The end of Catholic acute health care in eastern Massachusetts is in sight, as a bankruptcy judge has approved the sale of four nominally Catholic hospitals formerly run by the Archdiocese of Boston.
The current owner, Steward Health Care System LLC, filed for bankruptcy on May 6, and is in the process of trying to sell the hospitals it runs.
The list includes four Catholic hospitals: St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center (formerly known as St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, and widely called St. E’s) in Brighton; Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton; St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River; and Holy Family Hospital in Methuen and Haverhill.
The hospitals were previously run by Caritas Christi, which was created by the Archdiocese of Boston in 1985 and sold in 2010 to Cerberus Capital Management, a for-profit company that created Steward Health Care System.
Caritas also operated two other Catholic hospitals: Norwood Hospital in Norwood, which Steward Health Care System closed in June 2020 after a rainstorm did catastrophic damage to the building; and Carney Hospital in Dorchester, which Steward closed last week, on Saturday, August 31.
The transaction with Caritas required Steward Health Care System to run the hospitals in accord with Catholic moral principles – which means, among other things, no abortion, no sterilization, no in vitro fertilization, and no euthanasia — as expressed in the fifth edition of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. (The sixth edition can be seen by clicking here.)
Lawyers for the Archdiocese of Boston filed a limited objection to the sales of the Catholic hospitals on Monday, September 2 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Houston division of the Southern District of Texas, which is overseeing the bankruptcy process of Steward Health Care System.
The archdiocese noted that if Steward sells the hospitals to a company that doesn’t intent to run them according to Catholic principles, then Steward is required by the terms of the 2010 transaction “to remove … all symbols of Catholic identity,” to stop using Catholic names for the hospitals, and to return religious items from the chapels and elsewhere in the buildings to the archdiocese.
In addition to the four Catholic hospitals, Steward also has operated two secular hospitals in eastern Massachusetts: Morton Hospital in Taunton, which is expected to be sold later this month; and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, which Steward closed on Saturday, August 31.
The sales of the still-existing hospitals are scheduled to close on Monday, September 30, 2024.
up to $140 million for St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton and Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, to Boston Medical Center Health System
$175 million for St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River and Morton Hospital in Taunton, to Lifespan Health System, of Providence, Rhode Island
$28 million for Holy Family Hospital facilities in Methuen and Haverhill, to Lawrence General Hospital in Lawrence, Massachusetts
The bankruptcy judge announced during the afternoon of Wednesday, September 4 that he plans to approve the deals.
“This sale needs to happen, and it will happen,” U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Christopher Lopez said during a court hearing Wednesday, September 4, according to State House News Service.
But the judge also said he plans to withhold $17 million from the purchase prices, which he called “a funding shortfall” between what Steward owes its secured creditors and what they are set to get from the sales, adding “I’m going to figure out who gets it.”
According to past news accounts and court documents, a list of the hospitals the former Caritas Christi formerly ran includes:
Carney Hospital in Dorchester (founded in 1863, which Steward Health Care System formally closed on August 31, 2024)
St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Brighton (founded in 1868)
St. Margaret’s Hospital for Women in Dorchester (founded in 1874 as St. Mary’s Infant Asylum, renamed St. Margaret’s in 1911, closed in 1993)
St. John of God Hospital in Brighton (begun as a Catholic hospital in 1960 after opening several years earlier as a secular hospital, closed in 2000)
Bon Secours Hospital in Methuen (founded in 1950, became Holy Family Hospital after Caritas Christi bought it in 1986)
Norwood Hospital in Norwood (founded as a secular hospital in 1919, acquired by Caritas Christi in 1997, closed permanently in June 2020 after a rainstorm did catastrophic damage to the building)
St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River (founded 1906)
Cardinal Cushing General Hospital in Brockton (opened in January 1968, became Good Samaritan Medical Center in October 1993 after a merger of Cardinal Cushing General Hospital and a secular hospital, Goddard Memorial Hospital in Stoughton)
The only Catholic hospital left in Massachusetts as of next month will be Mercy Medical Center in Springfield, which is operated by Trinity Health, a Catholic health care system in 21 states.
Besides Mercy Medical Center, what’s left of Catholic health care in the state?
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