Courtney McGrailThe Archbishop of Dublin is to become responsible for ethical issues at several Dublin hospitals following a decision by the Sisters of Mercy to transfer ownership of their hospitals to a new body.
The sisters have arranged for the canonical and civil transfer of the public and private Mater Misericordiae hospitals, as well as Temple Street paediatric hospital and Cappagh orthopaedic hospital, to a ‘Public Juridic Person’.
Public Juridic Persons (PJPs) are defined in canon law as bodies constituted to fulfil in the name of the Church, “the proper function entrusted to them in view of the public good”. They are commonly used to transfer the sponsorship of institutions from religious orders that can no longer maintain them, while ensuring the institutions’ Catholic identities are retained.
The current board of the hospitals’ parent company, Mater Misericordiae and the Children’s University Hospitals Ltd., will remain in place, with no changes in its makeup. The Mater’s future trustees will be appointed by a company set up under the new body, and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who is president of the Mater, will be responsible for decisions about ethics.
While the Dublin transfer awaits Dr Martin’s final approval, it is understood that plans are afoot for Cork’s Mercy University Hospital to be similarly transferred.