Health-Care Projects With a Difference
Two items involving religious personages were in the news recently, and they beg for comparison.
Mother Teresa was released from a decidedly upscale hospital in La Jolla following a 20-day confinement for a serious illness. Before leaving, she secured a pledge from the doctors and nurses to set up a volunteer network for health care in Tijuana.
Contemporaneously, the Robert Shuller Ministries (now known as the Crystal Cathedral Ministries) received variances from the Orange County Planning Commission exempting the applicant from zoning, grading and design ordinances so that a proposed health-care facility could be increased from an allowable 12 to 312 units, plus a model “sales office.”
Mother Teresa’s request was met with gratitude and appreciation.
The Shuller Ministries mega project was opposed by neighboring residents, and both the cities of Mission Viejo and San Juan Capistrano raised questions as to the effect on traffic, aesthetics, and building mass.
Oh yes, there was another difference. The beneficiaries of the health facilities envisioned by Mother Teresa are the poorest of the poor in Tijuana. The Robert Shuller facility will cater to those who can afford the up to $270,000 “entry fee.”
THOMAS ROGERS, San Juan Capistrano
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