There’s no question: Sometimes God’s grace uses human imagination to open the door for Christian discipleship.
For decades, St. Mary’s Hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee, was a medical landmark and a great, almost unique, representative of the Church in an area where Catholics, while conspicuous for their faith, are few.
Across the country, Catholic hospitals have begun to pass from the scene, with the drop in vocations to religious life perhaps the most significant cause. In 2011, a for-profit hospital system bought St. Mary’s. But this was not the end of the story. Somebody who loved the Lord had an imagination.
The acute need for medical care
A serious problem everywhere in the country, and certainly in the eastern part of Tennessee, where Knoxville is located, is the scarcity of skilled medical care in rural areas and small towns. Often primary care is not available, let alone specialty care.
When St. Mary’s was sold, the Diocese of Knoxville decided to use some of the proceeds to provide basic medical care in remote areas where little or no medical service was present. The result was the purchase and equipping of a mobile van — in effect, a rolling doctor’s office, dubbed St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic.
The clinic moves on a regular schedule, stopping at designated places to offer professional medical care to people who otherwise could not see a doctor conveniently. Serious cases can be referred to Knoxville, a large city with many specialists, or to Johnson City or Lexington, Kentucky, university communities with respected medical schools not too far away.
No one turned away
Organizing this project and traveling with the clinic to treat patients is Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, a member of the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Michigan, who is a doctor of osteopathic medicine. For Sister Mary Lisa and for her staff, the work is a labor of love, both for the Lord and for the sick whom they, and the Lord, love.
Recently, the Catholic Extension Society, the great, historic benefactor of American home missions, honored Sister Mary Lisa with its highest recognition, the Lumen Christi Award, for her work.
Subscribing totally to Catholic medical-moral principles, affiliated with Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Knoxville, the clinic forthrightly presents itself as a Catholic organization while following all the standards of professional medicine.
It does not charge anyone who has no insurance or funds to pay for care. If this seems odd — certainly today, when health care is big business — the clinic’s policy is in the great tradition of American Catholic hospitals. When established, not one charged for services. Providing care was their Christian duty.
Encountering the Lord’s love
The clinic follows Catholic teaching in other important ways. No one is denied care or made to feel unwelcome because of ethnicity, gender or religious preference. Most patients are not Catholics.
In 2024, floods devastated sections of the diocese. Medical facilities, if present at all, often were overtaken by water and unable to provide services. People lost homes and jobs, but they kept their illnesses and medical problems.
The clinic went into action, seeing the sick or injured, treating problems and prescribing whatever was needed.
As it was with Catholic hospitals, the greatest benefit of going to the clinic is not physical but metaphysical: meeting the Lord Jesus, who lives and acts in those who provide care impelled by his Sacred Heart.
St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic staff meet every patient, not as a listing on a chart or a “case,” but as a human being, as a child of God, for whom Christian love and service, especially amid difficulties, is an obligation.
