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The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) approved at its November 2025 Plenary Assembly the seventh edition of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services that was developed by its Committee on Doctrine. This edition of the Directives replaces all previous editions, is recommended for implementation by the diocesan bishop; on Nov. 12, it was endorsed by 206 bishops, with eight abstaining and seven opposing. It is composed of 6 parts (See below the video) and notably bans gender surgeries; and states explicitly USCCB policy that the bishops released in a doctrinal note in 2023 when mandated Catholic providers must not take part in procedures that “aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex.”
PART ONE - The Social Responsibility of Catholic Health Care Services
PART TWO -
The Pastoral and Spiritual Responsibility of Catholic Health Care
PART THREE -
The Professional-Patient Relationship
PART FOUR - Issues in Care for the Beginning of Life
PART FIVE
Issues in Care for the Seriously Ill and Dying
PART SIX
Collaborative Arrangements with Other Health Care Organizations and Providers
The USCCB writes in the directives: A contemporary understanding of the Catholic health care ministry must take into account the new challenges presented by transitions both in the Church and in American society. Throughout the centuries, with the aid of other sciences, a body of moral principles has emerged that expresses the Church’s teaching on medical and moral matters and has proven to be pertinent and applicable to the ever-changing circumstances of health care and its delivery. In response to today’s challenges, these same moral principles of Catholic teaching provide the rationale and direction for this revision of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.
The purpose of these Ethical and Religious Directives then is twofold: first, to reaffirm the ethical standards of behavior in health care that flow from the Church’s teaching about the dignity of the human person; second, to provide authoritative guidance on certain moral issues that face Catholic health care today.
The Ethical and Religious Directives are concerned primarily with institutionally based Catholic health care services. They address the sponsors, trustees, administrators, chaplains, physicians, health care personnel, and patients or residents of these institutions and services. Since they express the Church’s moral teaching, these Directives also will be helpful to Catholic professionals engaged in health care services in other settings
The moral teachings that we profess here flow principally from the natural law, understood in the light of the revelation Christ has entrusted to his Church. From this source the Church has derived its understanding of the nature of the human person, of human acts, and of the goals that shape human activity. The Directives have been refined through an extensive process of consultation with bishops, theologians, sponsors, administrators, physicians, and other health care providers. While providing standards and guidance, the Directives do not cover in detail all of the complex issues that confront Catholic health care today. Moreover, the Directives will be reviewed periodically by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (formerly the National Conference of Catholic Bishops), in the light of authoritative church teaching, in order to address new insights from theological and medical research or new requirements of public policy.
READ the FULL Directives at the Source: https://www.usccb.org/resources/ERDs-7th-ed-Approved_2025-11-12.pdf
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