October 4, 2017 // Diocese

MedCon merges life concerns and health care

Deb Wagner

Freelance Writer

On Saturday, Oct. 14, medical and health care professionals are invited to MedCon, a one-day conference on health care in a Catholic context. The theme of this year’s conference is “Time for Change.” Students, clergy and others who have an interest in learning more about Catholic ethics and beginning-of-life or end-of-life issues in the current labor and political climate are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Christopher Stroud, M.D., is president of the Fort Wayne Jerome Lejeune Catholic Medical Guild, which will host the conference. He hopes that attendees take away “a deeper sense of what it is to be a Catholic health care worker, rather than a health care worker who just happens to be Catholic. The theme of this conference is conversion: conversion of heart, of practice, of mind, of body.”

The conference will take place at Parkview Mirro Center for Research and Innovation, next to Parkview Regional Medical Center in Fort Wayne. It is sponsored in large part by St. Joseph Hospital, a member of the Lutheran Health Network.

Registration and coffee begin at 8 a.m. The price to attend is $40, but students can attend for $20 and clergy may attend for free. Those who have a financial hardship but still wish to attend can call 260-222-6978. The first talk starts promptly at 9 a.m., and lunch is included.

Keynote speaker for MedCon is Marcus Grodi, who received his bachelor’s degree from Case Institute of Technology in Polymer Engineering and worked for six years as an engineer. During that time he was involved in a variety of Protestant youth and music ministries. He earned his Master of Divinity Degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and was ordained to Protestant pastoral ministry. During his more than 15 years of youth and young adult ministry, his main emphasis was church and lay spiritual renewal.

Grodi, his wife Marilyn and their two older sons, JonMarc and Peter, were received into the Catholic Church on Dec. 20, 1992. Their third son, Richard, entered through baptism.

Grodi now serves as the founder and president of The Coming Home Network International, a nonprofit Catholic lay apostolate aimed at helping other Christians, both clergy and laity, explore the Catholic Church. He also hosts “The Journey Home,” a weekly live television program, and “Deep In Scripture,” a weekly live radio program, on EWTN. He is the author of “Thoughts for the Journey Home,” “What Must I Do to Be Saved?” the novels “How Firm a Foundation” and “Pillar and Bulwark,” and is the editor and author of “Journeys Home” and “Journeys Home II.” He has taught courses in catechetics, youth ministry, leadership and theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville and the Pontifical College Josephinum. He has written regular articles for Catholic Answers Magazine, as well as other Catholic publications.

Following Grodi’s presentation, attendees may choose to listen to presentations from the following speakers.

Former Indiana Third District Congressman Marlin Stutzman

Before serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011-17, Rep. Stutzman served in the Indiana House from 2003-09 and in the Indiana State Senate from 2009-10. He will give a presentation on converting legislators to the culture of life.

Dr. Christopher Stroud

Dr. Stroud is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and a certified medical consultant in Creighton Model FertilityCare System/NaPro Technology. With more than 20 years experience, Dr. Stroud’s practice centers on infertility, recurrent pregnancy loss, natural hospital birth and minimally invasive robotic surgery. He is one of only four obstetrician/gynecologists in Indiana certified in Creighton Model FertilityCare System/NaPro Technology.

Dr. Dave Johnson

Dr. Johnson is a licensed clinical social worker, marriage and family therapist and board-certified clinical nurse specialist. He is a professor of nursing at the University of Saint Francis and an employee assistance specialist with Parkview Health in Fort Wayne. He has expertise in executive/leadership coaching, organizational diagnosis and intervention, and community and corporate workshops.

Father Royce Gregerson, STL

Father Gregerson is pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Goshen. He was born in Marion and raised in a Catholic family. He attended Bishop Luers High School and Wabash College, graduating summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish. He was ordained a priest in 2015 and holds a licentiate in moral theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas magna cum laude. He will present on transforming a culture of death into a culture of life.

Dr. Thomas McGovern

Dr. McGovern is a private-practice dermatologist specializing in Mohs surgery and facial reconstruction in Fort Wayne. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles and over 10 medical book chapters.

He has served as founding president of the Dr. Jerome Lejeune Guild of Northeast Indiana and is a regional director for Region IV. He has served on the national Membership Committee, FIRE Committee, Mid-Year Meeting Committee, Outstanding Guild Award Committee and the national CMA Board as an advisor to the president. He has published a course on the history, theology and medical aspects of Christ’s Passion.

Dr. Eustace Fernandes

Dr. Fernandes received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toledo, where he graduated magna cum laude. He earned a medical degree from Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, where he also completed an internal medicine residency and was a Roessler Research Scholar. He has practiced in Fort Wayne since completing a fellowship in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Dr. Fernandes, who is board certified in pulmonary disease and internal and critical care medicine, serves as the medical director of the Lutheran Hospital Lung Volume Reduction Surgery Program and the Cystic Fibrosis Clinic.

Dr. Andrew Mullally

Dr. Mullally is a pro-life family physician with interest in promoting political engagement to advance the culture of life in our state and country. Born in Michigan as the son of two family doctors and the oldest of nine children, he studied at Ave Maria University in Florida where he met his wife, Veronica. He completed medical school at Michigan State University, then relocated to Fort Wayne for a residency training program that would respect his ethical beliefs regarding the practice of medicine. He established an independent practice, Credo Family Medicine, and in his free time he enjoys serving as state director for the Catholic Medical Association. 

Dr. David Kaminskas

Dr. Kaminskas, FACC, has practiced cardiology in Fort Wayne for over 35 years. He was born into a Catholic family of six in Cleveland, Ohio, attended Purdue University and graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering, but had an epiphany of a call to become a physician. He pursued this training at Ohio State University for eight years, becoming a board-certified cardiologist. Dr. Kaminskas can be heard on Redeemer Radio giving two-minute segments called “Faith in Medicine,” and he writes a monthly column for Today’s Catholic called “The Catholic Doctor is In.” Dr. Kaminskas enjoys lecturing on ethics and Catholicism, and more recently on end-of-life decision-making.

Dr. Michael Parker

Dr. Parker is native to the central Ohio area. He attended Kenyon College, where he graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in biology. In 1985 he enrolled at Ohio State University College of Medicine, graduating with his doctorate degree in 1989. Dr. Parker completed his residency training at Ohio State University College of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, in 1993.

He is board-certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, a member of the Ohio State Medical Association and the Columbus Medical Association. He has received additional training and certification as a natural family planning medical consultant through The Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction in Omaha, Nebraska. Based on his Catholic beliefs, he changed his practice to natural family planning only in 2004.

The day will conclude with a White Mass celebrated by Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades at 5 p.m. at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception downtown. The White Mass is associated with St. Luke, patron saint of physicians and surgeons.