Archdiocese continues to emphasize mental health care (Suicide Awareness Month)
September is a month of transition on many fronts. Leaves begin to change their color, warmer weather starts to cool, and many return from vacation to their full-time work and school lives. September is also a month to reflect on transition. Notably, as National Suicide Awareness Month, September gives us a chance to reflect on our transitioning understanding of mental health.
Father Timothy Graff, director of social concerns for the Archdiocese of Newark, said the COVID-19 pandemic irrevocably altered our view of the topic.
“Mental health came much more to the forefront during the pandemic. The fear of COVID, the stress of working from home, and the isolation many felt made emotional problems much more prevalent,” Father Graff said. “A blessing of this is that it made people more aware of mental illness and a greater acceptance of seeking therapy.”
With increased awareness came an increased push to address mental health.
According to John Kalinowski, ministry of loss and healing coordinator at the Archdiocese of Newark, the pandemic and the latest Synod results, which emphasize a worry over mental health, require more action to be taken from an archdiocesan level.
“There’s definitely a move forward, especially here in the Archdiocese of Newark, to assist parishes and people in the community with addressing mental health and providing more resources,” Kalinowski said.
Among those resources are newly-incorporated initiatives such as The Sanctuary Course for Catholics and Mental Illness with Grace – two programs aimed at inspiring and equipping local parishes and their priests to support church members living with mental health problems.
From a clergy perspective, Father Graff notes that conversations around mental health can be intimidating for many priests who feel inadequate in their knowledge or lack experience. So, the Archdiocese took concrete steps to address this.
“The desire that Cardinal Tobin has had for the formation of Mental Health Ministry Teams within parishes is seen as a clear response to this situation,” Father Graff said. “By seeing parishes as places where those living with mental illness and their families feel welcome, safe and not stigmatized can be a great sense of healing to people.”
A significant effort in education around mental health will result in de-stigmatization.
Kalinowski referenced Deacon Ed Shoener, a founding member of the Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers, who lost his daughter to suicide in 2016. Following her death, Deacon Schoener wrote an obituary that circulated widely for its poignant unmasking of society’s attitude towards people with mental illnesses and the damage that stigmatization can cause.
“So often people who have a mental illness are known as their illness,” Schoener wrote. “People say that ‘she is bipolar’ or ‘he is schizophrenic.’ Katie was not bipolar – she had an illness called bipolar disorder – Katie herself was a beautiful child of God. The way we talk about people and their illnesses affects the people themselves and how we treat the illness. In the case of mental illness, there is so much fear, ignorance, and hurtful attitudes that the people who suffer from mental illness needlessly suffer further.”
Kalinowski concurs: “We’re not in a position to diagnose and identify a person by their illness.”
Another stigma that Kalinowski works to overturn is the use of the word “commit” in association with suicide, which stems from the institutionalized association of suicide with a crime.
“We don’t call it ‘committed’ anymore,” he said. “It’s not ‘committed suicide’ – because you may be committed to jail, you may be committed to an asylum, but you don’t commit to a plan to suicide.”
And if one wonders if suicide is a sin by Catholic definition, as Kalinowski said: you don’t commit to a plan to suicide.
Father Graff notes: “For serious sin, the Church has always taught that there needs to have full consent of the will, to intend to commit the action. Psychological problems can take away someone’s ability to be responsible for their actions.”
“Our call is to treat all with the Lord’s compassion and love to people, including those living with mental illness and the families of those who take their own lives,” Father Graff added.
The Catholic Church works to help those with mental illness and their families, as Kalinowski attests to as a bereavement counselor and former hospital chaplain. Those who seek assistance look for spiritual guidance as much as cognitive or behavioral help.
The Archdiocese of Newark offers a number of mental health and spiritual resources. The Family Life Office holds a list of Catholic mental health therapists who can be referred after a vetting process. For inquiries about therapists or The Sanctuary Course for Catholics and Mental Illness with Grace programs, email familylife@rcan.org.
Featured image: A card reminding of mindfulness by Lesly Juarez via Unsplash
