Thomas Gerard Catena Lecture in Medicine, Faith, and Service

The Thomas Gerard Catena Lecture in Medicine, Faith, and Service invites speakers whose work displays innovative scholarship, service, and institution-building at the intersection of theology, medicine, and culture. Following the inaugural lecture from Dr. Catena in 2019, the lecture has since featured Maggy Barankitse and Dr. Russell White.

About Dr. Tom Catena

Dr. Tom Catena, who is the only physician for a population of more than 750,000 in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains, a conflict zone where humanitarian aid is restricted. At the Mother of Mercy Hospital, which he founded in 2007, he treats as many as 400 patients a day and is on call around the clock. Treating casualties of the region’s civil war, he performs more than 1,000 operations each year, often without running water or electricity.

In 2018, Catena received the Catholic Doctor of the Year Award from the Mission Doctors Association in Los Angeles. In 2017, Dr. Catena was awarded the $1.1 million Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, which honors unsung heroes working to preserve human life at great personal risk. He is the recipient of Honorary Doctorates from Brown University (2016) and Yerevan State Medical University (2017) and was named one of the 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2015.

Richard Payne Lecture and Award in Faith, Justice, and Health Care

In Fall 2022, TMC launched the Richard Payne Lecture and Award in Faith, Justice, and Health Care, which highlights and honors academic, clinical, and lay leaders who in their work and research embody the late Dr. Payne’s spirit of caring for the whole person. Dr. David R. Williams was the inaugural lecturer and awardee, followed by Dr. Kimberly S. Johnson.

About Dr. Richard Payne

Dr. Richard Payne, Esther Colliflower Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Divinity, was an internationally esteemed pioneer in pain relief, palliative care, oncology, and neurology. He joined the faculty at Duke Divinity School in 2004 as Director of the Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life, the institute that predated and paved the way for the TMC Initiative. 

Over the course of his career, Dr. Payne helped to lead a number of prestigious institutions and academic societies, yet his scholarship and academic leadership never displaced his central commitment to care for people. Indeed, Dr. Payne consistently aligned his scholarly work with his devotion to those he was called to love and serve, from members of his family to his patients, from his church to his academic colleagues and students. In particular, Dr. Payne found creative ways to bring together his academic work and his dedication to justice and equity in health care.