When the human being is ill, all of its dimensions are affected and all require an adequate response.
The concept of health, as a whole, refers not only to biological fitness but also biographical wellbeing, which includes the psychological, sociological, and spiritual or transcendent aspects of the person, creating a unique, unrepeatable biographical footprint.
As such, when the human being is ill, all of its dimensions are affected and all require an adequate response. Attending to the spiritual and religious needs of the sick, their families, and co-workers, is one aspect of comprehensive care.
Honouring respect and freedom, the congregation of Sisters Hospitallers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus offers pastoral care as a service that aims to awaken, enliven, and perpetuate the Christian faith and other spiritual values in our centres’ patients, their families, and co-workers, through witness, proclamation, celebration and a relationship of support.
The congregation’s pastoral care is based on, inspired by, and structured around the following key principles as part of the Hospitaller mission:
Pastoral care inspired by the gospel and thus grounded in the Good News of God’s loving and unlimited compassion for those who suffer while being open to the cultural and religious pluralism of the sick, their families, and co-workers.
Pastoral care that humanises and heals those who suffer, awakening in them the energy to fight against their illnesses and helping them to find serenity and peace in the knowledge that their human reality is much greater than the illnesses that afflict them.
Pastoral care provided by a team comprised of skilled individuals who identify with this kind of service. Providing pastoral care in Hospitaller institutions requires specific training, which is updated on an ongoing basis.
Open and awakened pastoral care, capable of navigating a specific, ever-changing reality.
Specialised pastoral care to address the specific needs of the recipients of our Hospitaller actions.
Publications: Pastoral care in the world of mental illness
