“But they take more care of their sick than of any others: these are lodged and provided for in public hospitals they have belonging to every town four hospitals, that are built without their walls, and are so large that they may pass for little towns: by this means, if they had ever such a number of sick persons, they could lodge them conveniently, and at such a distance, that such of them as are sick of infectious diseases may be kept so far from the rest that there can be no danger of contagion. The hospitals are furnished and stored with all things that are convenient for the ease and recovery of the sick; and those that are put in them are looked after with such tender and watchful care, and are so constantly attended by their skilful physicians, that as none is sent to them against their will, so there is scarce one in a whole town that, if he should fall ill, would not choose rather to go thither than lie sick at home.” –St. Thomas More, Utopia

At the conference on the New Evangelization that I attended last weekend, Fr. Bruce Nieli, a Paulist, drew our attention to Saint Thomas More’s advocacy for universal health care. More’s call had direct impact in the Americas, where Utopia became the model of bishop Vasco de Quiroga’s “hospital towns” for indigenous people in Mexico in the early 1500s. (I do not know enough of the history on this to know if Quiroga should be seen as a defender of the rights of the indigenous peoples or more as a colonizer.)