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A Catholic medical ethicist is one way to describe
Greg Pesely. Pesely serves as an internal consultant
for the Mission Services Department at the Order of
St. Francis ("OSF") Healthcare System in Peoria,
Illinois. OSF is a Catholic health care system covering
11 different facilities, the largest system in Illinois
outside Chicago.
Pesely is involved in developing, administering,
and applying a variety of health care policies throughout
this system. "Basically, we’re trying to recover
Catholic culture in the health care industry,"
he says. His work runs the gamut of life issues.
The provision of artificial nutrition and hydration
to comatose and incapacitated patients, treatment of
tubal pregnancies, the development of HMO’s, the
provision of artificial birth control pills and devices,
the development of new drugs, and medical care of the
indigent are just some of the issues he grapples with
regularly.
"We try to educate doctors about
what’s acceptable and explain the reasons why,"
he said. Working in close association with Peoria Bishop
John Myers and leading Catholic ethicists in the U.S.
and Rome, Pesely helps formulate policies, often on
cutting-edge issues, often fraught with complexity.
Pesely recognizes that making difficult prudential decisions
does not often please all people. "We try to do
the best we can under the circumstances."
Sometimes his work leads the industry,
as when he participated in developing a "Rape Protocol,"
to ensure that proper protections would be in place,
not only for the woman, but for developing embryos.
Other Catholic facilities throughout the country have
since implemented it.
Pesely is well-trained for his job.
After graduating from the College in 1977, he pursued
a doctorate in philosophy at Laval University. He taught
for two years at St. John’s Seminary in Los Angeles,
and then for eight years at Benedictine College in Atchison,
Kansas.
Before coming to OSF in 1996, he served
for three years as the Coordinator of Catechetical Ministries
under Bishop James Sullivan, in Fargo, North Dakota,
where he was in charge of implementing catechetical
programs throughout the Diocese. While there, he helped
establish a national network of diocesan catechetical
directors to help promote catechetical reform in the
Church.
In his spare time, Pesely has devoted
years of teaching CCD to junior high and high school
students, as well as parish and diocesan RCIA and catechetical
program. In addition, he has published numerous articles
in several diocesan newspapers, as well as the National
Catholic Register, Catholic Twin Circle, and Our Sunday
Visitor, in which he wrote a weekly column on liturgical
readings for almost four years. He has also authored
six catechetical booklets for Prayer in the Home Press
which have been published in English and Spanish.
While in Kansas, Pesely and his wife
Diane, established a newborn infant assistance program
to support at-risk mothers. Still going in its seventh
year, it has helped more than 150 mothers and babies.
Greg and Diane have five children of their own, ranging
in age from 18 months to 10 years.
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