Catholic agencies team up to address end-of-life issues

Karen Girard reported "Special to your Catholic Herald on an April 25th lecture at Marian College in Fond du Lac by Dr. David Weissman, director of the Medical College of Wisconsin's Palliative Care Center. His presentation was titled "Death and Dying in America: Past, Present and Future."

He spoke of the distinction between hospice care and palliative care.

The palliative care movement began in the 1980s-'90s for the same reasons hospice began, said Weissman. Hospice was great, he said, but it only reached a fraction of the patients due to lack of penetration into hospital culture and academic research, as well as the stigma that hospice care is a sign of "giving up" by the patient/family.

So perhaps Mike was a bit harsh toward Fr. Paul Stanosz. Father might have just realized this connotation of titling his weblog "Church in Hospice" and decided to delete it. Maybe Fr. Bryan N. Massingale will realize the problem, as well.