Will a Catholic hospital follow my advance directive?

Mostly, but not unconditionally. Directive 24 of the Ethical and Religious Directives says that a Catholic institution will make information about advance directives available under state law, and then adds: "The institution, however, will not honor an advance directive that is contrary to Catholic teaching. If the advance directive conflicts with Catholic teaching, an explanation should be provided as to why the directive cannot be honored."

Most of what people put in a directive is unaffected. Catholic teaching permits declining treatment that offers no reasonable hope of benefit or is excessively burdensome, permits DNR orders where resuscitation would not benefit you, and permits full pain relief. Directive 57 of the seventh edition, approved in November 2025, says a competent adult's informed judgment about using or withdrawing life-sustaining interventions "should always be respected and normally complied with," as long as it is not contrary to Catholic moral teaching. The edition matters here: in the previous edition this provision was numbered 59, and 57 covered something else.

What is excluded is directing that your death be caused.

The practical advice is simple: raise the document on admission and ask directly whether any part of it would not be followed. Finding out during a crisis is the version everyone wants to avoid. Ask also that it be scanned into your chart, because directives fail most often because nobody can find them.