponsorship, a group of people take responsibility for an institution of the apostolate of the Catholic Church, assuring that its fundamental directions, structures, and activities conform to its initial purposes. Though the sponsoring group may not take part in all the activities of the institution, but it does exercise oversight and control in critical areas. It provides a structural link to the local and universal Church and guarantees an institution's catholicity. The Sisters of Providence provide a suitable subject for studying sponsorship. As sponsor of a larger Catholic healthcare system in the United States, its history illustrates many aspects of sponsorship's evolution. The sisters operate through two groups in the West, Sacred Heart Province, a highly urban province, and St. Ignatius Province, a smaller more rural one. The differences between these two entities' approaches to sponsorship further demonstrates the dimensions of the topic. The document tells the story of the founding of the Sisters of Providence and its establishment in the United States up to the period of the Second Vatican Council. Then it recounts the development of the practice of sponsorship through three phases roughly corresponding to the decades of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The first era focused on control of property and assets and issues arising from the McGrath/Maida debate. The second stage concentrated on the incorporation of co-workers into responsibility for the mission, Catholic identity, and governance structures of the institutions. The third and present stage involves the challenges to Catholic identity accompanying collaboration with other healthcare providers in response to current healthcare reform activities. The general conclusion offers recommendations for sponsors, institutions and eventually, the Church's universal legislation.