Catholic doctor named 2017 Aurora Prize Laureate

Dr. Tom Catena, a Catholic physician from New York who has worked in Sudan since 2007 is the winner of the $1.1-million Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity.

The Armenian prize is awarded in memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

An Armenian newspaper reported:

For the last nine years, Dr. Catena —known by locals as “Dr. Tom” —has been on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week at the Mother of Mercy Catholic Hospital to care for the more than 750,000 citizens of Nuba amidst ongoing civil war between the Government of Sudan and the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement.

Patients have been known to walk for up to seven days to receive treatment for injuries from bombing attacks, and ailments ranging from leprosy and tuberculosis, to bone fractures to malnourishment and malaria. It is estimated that Dr. Catena treats 500 patients per day and performs more than one thousand operations each year.