RooneyDiarmuid Rooney, CHA's newly promoted vice president of sponsorship & mission services, wants to help the Catholic health ministry reinforce a positive image of who it is and what it does.
"My vision and hope are that CHA will become an even stronger unifier and hub for the collective voice and mission of Catholic health care," he said.
Rooney took on the vice president duties on an interim basis in October after the sudden death of Brian Smith, who had held the post since 2019.
"Diarmuid helped the mission services team navigate through this challenging transition while he managed the ongoing work of ministry formation," said Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, CHA president and chief executive officer.
She added: "In addition to the wealth of experience and energy he has brought to CHA, Diarmuid's warm and compassionate spirit has touched us all."
Rooney joined CHA in January 2018 as the association's first senior director of ministry formation. In that role, Rooney led the creation of CHA's "Framework for Ministry Formation" to develop foundational elements of formation for the ministry.
He also expanded opportunities for ministry formation with the development of CHA's On-Demand Foundations of Catholic Health Care Leadership program. That program has enabled greater access to formation and has served as a catalyst to strengthen the Catholic identity of CHA's member organizations in carrying out their healing mission.
Prior to joining CHA in 2018, Rooney was vice president, formation and communication technology, at the Ministry Leadership Center in Sacramento, California. The center focused on expanding and enriching executive health care leaders' commitment to the Catholic tradition's mission, vision and values.
As membership in the religious communities that once led health systems declines, Rooney said he sees a critical role for CHA in helping to form and advocate for the lay leaders who are taking on sponsorship duties across the Catholic health ministry.
Rooney said his hope is that ministry formation will become a more pronounced core competency of the sponsor body so that all leaders' and associates' participation in appropriate formation programs is a given, "to strengthen them spiritually and
to ensure the continuity of the ministry of health care."
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