For the past two years, Michigan Area members have met for Mass and dinner on the third Saturday of each month, part of living their tuiteo fidei charism. On Saturday, May 17, the Michigan Area combined worship and fellowship with an update about Detroit’s Heart of Christ Clinic, a ministry supported by the Michigan Area.

The “Third Saturday” includes the Vigil Mass, each time at a different church in the Archdiocese of Detroit, followed by dinner at a nearby restaurant. On May 17, the venue for the Mass was Holy Name Church in Birmingham, a northwestern suburb of Detroit.  Under the leadership of Msgr. John Zenz, the parish has been a long-time collaborator with the Michigan Area on a variety of special events.

Following Mass, Michigan Area members attended a reception at the Townsend Hotel for friends of the Heart of Christ Clinic.  Updates were provided by David Wilson, KM, co-founder of the Christ Medicus Foundation, which launched the Clinic in 2024 with support from the Order of Malta, Knights of Columbus, and the Catholic Health Care Leadership Alliance, among others.

The Clinic is the first health care service launched by Heart of Christ Health, founded in 2022 by the Christ Medicus Foundation to provide truly Catholic health care for women and families. Heart of Christ Health’s motto is “Live Christ’s Healing Love, As One, Fully Alive.” Heart of Christ Health doctors and providers focus on the care of the whole person – emotionally, spiritually, and physically.

Housed on the campus of historic Ste. Anne de Detroit parish in Southwest Detroit, the Heart of Christ Clinic provides preventive care, health promotion, annual exams, routine primary care, gynecology, pre- and post-natal care, abortion pill reversal, and other services.  The Clinic includes a first-floor chapel where patients, visitors, and Clinic staff can pray before the Blessed Sacrament.

David Wilson explained how the Clinic serves refugees and recent immigrants in its community, particularly women. Through caring for women, the Clinic also comes to care for their children and other family members, he explained.  Paraphrasing Pope St. Paul VI, a member of the Order of Malta, the Clinic “doesn’t have a mission; the Clinic is a mission.”

Dr. Tom Meyer, an OB-GYN specialist at the Clinic, also spoke about the care that the Clinic provides, with its focus on human flourishing and the innate dignity of all of the Clinic’s patients, made in the image of God. 

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