Church law's role in collaborations. Principles to guide Catholic healthcare providers contemplating new arrangements

To ensure the success of collaborative arrangements between Catholic and non-Catholic organizations, Catholic providers are advised to look at Church law in canonical and civil documents and at the role of Church law in arrangements between parties. First, Catholic healthcare providers should identify persons subject to Church law as they become engaged in apostolic activities such as providing healthcare on behalf of the Church. They need to distinguish among physical persons, moral and juridic persons, and associations of the faithful and other persons. To verify whether a party is a juridic person, Catholic healthcare providers must turn to historical documents. When cooperative arrangements are made between parties, they must consider a number of elements of Church law if the work is to remain Catholic. These include acquired rights and obligations, administration of temporal goods, observance of moral teachings, and respect of applicable legislation. The law places no limits on the types of arrangements that religious institutes can enter into. However, when cooperative arrangements are being considered between Catholic and non-Catholic religious institutes, the moral issues involved must be taken into consideration. In such arrangements all parties should clearly determine beforehand common purposes, structures, and rights and obligations involved, so that there will not be any misunderstandings along the way.