About Us History

The association’s name was changed to the Catholic Hospital Association of the United States and Canada.

Sr. M. Esperance Finn, CSJ, one of the founding members at the 1914 meeting in St. Paul, Minn., was elected as second vice president of CHA. Although CHA was recognized primarily as a “sisters’ organization,” the rules of the sisters’ religious institutes did not allow them to serve as full-time officers of a national organization.

At the first convention of the Catholic Hospital Association, Rev. Charles B. Moulinier, SJ, was elected as the first president of the association, and headquarters were established in Milwaukee.  The 1915 convention also established a summer school for hospital sisters at Marquette University.  In the first year, two courses were offered: clinical pathology and radiology.

The first CHA convention was held in Milwaukee June 24-26, 1915. It was attended by 200 sisters, lay nurses and doctors, representing 43 hospitals in 12 states. A constitution and bylaws for the Catholic Hospital Association were adopted at the convention. Among the new association’s stated purposes was, “To advance the general interests of all hospital work, to encourage the spirit of cooperation and mutual helpfulness among hospital workers, to promote by study, conference, discussion, and publication the thoroughness and correct moral tone and practice of medicine.”

The Catholic Hospital Association was founded at a meeting April 8, 1915, at Marquette University in Milwaukee convened by Rev. Charles B. Moulinier, SJ, and attended by 35 sisters from congregations dedicated to the hospital apostolate.

CHA headquarters is moved to St. Louis.

Rev. Alphonse Schwitalla, SJ, dean of the Medical School of St. Louis University, became president of CHA. Fr. Moulinier remained as administrator and moved CHA headquarters to Chicago.

Marquette University opened its Hospital College, the nation’s first academic program in hospital administration. Fr. Moulinier had encouraged the university to initiate the program which also included short courses for women religious who had hospital experience but not the requisite undergraduate degree to pursue graduate studies.

The code of ethics for Catholic hospitals and health care workers is adopted by CHA.

The first issue of Hospital Progress was published. The 22-member editorial board included 17 physicians. Bernard F. McGrath, MD, CHA’s secretary/treasurer, conceived of the journal and its general thrust and provided the name.

The Conference of Bishops’ Representatives is formed to serve as a liaison between episcopal authority and CHA.

An undergraduate curriculum in hospital administration is initiated at St. Louis University.

The hospital chaplains’ conference is organized.

At the suggestion of Sr. Berenice Beck, OSF, CHA developed the Council on Nursing Education to evaluate Catholic schools of nursing and vote on issues related to nursing.  Sr. Beck helped establish Marquette University’s College of Nursing and taught nursing courses at the Catholic University of America.

CHA’s code for medical ethics, Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Hospitals is published.

CHA is incorporated as a Missouri not-for-profit corporation.

Bylaw changes approved at the 1947 convention prescribed a one-year term for CHA’s presidency and the establishment of the office of executive director to supervise the association’s central office and be accountable to the administrative board. Rev. John Joseph Flanagan, SJ, the president of Regis College in Denver, was named as executive director of CHA.

The Hospital Survey and Construction Act, better known as the Hill-Burton Act, was passed. The first piece of federal legislation to be conceived and formulated by the U.S. voluntary hospital associations—including CHA—it provided subsidies for the construction of new hospitals based on local need.

The CHA Administrative Board, composed of the CHA executive board and the executive committee of the bishops’ representatives, was developed to coordinate general policy, direct public relations and propose legislation related to health care. Bishop Karl J. Alter was selected as episcopal chairman.

A grant from the Kellogg Foundation enabled CHA to establish a Department of Continuing Education. With 191 faculty members form St. Louis University and CHA, the program sponsored 16 sessions with a total enrollment of 1,156 in 1958-59.

CHA presented a series of regional conferences on medico-moral problems, canon and civil law issues, and medical education and research in Catholic hospitals and schools of medicine.

CHA’s new central office building was dedicated. Under the leadership of Fr. John Joseph Flanagan, SJ, the central office had grown rapidly, requiring additional office space.

The Catholic Hospital Association of Canada is established, officially separating from the U.S.-based CHA.

CHA’s board approves “Guidelines for Establishing a Department of Religion in a Catholic-Sponsored Hospital.”

A cerebral hemorrhage forced Fr. John Flanagan, SJ, to resign his post as executive director of CHA, after more than 20 years of service. Rev. Thomas J. Casey, SJ, who had served as Fr. Flanagan’s assistant since 1966, followed him as executive director.

Sr. Mary Brigh Cassidy, OSF, became the first woman religious to serve as president of CHA, and John A. Bradley, Ph.D., became the first layperson to be elected to the association’s board of trustees.

A revision to the CHA bylaws opened the association presidency to sisters for the first time. The association’s administrative board and executive board were combined into one board of trustees.

CHA establishes a department of service to nursing homes.

CHA officially changed its name to the Catholic Health Association of the United States, following one of the recommendations of the Study Committee report.

John E. Curley, the executive director of the California Association of Catholic Hospitals, became CHA’s first lay chief executive officer, a position he held until he retired in 1998.

Sr. Helen Kelley, DC, administrator of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Binghampton, N.Y., was named president of CHA, succeeding Sr. Maurita Sengelaub who resigned due to illness. When she assumed the presidency, Sr. Kelley also became chairperson of the Study Committee. When the committee completed its work in 1978, she announced her retirement from the presidency.

CHA’s office of government services, created in 1973, moves to Washington, D.C.

The Study Committee of the Catholic Health Association, composed of laypersons, religious and priests, was formed to facilitate and evaluate ways that CHA could improve its purpose, mission, and ministry. The consulting firm Arthur D. Little, Inc., was commissioned to determine how well members’ expectations were being fulfilled and make recommendations for improvement. 

CHA initiated the Achievement Citation to recognize outstanding programs and services that exemplify the ministry’s commitment to carry on Jesus’ mission of compassion and healing.

The National Conference of Catholic Bishops alters and approves a revised edition of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Hospitals.

CHA launched the Catholic Health Services Leadership Program to help sponsoring groups and their health facilities establish multi-facility health programs on a corporate basis. CHA later published a series of nine models that could be used when sponsoring institutes were establishing health systems.

Sr. Mary Maurita Sengelaub, RSM, is named executive director of CHA. She is the first woman to hold the position. In 1972, her title was changed to executive vice-president and then to president in 1974.

CHA published the Social Accountability Budget: A  Process for Planning and Reporting Community Service in a Time of Fiscal Constraint. It represented the first step in helping member organizations provide the accounting for social services that critics and Congress sought.

Pope John Paul II addresses a special CHA membership assembly in Phoenix.

CHA established the Task Force on Long-term Care Policy. Its 1988 report, A Time to Be Old, A Time to Flourish: The Special Needs of the Elderly-at-Risk, described the state of the long-term care system in the United States and recommended federal programs to help finance health care for the aged.

CHA launched a pilot program to test lay sponsorship of Catholic health care to clarify the status and options of sponsoring groups under canon law; to help establish proper relationships among the local bishop(s), the sponsoring group, and the health care facility; and to set up a process for the annual review of the sponsor’s stewardship.

The association introduces its newspaper, Catholic Health World, published twice a month.

The Task Force on Health Care of the Poor is established by CHA’s Board of Trustees. The task force’s report, No Room in the Marketplace: The Health Care of the Poor, released in 1986, recommended ways for the ministry, the Church as a whole, and the federal government to health address the problems of the nation’s health care poor. The task force favored a long-term strategy that included federally mandated universal health insurance.

The title of the association’s journal changes from Hospital Progress to Health Progress.

The CHA board authorized the first phase of a Study of the Feasibility of Alternative Sponsorship of Catholic Health Care Institutions and Services, based on one of the recommendations of 1977 Study Committee.  

CHA moves into a new headquarters building on Woodson Road in St. Louis.

CHA published the Evaluative Criteria for Catholic Health Care Facilities to enable members to evaluate their mission effectiveness. In their 1981 pastoral letter Health and Health Care, the U.S. bishops cited the Evaluative Criteria as a “commendable” effort because it was designed to draw attention to questions related to Catholic identity.

Recognizing a need for a theology of sponsorship, CHA convened a blue-ribbon group of theologians to explore the topic in depth. The work of the Sponsorship of Catholic Ministries Think Tank was published in 2005.

At the annual Catholic Health Assembly, the membership of CHA approved new membership categories to reflect the growing prominence of Catholic health systems, the proliferation of integrated delivery networks and the diversity of health care partnerships.

Rev. Michael D. Place, STD, a widely respected theologian and church policy expert, became the eighth president and chief executive officer of CHA. For 14 years, Fr. Place had served Joseph Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago as consul for policy development and as a member of the archbishop’s cabinet.

Congress passes the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which CHA strongly supported.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which CHA had strongly supported, was passed into law.

The documentary and companion book, “A Call to Care: The Women Who Built Catholic Health Care in America,” produced by CHA, debuted at the annual Catholic Health Assembly in San Antonio, Texas.

CHA published In Their Own Words: An Assessment of Evolving Arrangements by the Sponsors Who Use Them in which women religious gave pros and cons of new sponsorship models and described the soul searching that went into adopting them.

The first major revision of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services since 1971 was published. The revised document was divided into six sections, each with an introductory essay on the Scriptural, theological and social dimensions of the section’s theme, followed by specific directives.

“New Covenant,” a bold, multiphase initiative by three organizations—CHA, the National Coalition on Catholic Health Care Ministry, and Consolidated Catholic Health Care—began with a national convocation in Chicago that brought together 170 Catholic health care leaders. The national meeting was followed by 15 regional and local meetings, working toward the goal of a “refounded ministry” based on commitments to new action strategies for collaboration among Catholic organizations.

In his pastoral letter titled “A Sign of Hope,” Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, Archbishop of Chicago, proposed a time of “refounding” for Catholic health care when some were talking about “the beginning of the end.”

CHA’s “I Can’t Wait” campaign elicited hundreds of photos of people in- and outside Catholic health care holding signs beginning with the words, “I can’t wait…” and completed with their hopes and expectations for health reform. The campaign was featured on ABC Nightly News.

Based on several years of work by a CHA task force, CHA released the document “Our Vision for U.S. Health Care,” a set of values-based criteria for a redesigned health care system. The association also provided member organizations with a detailed guide for hosting community dialogue meetings to build grassroots support for reform.

CHA added to its bioethical resources for the ministry by assuming editorial responsibility for a quarterly publication, Health Care Ethics USA.

Three new resources for sponsors and trustees were published by CHA: One Vine, Different Branches: Sponsorship and Governance in Catholic Ministries; Core Elements for Leaders of Catholic Ministry: A Reflection Guide; and Personal Development Plan for Leaders in Catholic Ministries: Sponsor-Trustee-Executive.

A CHA ad in national newspapers such as USAToday and Our Sunday Visitor announced that Catholic-sponsored not-for-profit hospitals had contributed more than $5.7 billion in services identified as community benefit in the previous fiscal year.

CHA announced in a news release that its revised guidelines for community benefit reporting had been adopted by 95 percent of member health systems and 90 percent of member hospitals.

CHA sponsored a major conference titled “Theological Dialogue on Medically Administered Nutrition and Hydration.” Participants came from Catholic health care organizations and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In a letter to CHA president and chief executive officer Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance commended CHA’s Guide for Planning and Reporting Community Benefit writing that it “is a valuable resource and should be utilized by all tax-exempt hospitals.”

Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, was named the ninth president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association, the third woman religious to head the association in its 90-year history.  Sr. Keehan had previously served for 15 years as president and chief executive officer of Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C., and board chair of Ascension Health’s Sacred Heart Health System in Pensacola, Fla.

CHA joined with other national organizations in the campaign, “Cover the Uninsured Week” sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The campaign was held each year through 2010.

Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, a member of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, is the 10th president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association of the United States (CHA). She assumed the position in July 2019, succeeding Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, upon her retirement.

On June 9, 2015 President Barack Obama spoke at the Catholic Health Assembly in Washington, D.C. The President told CHA members that it was an honor to join them on their “100th anniversary of bringing hope and healing to so many.” He also thanked CHA for its support of the Affordable Care Act and said that "without your commitment to compassionate care, without your moral force, we would not have succeeded."

CHA launched “100 Days of Prayer,” a social media campaign in celebration of the association’s centennial. The 100 days began November 3 and will culminated February 11, 2015, World Day of the Sick. Thousands of people signed up at CHA’s website to pray and ask for prayers for persons who are sick and injured and their caregivers.

The white paper “Caritas in Communion: Theological Foundations of Catholic Health Care,” authored by theologian M. Therese Lysaught, was published by CHA. The paper was commissioned as part of the association’s membership study.

Following the annual Catholic Health Assembly in June in Atlanta, CHA convenes the first global health care summit, focusing on the ministry’s activities to improve health status in the developing world.

CHA member organizations donate $10.1 million to support the rebuilding of St. Francis de Sales Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which was destroyed by the January 2010 earthquake.

With several member organizations restructuring, CHA’s Board of Trustees begins a study of membership criteria. The recommendations of the Membership Task Force will go to association members for a vote at the 2015 Catholic Health Assembly.

Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, CHA’s president and chief executive officer, named to Time Magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.

CHA introduces a new logo and tagline, “A Passionate Voice for Compassionate Care.”

CHA's vision - We Will Empower Bold Change to Elevate Human Flourishing^SM - complements our mission “to advance the Catholic health ministry of the United States in caring for people and communities.”

With our core values of respect, integrity, stewardship, and excellence, this vision reinforces our commitment to the belief that every person is a treasure, every life a sacred gift, every human being a unity of body, mind, and spirit.

Taken together, our mission, vision and values give us a clarity of purpose, priorities, and principles as we continue to advocate for health policy that leaves no one behind.

In July of 2020 the CHA Board of Trustees unanimously adopted a resolution endorsing the Catholic health ministry's Confronting Racism by Achieving Health Equity initiative. This initiative, "We Are Called," urged all those in the Catholic health ministry to take immediate action to achieve health equity in COVID-19 testing, treatment and vaccination, and work for systemic change for health equity by putting our own house in order, building right and just relationships with our communities and advocating for change to end health disparities and systemic racism.