What makes Cristo Rey Family Health Center in north Lansing a Catholic health clinic is not just its name. Or the pictures of saints on the walls. Or even the chapel.
One notable feature of the clinic’s Catholic identity is the appointment length it affords patients. By scheduling twice the time other clinics offer, Cristo Rey allows patients the opportunity not just to be seen, but to be seen as they truly are—endowed with dignity as beloved sons or daughters of God.
“We see Christ in them … They’re not just somebody in a line to kind of just move along,” said Sister Mary Rafqa Boulos, a Religious Sister of Mercy (RSM) and Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) at Cristo Rey. “They’re given the time here, and I think that’s a big difference for them.”
Striving to honor and affirm the dignity of their patients is what makes the Cristo Rey approach a truly Catholic one, as the dignity of the human person serves as the foundation for the Church’s teaching on social matters.
The Cristo Rey clinic is open to all, regardless of insurance and those seeking Catholic healthcare. But the center’s primary patient population is the underserved—those who lack insurance and those who have difficulty accessing healthcare. The clinic is situated within the broader Cristo Rey Campus of Catholic Charities of Ingham, Eaton and Clinton Counties, which also operates a food and clothing pantry that serves hundreds of hot meals daily.
The poor are those most in need of our attention, the Church teaches, often because their dignity has been undermined in one way or another. Individuals who visit Cristo Rey may present one or more unmet basic needs, including their health, which may have fallen by the wayside if they are struggling to find housing or put food on the table.
Because of that, Cristo Rey providers approach healthcare from a whole-person perspective that is rooted in the doctrine of human dignity.
“When we treat somebody with the idea of the dignity of the human person—which is the primary mission for us as a Catholic clinic—we look at the whole person,” said Sister Lockerd, who has been a family practice physician for more than 30 years. “We can’t just isolate—well, I’ll just take care of your diabetes today, and you’ll have to return to take care of your hypertension.”
The whole-person approach is not just limited to healthcare. Those who initially come to the clinic may need other material resources offered at Cristo Rey. Conversely, those who had come for food or clothes may end up at the clinic to address immediate health needs.
With extra time and attention given to patients, trust forms, relationships build, and the fruits of a Catholic approach to healthcare emerges in the lives of those served.
“They recognize there’s something different about how we are seeing them and how we’re trying to help them also see their own dignity and their worth,” Sister Boulos said.
To illustrate how their presence has impacted those who live in the area, Sister Mariana Koonce, RSM, MD, spoke about an individual who first came to Cristo Rey as a client. He later became a volunteer and, over a period of two decades, a regular presence at the center . The patient was baptized Catholic shortly before his death, which Cristo Rey commemorated with a Catholic funeral. This patient’s relationship with the clinic is not isolated to one person.
“Sometimes it might have been a single mother with a child who was totally a surprise, and how on earth she was going to meet the needs to help with this particular little baby,” Sister Boulos said. “To now, years later … through the services here, to see that she’s striving and she’s doing well, and this little one is being cared for and she’s happy.”
The sisters embrace the opportunity to be in solidarity with the poor by serving the underserved. So too do the volunteers at Cristo Rey, who are known to often quote the verse in Matthew 25 where Jesus says, “whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”
The call for solidarity with the poor is not limited to those serving at Cristo Rey, but rather, extends to all the faithful, which Pope Leo XIV affirmed in his first major document, Dilexi Te.
“You can’t call yourself a Christian if you’re not doing something to help with alleviating the needs of the poor,” Sister Koonce said. “There’s always something somebody can be doing, because there’s so many needs out there, and there’s so many great organizations that are addressing those needs.”