CAPPA One Year Out

CAPPA “went live” in January, 2025 – three years and a half years after our first board meeting initiating the building of an organization. We received a quick and brisk response from social media of people signing up for the mailing list. It was the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes in 2025 that we held our first event, the CAPPA Meet and Greet.

As we make our way through our second year, I would like to recall CAPPA’s the three-fold purpose of community, education, and advocacy.

Community is what we are building. CAPPA continues to look at ways, given our size and resources, that we can build an online community to connect with one another. We also want to facilitate members connecting locally. To that end, we recently asked that people update their profiles to add your area of practice and the state in which you are located. Please be sure to update your profile if you haven’t already.

Education is centered on Catholic medical ethics, which lies at the heart of our clinical practice. To this end, CAPPA will be starting a regular bioethics series centered on various topics. This will be a casual gathering where topics are presented and discussed.

Advocacy for CAPPA is about religious freedom, which is quickly eroding in medicine. As the Culture of Death continues to grow, as Pope Saint John Paul II warned, clinical practice as a Catholic APP, and training as a Catholic student, are becoming increasingly difficult. And APPs face distinctly different circumstances than physicians. We hope to grow CAPPA into a place to stay informed about arising threats as well as joining with other Catholic clinical organizations to advocate for conscience protection and clinical practices in accord with the Christian view of human dignity.

All of our work is permeated with Catholic spirituality – the Father’s design exemplified by Jesus Christ and strengthened in us by the Holy Spirit. CAPPA will continue to pray for our members as well as our patients and provide opportunities for spiritual growth.

New Faces

As we begin our second year, we do so with some new faces. I am remaining as your founding president, and I am very excited to introduce you to two new officers, if you haven’t already seen them on the website. Both bring a wealth of experience and expertise to their roles and are well-suited to carrying out CAPPA’s mission.

Jennifer is a physician assistant with over two decades of experience in internal medicine, family practice, gastroenterology, and urgent care. She has also served as an Assistant Professor in the Physician Assistant Program at the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford, CT, where she was honored to educate and mentor future healthcare professionals. Deeply committed to service, she has volunteered as a physician assistant with the Malta House of Care in Hartford, CT.

A lifelong Catholic, Jennifer is a product of Catholic education, having attended Catholic schools from sixth grade through graduate school, including Providence College and Seton Hall University. Her faith continues to shape both her professional and personal life. She is actively involved in her parish community as a youth ministry volunteer, former religious education catechist, and school volunteer, and she is the parent of two children currently enrolled in Catholic schools.

Jennifer is honored to be a member of the Catholic Advanced Practice Provider Association and to serve as an officer, where she supports the integration of faith, ethics, and excellence in healthcare.

After completing theological studies at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, Msgr. Peter Beaulieu was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Worcester in 1983. Following three years as associate pastor of Saint Rose of Lima Parish in Northborough, he returned to Louvain and completed his Licentiate in Moral Theology in 1987.

Upon returning to the United States, Msgr. Beaulieu was assigned to study moral philosophy at Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois and underwent training in clinic ethics at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois. Eventually, after five years of clinical and academic study, he was awarded a Master of Arts degree in Philosophical Ethics and completed the doctoral coursework in the same field. After five years in Illinois, he returned to Massachusetts.

In 1992, and with ecclesiastical approbation, he accepted the duties as the Catholic chaplain at Memorial Hospital in Worcester and held that position until 1997. A that time, he was appointed Director of Pastoral Care at Saint Vincent Hospital in the same city. In each of those healthcare settings, he has served as either a member of the hospital Ethics Committee and, for the last twenty years, Msgr. Peter has been the Chair of the Saint Vincent Hospital Ethics Committee, as well as serving as the Episcopal liaison to Catholic healthcare facilities for the Bishop of Worcester. His duties were expanded to incorporate the role of mission integration, in addition to overseeing pastoral care.

Welcome Jennifer and Msgr. Peter!

As always, be sure to reach out to us if you have any questions or ideas. We love hearing from you and responding. God bless you in your great work of mercy that is your vocation as a Catholic APP.