Richard McCormick: Hero of Humane Healthcare

Richard A. McCormick, S.J., arguably the foremost American Roman Catholic ethicist of the twentieth century, died February 12, 2000, at the age of 77. His passing was a loss to all Catholic scholars and, indeed, to the Church. But in a special way it was a loss to those who work to bring to health care and medical concerns a balanced and spiritual perspective. For that reason, some comments on McCormick's contribution may be of interest to Stauros readers.

McCormick was a highly prolific author. A quick check of my university's library returned thirty-eight book length entries. But the contributions of his shorter writings are probably even more significant. The prestigious journal, Theological Studies has long presented an annual article entitled "Notes on Moral Theology," which would review all the significant periodical writings of the last year and then, through summary and analysis, offer comment on the evolving field. Following in the steps of other famous authors, McCormick took over the writing of these Notes in 1965. And he maintained responsibility for them for twenty years!

I once had a chance to ask McCormick how he undertook this huge task. He explained that the annual review occupied almost his entire summer each year. In early June, he told me, he would go to a major theological library, and proceeding from The Australasian Quarterly to Zygon, would review the tables of contents of all the major journals and jot down the titles of any articles pertinent to Christian ethics. This task, he said, took about two weeks! Then he would review his lists and settle on three or four key topics. He'd then go back and read all the articles on a particular topic (reading in a half-dozen different languages), synthesize them, and then write up his findings. Finally, after repeating this process for each of the topics, he'd do a last editing of the whole, long article and, with any luck, send it off to Theological Studies before the end of August.

This exhaustive knowledge of the scholarly literature allowed McCormick to make other contributions, as well. A notable example is the series of books, Readings in Moral Theology (published by Paulist Press), which he and his colleague and friend, Charles E. Curran, edited. At the time of his death there were ten volumes of Readings, each bringing together fifteen or twenty articles on one or another of the key topics of moral theology. They are an amazing collection!

McCormick had an abiding interest in many areas of ethics. But a special focus for his work was health care ethics - an interest to which he had come almost inevitably. Richard McCormick was the son of a Toledo, Ohio physician who, indeed, once served as the president of the American Medical Association; so his interest had been life-long. It became a central focus of his work when, after years teaching at the Jesuit School of Theology in Chicago, he became Rose F. Kennedy Professor at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. And when he completed his teaching career with a long residency at Notre Dame University, it remained at the forefront of his consciousness.

In reviewing McCormick's contributions to health care ethics, I found myself returning to his wonderful book, Health and Medicine in the Catholic Tradition: Tradition in Transition (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1987). Unfortunately, this book is no longer in print. But interested readers would be well-rewarded for finding a library copy; it is a landmark summary of the rich Catholic vision of health, healing, and wholeness.

The book is one of a series which presents visions of health care in various religious traditions. For his presentation of the Catholic vision, McCormick chooses an approach that is both practical and scholarly. He starts by presenting a document called "Ethics Guidelines for Catholic Health Care Institutions." McCormick immediately points out that the Guidelines have no official force; they are not the product of any church body. Rather they "were developed privately over a two-year period by a group of Catholic theologians, ethicists, and health care personnel." (p. 6) So they present not the policies of an institution but the riches of a tradition.

The body of the book, five chapters, then, offers McCormick's commentary, and expansion, on the various items of the Guidelines. Not surprisingly he discusses the difficult issues that present themselves at the beginning and end of life. Questions of sexuality, long a matter of controversy in the Church, are explored with wisdom and balance. And to assist Catholics in negotiating intra-Church debates, McCormick devotes a chapter to recent changes in the perspectives and approaches of moral theology.

But what is really noteworthy, I believe, are the remaining two chapters. In one, McCormick argues strongly for concerns of justice in health care. Pointing out how medical ethics can too easily be compromised by the myth of American individualism, he challenges us to rethink this area from the perspective of our common humanity and our shared destiny. The result is an entirely fresh sense of right and wrong in health care issues.

In the final chapter (actually the first of his commentaries), McCormick lays out a beautiful and inspiring Christian vision of well-being. Beginning from a love-based and Christ-centered vision of humanity, he proceeds to an understanding of health and of the health care profession that honors cure but maintains the primacy of care. And this, in turn, leads to what can only be called a "spirituality of health and medicine."

Health and Medicine in the Catholic Tradition is, in the end, a worthy legacy for Richard A. McCormick. The simple truth is that no one else in recent memory could have written this book. On the one hand, the book summarizes the broad and interconnected riches of his unparalleled scholarship in a way that is beautiful to behold. On the other hand, it also represents a comprehensive gift of his life's work in a form that prompts gratitude and affection.

Richard McCormick was a lively and committed scholar. In spring of 1999, I understand, he experienced some health problems that suggested action. After conversation with his physicians, however, McCormick elected to wait a bit. The Catholic Theological Society of America had asked him to make a presentation at their June convention. The Society's leaders, aware of painful conflicts in today's Church, had searched for a way to encourage respectful conversation and to cultivate a climate of collaboration. The way they found was to ask McCormick and the well-known theologian, Avery Dulles, S.J., to lead a special pre-convention seminar. McCormick and Dulles have sometimes disagreed. But their personal styles were gracious and civil, and they brought the wisdom of years and the insights of intelligence to the topic.

Both scholars agreed, and McCormick would not allow his personal needs to take precedence. On June 10, 1999, he and Dulles made a contribution to American Catholic scholarship that was landmark -- and that for McCormick was valedictory.

On June 23rd Richard McCormick suffered a stroke which left him partly paralyzed, though still mentally alert and articulate. In the succeeding months he commented how he was finally experiencing many of the things about which he had so often written. Those who were nearby report that he accepted the pains and indignities of his own suffering with grace and good humor. But in the end, as it must come to us all, death came to him.

All those who know the meaning of suffering, all those who understand that life is a challenge as well as a joy, all those who know life's goal is not willfulness but wisdom, not charisma but compassion, all these -- all of us -- have lost a friend and champion. May he rest in peace!