Detroit — Catholic health care workers and administrator across the Archdiocese of Detroit celebrated the annual Rose Mass with Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, celebrating the Church’s rich healing history.

The March 6 Mass allowed doctors, nurses and those responsible for caring for the sick to come together to celebrate and reflect on the healing aspects of Jesus’ ministry.

After reading the Gospel story of the Prodigal Son, Archbishop Vigneron related health care workers’ ministry to that of the healing grace that comes from Jesus’ absolution of sin.

“It’s a great blessing so many members of the Church are dedicated to the service of our sisters and brothers, to the healing of great ills people face,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “Like Jesus who healed the great ills that come from sin.”

After the Mass, Dr. Dan O’Brien, senior vice president of ethics, discernment and Church relations at Ascension Health System, gave a presentation on the Church’s history of running hospitals and caring for the sick.

“The Church has a fundamental commitment for caring for the poor, the suffering,” O’Brien said. “It comes from our core notion in the belief of God and God in the form of other people.”

Dr. O’Brien highlighted many moments in the Gospel where Jesus was focused on healing people physically and spiritually, arguing Catholic-focused health care cannot separate the two.

Jesus displayed his divinity and authority by healing those he encountered, Dr. O’Brien said, highlighting the Church’s rapid growth in the first and second centuries as directly tied to the work done by early Christian bishops and teachers.

“The way that Christians cared for one another is what drew people to the faith,” he said. “They established a practice of caring for abandoned babies, comforting lepers, seeking out the poor. In the second century, Christians were the ones caring for the sick, building hospitals.”

Dr. O’Brien said healing ministry today doesn’t come out of pity, but rather a fulfillment of the mission of creating God’s kingdom on Earth.