On January 29, the Vatican hosted a conference bringing together representatives of Catholic mental health ministries from around the world. The conference, the first meeting of its kind on the theme of Mental Health ministries at the Vatican, saw testimonies and presentations from the Association of Catholic Ministers of Mental Health, Vatican officials and others to increase awareness and cite the importance of this emerging ministry of accompaniment.
Climate, prayer and Pope Francis
The first speaker at the conference was the undersecretary of the Vatican Dicastery for the Promoter of Integral Human Development, Monsignor Anthony Ekpo. He explained that the dicastery has given high priority to mental health.. Mgr. Ekpo spoke about the human rights violations that are sometimes directed against people with mental illness, as well as the connection between mental illness and growing global concerns about the state of Earth’s climate.
The archbishop highlighted “anxieties” related to the challenges of addressing climate change as aggravators of mental illness. but he suggested help might lie in Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical. Laudato Siwhere the Pope calls for an “ecology of everyday life”.
In this, we are led to pay attention to the environments of our daily lives, because they “influence the way we think, feel and act”.
Fr. Frédéric Fornos also spoke about the important works of Pope Francis, highlighting the Pope’s Global Prayer Network. The network has seen the Vatican collaborate with the Association of Catholic Ministers of Mental Health, which offers prayers for mental health linked to the Pope’s monthly intentions.
Accompaniement
While mental health professionals diagnose and attempt to treat mental illness, the mission of Catholic mental health ministries is not treatment, but support. Bishop John Dolan of the Diocese of Phoenix noted that the shortage of mental health professionals worldwide has made these ministries more important than ever.
To meet this need, Bishop Dolan has begun training priests to identify mental illness, which will also allow priests to better understand them and connect them with mental health professionals. He also launched an initiative to provide affordable housing for mental health professionals, who typically don’t make much money. In this way, he can attract more experts to his diocese to care for his flock.
Bryana Russell, from Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries, also spoke about the invaluable help that counseling can provide to people suffering from mental illness. Some of her comments can be heard in the video below, in which she talks about the experiences of a woman who was visited by Catholic mental health ministers while in a psychiatric ward.
During his stay, the woman was visited by at least two people per day associated with the ministrymembers of her parish who completed the Sanctuary Health Ministry’s “Sanctuary Course,” designed to raise awareness and open conversations about mental health in parishes.
According to Russell, these visits from Catholic mental health ministers helped her not feel alone in her mental health journey. Russell said, “She was able to feel the presence of God, even in that moment of suffering and pain. »
Read more testimonies and talking points from the first Vatican mental health conference at Vatican News.
