Health Calls Season 6, Episode 15 continues the United for Change season with a global perspective on collaboration in health. Host Brian Reardon and Executive Producer Josh Matejka welcome Monsignor Robert J. Vitillo, newly appointed Chief Officer for Innovation and Programs at Catholic Charities USA, to reflect on the state of global health amid shifting U.S. priorities.
Health Calls Season 6, Episode 15 continues the United for Change season with a global perspective on collaboration in health. Host Brian Reardon and Executive Producer Josh Matejka welcome Monsignor Robert J. Vitillo, newly appointed Chief Officer for Innovation and Programs at Catholic Charities USA, to reflect on the state of global health amid shifting U.S. priorities.
Drawing on decades of experience with the Holy See at the United Nations in Geneva, Vitillo explains how reduced funding, rising conflict, chronic disease, and mental health challenges are straining health systems worldwide. He highlights the importance of international cooperation, warning that isolationist approaches weaken vaccination efforts, emergency preparedness, and workforce stability, even within the United States. Through real‑world examples, including Ebola response efforts in West Africa, the conversation underscores why Catholic health care’s commitment to human dignity, partnership, and solidarity remains vital at home and abroad. The episode calls listeners to see global health as a shared responsibility that directly shapes local care.
Brian Reardon (00:05):
Welcome to Health Calls, the podcast and the Catholic Health Association of the United States. I'm your host, Brian Reardon. And with me is Josh Matejka, our executive producer. Hey, Josh.
Josh Matejka (00:15):
Hey, Brian.
Brian Reardon (00:16):
So in this episode, we're going to be bringing in Monsignor Robert Vitillo in just a moment to talk about collaborations in global health. And for those of you who've listened to health calls over the years, you may remember Monsignor Vitillo was a guest a couple of seasons ago to talk about the work that he was doing in Ukraine with one of our colleagues, Bruce Compton. So delighted to have him back on and we'll introduce him formally in just a moment. But Josh, maybe you could start off with, again, this whole season of health calls as we're kind of wrapping it up. We've been talking about United for Change in various collaborations within Catholic Healthcare in the United States. This simple sound's a little bit different because we're looking outside of the United States and really looking at issues of global health and how CHA members and how others can collaborate at a time where global health is under a lot of pressure and we'll be talking to Monsignor Vitillo about that.
(01:09)
But can you maybe give us a little bit of background about how this episode came together?
Josh Matejka (01:13):
Yeah. I mean, I think Brian, you and I and Bruce really have been ... Bruce Compton, that's our director of global health at CHA, by the way. We've been having a lot of conversations about global health over the last a few months related to some assembly work that we've been doing. So that's a little tease for Assembly 2026. Registration's now open. Yeah, we've been having a lot of conversations about global health and really the amount of collaboration that goes into all of this work is astounding. And it's by necessity, right? If you're working across global boundaries, you have to have people of goodwill and parties who are willing to collaborate and be creative and be passionate about these issues. And so as we were talking, Bruce mentioned that Monsignor Vitillo, old friend of the show, had been given the Guardian of Life Award at the Pontifical Academy of Life.
(02:05)
And we were like, every time we talk to Monsignor Vitillo, there's just such a rich kind of vein to tap of these collaborations and these stories that he's had of working with different people. And so we thought this was a good opportunity to get him back on and talk about all the work that's going on in his life and in the world right now. And that it might be kind of a good reminder of the scope of collaboration that happens on a daily basis within the church, within our ministry. And so we're delighted to have him back on the show. And I'm always really excited to talk to Monsignor Patillo.
Brian Reardon (02:45):
Well, let's go ahead and bring Monsignor Vitillo into the conversation and I'm going to hopefully get your title. I know you just started this week at a new position. So again, Monsignor Robert Vitillo is now the new Chief Officer for Innovation and Programs with Catholic Charities USA. Congratulations on that new role. And you previously served as a senior advisory for the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. You're still a member of the Dicastery. So again, great to have you back on the show.
Msgr. Robert J. Vitillo (03:11):
Well, it's great to be back and thanks for the invitation. Also, I worked with Catholic Charities at USA several times in the past, so in some ways I'm coming home.
Brian Reardon (03:21):
Nice, nice. Well, we wanted to talk to you, and I think maybe in a future episode, we'll talk about your role at Catholic Charities because we've had them on the show before and love talking about a lot of the initiatives that they're working on with Catholic healthcare. I know Josh mentioned our assembly. We're going to have a discussion around housing collaboration. So a lot of work between Catholic charities and our members. But again, for this episode, we wanted you to kind of bring your international perspective in the work you've done across the globe related to global health. And I think maybe a good level set question, Monsignor, would be, what is your sort of take, your prognosis of global health now? What are some of the challenges? Obviously, this is in the context of the United States really pulling back from some of its commitments and work in the global health space over the last year and a half or so.
(04:10)
And sort of this America first approach has really carried over into the work we've traditionally done related to global health. So with that in mind, can you give us again your sort of diagnosis of where things are with global health?
Msgr. Robert J. Vitillo (04:25):
Well, I think if we want to start with the World Health Organization situation, certainly they lost about one third of their budget because of the cuts, not only from the US government, primarily from that, but also many of the other governments are cutting back on their foreign assistance and even on assistance to the UN system. So that certainly caused a real problem in terms of staffing at World's Health Organization, and also in terms of doing the kind of assistance to governments to be sure that they have healthy structures to guarantee the best kind of health for the people in their countries. The World Health Organization has three major objectives for several years now under the leadership of the present director general. And one of it was to get a billion people in better health situations. The second was to have people be able to have access to health even in health emergencies.
(05:39)
And the third one was to be sure that we could get people to be able to access health more easily. In fact, people are in better health worldwide as a result of some of those efforts around getting better health situations for people. And so we have the average life years higher, about five years higher because of those efforts. At the same time, with the great number of conflicts and emergencies, both natural disasters and human-made disasters, there are many, many people who are not able to have access to healthcare during those disasters. And also, we have the situation where many of the chronic diseases are causing more deaths and more morbidity than would be able to have people enjoy better health. And then finally, more and more, they see at the global level, the issues of mental health. And I can speak with that. I served as the atoche for health at the permanent mission of the Holy See to the UN in Geneva for 19 years.
(07:01)
And it's only now that I'm hearing from the World Health Organization a much greater focus and concern about mental health throughout all of the countries of the world.
Brian Reardon (07:14):
And in addition to the lack of funding, I mean, obviously that's a big issue, but is there also, I guess, the concern that lack of leadership, so a country like the United States that traditionally has been more on the forefront and you mentioned other countries as well. Beyond just the financial situation, what are some of the challenges or what do you see are some of the concerns related to maybe a lack of will or a lack of leadership and maybe a more sort of isolationist national look than a lot of countries may have and looking inward? What are some of the ripple effects that you see happening with that?
Msgr. Robert J. Vitillo (07:52):
Well, I think just as with many, many situations in the world, countries can no longer just stay isolationist. And even though even in the United States, we have that tendency happening from the present administration, but everything is global today. And so the more a country tries to stay apart from the collaboration with other countries, the more precarious is the situation in those countries. And I think a good example of that in the United States is the fact that less and less people are having access to vaccines, vaccinations. And so that puts people in a situation of epidemics that we thought were finished. I don't need to tell your audience about the measles epidemic going on, but that's a good example of how the more you try to pull yourself out of a system, the worse it is for the people in those countries.
Brian Reardon (08:52):
And there's also a lot of interconnectivity in workforce. Bruce reminds us, again, that global health really is a two-way street. It's not just a country of a more wealthy country like the United States providing assistance to less wealthy countries. There is a lot of collaboration and we've seen this in the workforce with nurses that come to the United States, from other countries, with physicians. How do you see that playing out with this sort of stepping back from more engagement? What does that look like for the global health workforce?
Msgr. Robert J. Vitillo (09:24):
Let me give you an example, a lived experience, and this goes back to about 2015 during the epidemic of Ebola virus in West Africa. Ebola is endemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but in West Africa, this was their first experience in a number of countries. I was in Liberia and in Sierra Leone during those times. And I can tell you in Liberia, they only had five trained psychiatrists. And in addition to the severe physical epidemic that was going on with so many people dying of this very, very contagious disease, also you had the situation where there's great loss, depression, and the need for mental health services. Four of those psychiatrists went away from the country. So there was one psychiatrist less in the whole country.
Brian Reardon (10:19):
For the whole country. How many people in the country?
Msgr. Robert J. Vitillo (10:23):
I think there were about five million in the-
Brian Reardon (10:25):
Yeah.
Msgr. Robert J. Vitillo (10:25):
Wow.
(10:26)
Yeah. So I mean, that's a good example of the fact that many times those countries put in their investment to train people in nursing, in medicine, in lab work, and yet the more they're attracted to go outside the country, because there's not the resources to pay them decent salaries, to give them good benefits, to have other opportunities in life, then the more those countries have lost their investment and they're never compensated. And the World Health Organization came up many years ago with a plan for proposing compensation by countries that have invested in the training of these professionals, but are then recruited by other countries, but it's never really put into practice.
Brian Reardon (11:14):
And from your perspective, what is the role of the Catholic Church in helping connect some of these different entities that are working in the global health space? We'll get to Catholic health in the US in just a moment, but from your perspective, is the church able to sort of step into this vague that's been created by others sort of disengaging?
Msgr. Robert J. Vitillo (11:35):
Yes. And again, I'll give you that same example. It's not the only place in the world that I've been involved, but it comes right to mind on that too. When this epidemic hit in West Africa, again in Liberia, but also in Sierra Leone and in Guinea Conicre. In Liberia, I went there to try to help the local church there respond to this. Now, they had one hospital in the capital that was the best in the country. And because before they identified this as Ebola, it had gotten into the hospital and it already infected many of the professionals, so they died and they had to close the hospital. When I got there, I knew the Minister of Health and went to visit him and he said to me, "Monsinger, sit down. I want to tell you what I need from you before you tell me what you need from me.
(12:31)
" So I sat down, I told him, yes, yes, Mr. Minister, I'm used to working with bishops, so I know how to listen. And he said, "You have to get that hospital reopened. It's the best we have in the country." And none of the other hospitals are functioning either. So we worked together by reaching out to Germany, to the church in Germany, to the church in the United States and elsewhere to find the means to be able to redo the hospital and then be able to have the resources to reopen the hospital with staff. And so those are the kinds of things the Global Church is able to do by that kind of partnership.
Brian Reardon (13:09):
Yeah. And I think you bring up, and now we can get into a little bit of where Catholic Healthcare in the United States is playing a role in contributing to global health. And I think supplies, equipment is one of them. Josh, I'm going to go ahead and sort of do a soft announcement. At this assembly, we are going to be actually honoring for our Achievement Citation Award, an organization called Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach. And we'll be kind of formally announcing that ahead of assembly, but they do incredible work. And I think you're familiar with them. They're based in Springfield, Illinois, and they are really conscientious and very deliberate in not only the way they collect materials from their participating health systems, but how they then ship them. And it's based on what you just said. It's what's needed. It's not just like, oh, I think they think what they could use this.
(13:51)
Let's go send it to a place like Tanzania, for example. And so I think that's an example, but can you think of other examples of where you've seen Catholic healthcare in the US step up to really be a partner with other clinics, hospitals around the globe and not just sort of providing cherry? Because I think Bruce always reminds us that again, it's a two-way street. There's a partnership that exists and it's not just one entity helping out another. There's kind of a back and forth with that.
Msgr. Robert J. Vitillo (14:23):
Yes. I think the whole new area, and I know that Bruce has been involved in this at the global level, even with governments, and that's the telehealth because so many things could be done by training the professionals in the other countries and helping with the diagnostic work, as well as the treatment work through telehealth. So I think that's another whole area that will be very, very important. And it will be important not simply to have someone be a distant, not just to tape something because you want to be there with the practitioner, local practitioner, as we know very well, that we can't replace the human healthcare worker and the professional totally with AI. So I think it's important to have that person to person professional contact.
Brian Reardon (15:20):
And you see more of that happening, particularly with medical missions. So again, for decades and decades, we've seen physicians donate their time, go to a country for a couple of weeks, do surgeries, then come back home, and there's still a demand in that country that can't be met by periodic visits from physicians from other countries. Are you seeing more of a sort of train the trainer type approach to global health when it comes to medical missions?
Msgr. Robert J. Vitillo (15:45):
Yes. I was involved as the president of the board of a small NGO based in the United States, but working mainly in Vietnam and in Myanmar. And so we were funding some of the eye surgery that was possible by bringing teams over there, but they didn't just come to do all the work themselves. They were training the local physicians to be able to continue that work. And just amazing when people had just simple cataracts, but once someone was trained to be able to perform those surgeries, it opened up a whole new world. I know in the United States, I had cataracts and certainly it was amazing to open my eyes and be able to see very clearly again.
Brian Reardon (16:34):
Nice. And before I bring Josh back in and we wrap up the conversation, let's go back to the point earlier about this isolationist mindset. And I think for Catholic healthcare in the US, we have a lot of our own pressures. We've talked about it on this show and webinars we've done in the amvocacy work, a lot of financial pressure on healthcare in general because of cuts that are made again from the HR1 that was passed last summer, particularly around Medicaid. So in this time of, again, pressure, financial or otherwise, what do you say to Catholic healthcare leaders that may be listening to this is like, why should they care about global health? Why spend the time, effort, and investments in participating in global health initiatives?
Msgr. Robert J. Vitillo (17:19):
Well, I could respond from my theological background and also my practical background in the world. And yet some of your member hospital CEOs may tell me, I don't know what I'm talking about. But in the Catholic Church, well, first of all, let's look at Jesus. He went around and he was able to cure people because they had faith in him. He, of course, was the son of God, but he also told the followers to do the same thing when he went back into heaven. And even these days after Easter, we're reading the Acts of the Apostles, which is like the early diary of the earliest church. And we see these apostles who were fishermen. They had no professional background whatsoever, but then suddenly trying to preach because they heard Jesus preach and then also saying, "Well, I don't have any money, but let me touch you.
(18:18)
" And that people could walk again. So I think those are the kinds of things we have to remember, even though we're burdened by many financial responsibilities and know that we can reach out and we can help. And then sometimes those same people will help us. There are some treatments and some approaches in the low income countries that we don't use, even though they're simple approaches that we don't use in the high income countries. And so it's really a mutual exchange that goes on. And Pope Francis was very, very strong with us as he told us that we in the high income countries had reached out to the poor, but never just to do it as charity, as you said, although charity is important, but not that, well, we're pitying you and we're doing this for you because every time you have that interchange, you learn something yourself and you're enriched in it.
(19:14)
And I see that in the refugee and the migration world, in all of my own experience in that world, it's not just helping by welcoming people, it's also receiving the culture, the values, the hard work that those migrants and refugees bring to the United States and elsewhere.
Brian Reardon (19:32):
Yeah. And that's really what a collaboration is all about. Josh, if you could maybe share any thoughts or I have a final question for Monsignor.
Josh Matejka (19:41):
Yeah. Monsignor Vitillo, thank you so much. One thing that I think about a lot with global health, and part of it is the factor of I've had a lot of these conversations, and a word that keeps coming up in these conversations is trust. When you are working across oceans, essentially, and you really need to have that trusting relationship with the partners that you work with, and that takes time, and that takes effort. And especially under the conditions we're in now where you talked about where we've got major global organizations losing budget because countries are pulling out, and then you've got isolationist countries stepping in saying, "Well, we're not going to help with this, that, or the other." How do we start to build up trust with international partners again? And I'm speaking here on more the system level.
Msgr. Robert J. Vitillo (20:38):
Well, again, I think it's got to start with faith that God will help us as we do this. And that sounds very simple, but it's very true. And just think of how many of your member hospitals and health institutions were started by religious sisters who came across the world to the United States and they had no money at all. I mean, Mother Cabrini is a great example, and we had the beautiful film about her that was brought out recently. She came with nothing, and yet she was reaching out and she just helped people, and she had a determination and a will, but she also had faith. And that faith played out to her starting huge hospitals.
(21:27)
The story is told that in Chicago, when she went there and she asked the Archbishop for permission to start a hospital in the old Italian section because she went to help the Italian immigrants, he said, "No, I want a hospital in this other area, the town, the richer area around the Lake Shore Drive." And so she started the hospital there, but then she used the money that she gained from that hospital to be able to start another hospital in the poor section. So we need the faith, but also, of course, the skill and the willingness to fight and to continue to be dedicated to the poorest of the poor.
Brian Reardon (22:06):
Yeah. Now, good reminder about how our roots from the past, maybe 150 years ago in Catholic healthcare translate to today. So a great reminder and great perspectives, Juan Senior. Again, we appreciate you taking time to join us for this episode. And I shouldn't mention too, I think Josh references ... Congratulations. You were presented with the 2026 Guardian of Life Award from the Pontifical Academy of Life. So congratulations on that.
Msgr. Robert J. Vitillo (22:32):
Thank you very much. It was a great honor. I wasn't expecting something like that, but if my receiving that helped the church to focus more on the poorest people, then I was willing to accept it.
Brian Reardon (22:46):
Again, congrats. And again, that was Monsignor Robert Vitillo. He is the new chief officer for innovations and programs with Catholic Charities USA. Again, I'm your host, Brian Reardon. Our executive producer is Josh Matejka, and our scheduling assistant is Sarah Marchant. Health Calls is produced here in St. Louis at Once Studios. Appreciate all of their help. And you can listen to health calls on all of your favorite podcast streaming services. And of course, you can access health calls through the CHA website. That website is chousa.org. Another reminder, Josh mentioned this. We have our assembly coming up, June 2nd through 4th in St. Louis. Global Health will be on the agenda. So if this is a topic that interests you, please join us at St. Louis in early June for more conversations about global health, including a special field trip to Hospital Sisters Mission Outreaches from Illinois on June 1st.
(23:38)
You can learn all about that at our website at chusa.org/assembly. And as always, thanks for listening.