ARCHCARE UPDATE

WINTER 2018–2019

A HEALING SPIRIT

A HUMAN BEING CAN ONLY HANDLE SO MUCH. You’re stuck in the hospital. You or your loved one has just received a diagnosis, undergone an operation, suffered a setback. You feel lost and alone.

At some point in our lives, the majority of us will have an experience like this. The doctors have done what they can, and now we need God’s help. Thanks to ArchCare, the health-care ministry of the Archdiocese of New York, there is a corps of priests serving the hospitals of the archdiocese and trained to guide us through such crises.

In 2016, Cardinal Dolan approached Fr. John Anderson, vice president for mission integration at ArchCare and a board-certified chaplain, about strengthening the hospital chaplaincy program in the archdiocese. “Is the service adequate?” Cardinal Dolan asked. “Can everyone who wants sacraments get them? And beyond the sacraments, are we serving people’s spiritual needs?”

The result was the development of ArchCare’s Chaplaincy Apostolate – which now has 22 chaplains serving 27 hospitals and visiting with more than 100,000 patients a year – and the creation of standards and training and support programs for chaplains, parish priests and lay ministers. At the heart of the training is a regimen called clinical pastoral education (CPE), which provides training in the essential skills and knowledge required to minister to patients and their families in the hospital setting.

“The chaplain-patient interaction is about lending a compassionate ear, understanding what patients are going through and helping them in their journey. It is a skilled encounter,” says John Schultz, director of the archdiocesan chaplaincy and a board-certified chaplain. “These interactions are important moments where the Church is meeting people where they are and when they need it most. They are transformative experiences for both the patient and the priest.”

The enriched training and other support the priests receive under ArchCare allows them to connect more deeply with patients and play a more integral role in their overall spiritual and sacramental care and physical healing. CPE, in the words of one chaplain, “teaches me to bring myself to that mission and help the person through whatever they are experiencing.”

In addition to priests, lay volunteers can receive training. A significant part of the chaplaincy mission is carried out by Eucharistic ministers, who bring the sacrament – and the Church – to the patients they visit. And now ArchCare is developing a five-year plan to offer this training more widely to EMS workers and other non clerical caregivers.

“These are rich opportunities for evangelization,” Fr. Anderson says. “A time when people are reminded of the presence of God in the moment and can come closer to a sense of peace and wholeness.”

For more information on the ArchCare Chaplaincy program or to make a contribution, contact Minnie Shin at [email protected] or 646-335-4146.