Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Equally Strange Fruit: Catholic Health Care And The Appropriation Of Residential Segregation, Cory D. Mitchell, M. Therese Lysaught

Institute of Pastoral Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

FROM THE EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIAN history and from the moment the Ursuline Sisters opened the first Catholic hospital in the United States in 1728, charity toward the poor and marginalized has been the chief identifying characteristic of Catholic health care.3 Again and again, small groups of in-trepid nuns sought out the poorest communities, set up hospitals, in-novated on reimbursement methods, raised donations, lived in solidarity with and dedicated their lives to caring for the health needs of the poor, needs often exacerbated by extraordinarily difficult living conditions.4