CatholicPediatrics.com—Because it is Futile to Heal the Body and not the Soul

In the next few weeks my husband and I will be launching an online directory of Catholic pediatricians at www.CatholicPediatrics.com. At present this website is my personal blog, but soon my blogging will be moving to a back page. The new goal of CatholicPediatrics.com is to bring families to Catholic pediatricians who understand a faith-filled approach to raising healthy children. Right now I need help from you, my CatholicMom.com community.

CatholicPediatrics.com started as my personal blog and an effort to reach out to parents as they approached common pediatric illnesses and parenting challenges. To my surprise, CatholicPediatrics.com is now the top Google listing for the search string "Catholic Pediatrician" and other similar terms. I tried to find an online source of referrals to Catholic pediatricians, but as far as we can tell, no such directory exists. There are plenty of Catholic hospital chains that are happy to refer you to one of their staff pediatricians, but many doctors working in Catholic hospitals are not practicing Catholics. In response to public requests, my husband Greg and I are in the process of building an online directory of Catholic Pediatricians and Family Practice physicians that see children.

CatholicPediatrics.com is a not-for-profit effort to bring families to faith-centered health care, because we believe it is futile to heal the body and not the soul. We do not charge any fees to physicians listed at CatholicPediatrics.com. All pediatricians listed will have to sign a pledge that they do not prescribe or refer for contraception, do not perform or refer for abortion or euthanasia, and practice in accordance with the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.

We do not make any money off this effort. In fact, we incur significant costs for web hosting and insurance which we pay out-of-pocket. My husband Greg does all the IT development. We hope to defray some of these costs by selling a few books and resources.

A similar organization, One More Soul, (www.onemoresoul.com), is oriented towards women’s health and reproduction and provides an online directory of pro-life, NFP-only physicians. CatholicPediatrics.com hopes to fill the unmet demands of parents seeking Catholic pediatricians who share their views on healing, parenting, and family life.

Families need Catholic pediatricians that will mentor and support them as they seek to build the domestic church and raise healthy children. Catholicism in pediatrics is about so much more than the hot-button issues of abortion, contraception, homosexuality, euthanasia, etc.

As Greg and I launch our online directory of Catholic pediatricians, we'd love to hear from you, our CatholicMom.com community. Do you have a favorite Catholic pediatrician or family practice physician that you would like to have listed? Why do you think it is important to have a Catholic pediatrician? Do you have ideas for blog posts or questions that you would like to have answered by a Catholic pediatrician? Do you have comments about what you love or really don’t like about your own pediatrician?

Please follow me on Twitter @CatholicDoc and “like” CatholicPediatrics on Facebook!

Thanks for your help!