A Conversation with Father Myles Sheehan, SJ

What Matters Most

Regular listeners know that this episode is late! I apologize for that but blame a nasty norovirus that has run amok through our extended family. And directly through me. It seems right, then, that the fifteenth episode of the second season focuses on health and public health with Fr. Myles Sheehan, SJ.

Fr. Sheehan is a Jesuit priest, physician, and, since December 2020, the Director of the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University, where he also serves as Professor of Medicine and the David Lauler Chair of Catholic Health Care Ethics. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School, he trained in Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, practiced in these fields, and served until 2009 as the Senior Associate Dean at Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine, Professor of Medicine, and the Ralph P. Leischner Professor and Chair of the Leischner Institute for Medical Education.

On this episode we discussed Myles Sheehan’s life as a medical doctor and a Jesuit priest. We discuss green bioethics, how to make healthcare sustainable, and how to ensure everyone has access to healthcare, something we in the West both have in abundance and take for granted, while accepting that others have little access to, especially in the US. On the other hand, there are countries and regions that simply have little access to basic healthcare that would preserve numerous lives. Myles Sheehan places all of this in his role as a priest and in the Gospel of Jesus.

Myles was in Vancouver for a lecture on January 25, 2024 and you can find that by clicking on the St. Mark’s YouTube channel here. The lecture features a PowerPoint presentation that makes it a bit easier to follow up on the names of scholars and theories.

But one scholar Myles’ mentioned in the podcast, and the lecture, is Cristina Richie, not the actress, but an academic engaged with green bioethics and a graduate of Boston College. Her book is titled Principles of Green Bioethics: Sustainability in Health Care.

What Matters Most is produced by the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark’s College, the Catholic college at UBC. The CCE is a centre at St. Mark’s College that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, members of other religious traditions, and from those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation.

Thanks to Martin Strong, Kevin Eng, and Fang Fang Chandra for all of their help and support in crafting this and all the other episodes. I also want to thank our donors to the Centre, whose generosity enables this work to take place at all: Peter Bull, Angus Reid, and Andy Szocs. In addition, the Cullen Family, Mark and Barbara, continue to support the work and outreach of the CCE, particularly in our lecture series.

Since St. Mark’s Centre for Christian Engagement seeks to enable the creation of a culture of encounter and dialogue, let me invite you into that discussion. Send me questions, send me ideas for guests, send me comments. Please follow me on Twitter @biblejunkies, or on Facebook, at Biblejunkies, or on Instagram @stmarkscce. Or email me at [e-mail]. Let me know what you think.

I also want to ask you to help out by letting people know about the podcast. If you are enjoying the podcast, please let your friends know. You can also let people know by rating and reviewing What Matters Most on your favourite podcasting platform. This lets people find the podcast more easily and lets people like you enjoy the work that we are doing. I think these are important and inspiring discussions and I would like people to have a chance to listen in!

Upcoming Episodes:

And now some news on upcoming podcast episodes:

Dr. Alexandre Martins of Marquette University on healthcare justice and his life that began in poverty in Brazil;

Dr. Emilce Cuda, of the Vatican, secretary of the Pontifical Commission on Latin America;

Dr. Hans Abdiel Harmakaputra, of the department of religion, philosophy & classics at Augustana University;

Mr. Inderjeet Singh, Sikh chaplain at UBC.

Finally, a recent lecture is now available on YouTube:

On February 29, Dr. Niigaan Sinclair joined us from Winnipeg to speak about the Pope’s apology and what are the necessary next steps in truth and reconciliation. This lecture was dynamite and challenging. Watch it!

John W. Martens

Director, Centre for Christian Engagement, St. Mark's College at UBC