The future of Catholic chaplaincy for older adults?
“So many priests are very generous,” said Alan Bowman, vice president of mission integration at Trinity Health, a national Catholic health care provider. “But it’s very, very difficult at times finding priests for sacramental ministry in senior living communities.” Mr. Bowman’s office is responsible for 62 senior communities across the country and manages another two dozen retirement centers for religious communities (as well as 93 hospitals).
Los Angeles, an archdiocese of 11 million Catholics with 1,047 diocesan and religious priests, has 12 Catholic residential communities for the elderly. Most of these are ministries of various religious sisters and brothers like the Little Sisters of the Poor and the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God.
But in retirement centers that do not have the benefit of a religious community’s support, finding a priest at all can be difficult.
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Both Ms. Summers and Mr. Bowman are quick to point out that while the limited access to clergy is a real problem, their facilities are at the same time blessed with lay chaplains certified by the National Association of Catholic Chaplains. “Our chaplains are just amazing ministers,” Ms. Summers said. “We’ve worked really hard over the years to cultivate the level of professionalization in our ministers.” The expectation, she explains, is that they “perform at the highest level of spiritual support.”