Doctor Leszek Ballarin doesn’t perform any abortions or prescribe contraceptive pills. He hires pro-life employees exclusively. A crucifix and a portrait of his beloved countryman Pope John Paul II hang on the wall to further evidence that this is the office of a Catholic doctor. The waiting rooms of his two offices are supplied with pro-life materials in English and in Polish. “Years ago, when I started my medical practice I was advised that not prescribing contraception pills isn’t wise for the success of a business,” Ballarin said. Thirteen years later, Ballarin, board certified in family practice, doesn’t complain about the number of patients entering his office every day. He is more than just a doctor to his patients. In his office they find a human being who cares and listens. “In order to help someone I have to see the entire situation of a patient. Many physical problems are rooted deeper than just in the body. Helping doesn’t only mean to write a prescription,” Ballarin said. Not just a job He believes that being a doctor is a vocation, not just a job. “The doctor’s office has a lot in common with a confessional. There are many personal conversations and the doctor, in order to help, should know the whole truth, just like the priest in a confessional,” he said. The biggest challenge in the doctor-patient relationship for him is handling the health insurance bureaucracy. Ballarin doesn’t like the vocabulary they use. “The fact that a patient is called a customer shows that the relationship is shifting more to the buying-selling one. The insurance says what to do, the doctor will follow, the customer will receive the product,” said Ballarin, who practices internal medicine on the Northwest Side of Chicago and in Bridgeview. He is concerned that the consequences will be a loss of personal relationships between the doctor and the patients. Being around different forms of suffering is the doctor’s daily bread. “Suffering keeps you down to earth,” he said. “It teaches us, despite the position in life and how prestigious a job we have, to be humble.” He said the most difficult part of his job is to break the news about a terminal illness. “When I close the door to my office, I do not forget about my experiences with patients on that day,” said Ballarin. When there is a terminal illness, he tells the patients that even though there is nothing else he can do, there is someone else, God, who is much more powerful than any medicine and any treatment. “With this perspective even the most reserved patients see that having a cross in the doctor’s office makes sense. For the nurses and me the cross brings an inspiration for work. It also reminds us that we are only tools in the hands of God,” said Ballarin. Polish roots Ballarin has five sons ages 1 to 11. His pro-life position is a consequence of his faith. He began the journey of faith in Poland, where he was born, grew up and graduated in 1997 from Karol Marcinkowski Med Akademia, the medical school in Poznan. As a teenager he participated in Oaza, a church movement for youth. His Catholic faith also guided him when he first emigrated from Poland in the early 1980s. Along with other young people he organized a youth Oaza movement in St. Hyacinth Parish in Chicago. Today he and his wife, Malgorzata, are members of Domestic Church, a Catholic formation group for couples. “There are many voices stating that faith is a private matter and therefore it should stay at home while at work we should be politically correct. I strongly disagree with this opinion,” said Ballarin. Ballarin is aware that faith needs sacrifice. “So far the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act is still protecting us from not having to perform abortions if it is against our belief. But they were already cases of people losing theirs jobs because of the religious reasons, like the Walgreens pharmacists in southern Illinois who refused to sell the morning-after pill in 2005,” he said. He believes that one day doctors may lose their licenses if they choose to follow their consciences instead of the law, which doesn’t protect unborn human life. “We will be facing similar choices to those faced by the early Christians,” he said. “It may be time to pay a high price for our faith.” But if he had to choose his vocation once more, he would become a doctor again. “I like being a doctor. I believe it helps me build my future in heaven.”