Catholic Medical Ethics & Pastoral Care in a Secular Culture

Deacon Patrick W. Lappert, MD

For the past seven years, Dr. Lappert has given many lectures on human anthropology and the moral and ethical problems of transgender medicine and surgery. His audiences have ranged from medical students and residents, to diocesan priest retreats, to middle and high school students.

Dr. Lappert has authored journal articles in breast reconstruction, facial reconstruction and endoscopic repair of facial trauma. With the chairman of plastic surgery of Harvard University, Dr. Lappert authored a textbook chapter on the plastic surgical management of combat trauma. More recently, Dr. Lappert was a chapter author on the subject of the surgical interventions used on self-identified transgender persons which appears in the recently released anthology, “Sexual Identity; the Coherence of Philosophy, Science, and Revelation,” John Desilva Finley, 2002.

He recently retired from his private practice in plastic surgery. Dr. Lappert received his medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of Health Science. Following his internship, he served as a flight surgeon in a forward deployed Marine Corps fighter squadron.

He trained in general surgery at the Oakland Naval Hospital/ UC Davis East Bay Consortium and was board certified in general surgery in 1992. He served as clinical professor in surgery until his selection for training in plastic and reconstructive surgery at University of Tennessee, Memphis.

Following that residency, he was board certified in plastic and reconstructive surgery in 1997 and recertified in 2008. He served as a staff reconstructive surgeon at the Portsmouth Naval Hospital from 1994-2002. While there, he established a center for the care of problem wounds.

Additionally, Dr. Lappert established the multidisciplinary Pediatric Cleft/Craniofacial Deformities Clinic which he chaired for seven years. Dr. Lappert was chief of the Plastic Surgery Department from 1997 to 2002. He was appointed specialty leader in reconstructive surgery to the Office of the Surgeon General, USN, a position which he held from 1997 to 2002.

Dr. Lappert retired from military service after 24 years with the rank of captain, USN.

Deacon Lappert serves at Annunciation of the Lord church in Decatur, Alabama. He is a chaplain for the Courage Apostolate in the Diocese of Birmingham and also serves on the board of directors for Courage International. Dr. Lappert has been married to Patrice Ann Oberst for 41 years and together they raised six children. They have one grandchild.

 

Gwyneth Anne Spaeder, MD

Dr. Spaeder is a fellow for the St. John Paul II Foundation. She is a recurrent presenter at Theology of the Body workshops for teens and for NFP/Marriage prep in the Diocese of Raleigh.

She attended the University of Dallas, where she graduated with a degree in Political Philosophy. She then attended The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, graduating in 2005. She is a board-certified pediatrician and has practiced in both community ER and private practice settings. She completed a certificate in Health Care Ethics through the National Catholic Bioethics Center in 2015 and has published several articles pertaining to vaccine ethics.

She also served as the guest editor for a NCBC Quarterly edition focused on pediatric-specific issues.

She is a member of the Catholic Medical Association Triangle Guild. She lives in Wake Forest, NC, with her husband and three children.

 

Father Columba Thomas, OP, MD

Father Thomas is a Dominican friar and a physician specializing in Internal Medicine. He graduated from Yale School of Medicine in 2012 with distinction and one of the top prizes for his thesis entitled, “Foretelling the Future of Prognostication: A Historically-

Inspired, Domain-Based Approach for the Elderly.”

Before joining the Dominicans in 2016, he completed a Primary Care Residency and Chief Residency at Yale and attained board certification in Internal Medicine. His publications have appeared in a variety of journals, including JAMA Internal Medicine, Journal of General Internal Medicine, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, and National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly.

More recently, he edited “The Art of Dying: A new, annotated translation” (National Catholic Bioethics Center, 2021).

Father Columba currently serves as chaplain for the Dominican Healthcare Ministry at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and continues research in bioethics as assistant professor of medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine.