Dr. James O. Breen is a family physician and faculty member in graduate medical education in Fort Myers, Florida. Dr. Breen is a member of the Southwest Florida Guild of the Catholic Medical Association.
Like Sts. Cosmas and Damian, Catholic physicians and nurses in the United States are finding it increasingly difficult to continue to practice according to faithful morals and ethics without running afoul of secular “standards of care” in the exercise of their professions.
In the third century A.D., in the region of Cilicia (modern-day Turkey and Syria), two twin physicians raised in the Christian faith became known for their skillful practice of medicine. Despite their renown as successful physicians, they did not accept payment for their services (and were known as the “silver-less ones”), choosing instead to exercise their healing profession among rich and poor alike as an expression of their love for Our Lord. …