Ministries of care recovering after blow from pandemic

For more than 45 years, Nancy Lou Kelly has been bringing the Eucharist to sick parishioners and praying with them.

Kelly, a minister of care at Sts. Joseph and Francis Xavier Parish in Wilmette, was one of the founders of the formal ministry at what was then St. Francis Xavier Parish in the 1980s.

First a volunteer, then a parish staff member and a hospital and nursing home chaplain, Kelly sees the ministry of visiting the sick at home or in hospitals or nursing homes as a way to make sure that they remain part of the church community.

“We started with about four or five of us who were already giving Communion to the sick,” explained Kelly.

The group that began the formal ministry under guidelines established by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin received training from a religious sister who ministered at nearby Evanston Hospital, then established ongoing formation and group meetings and support, as well as a way to schedule visits and check in afterward.

It took off, she said, because it was a way people could find community in the parish and contribute in a significant way.

“By the time I retired, we had about 100 of us,” said Kelly, who still serves as a minister of care but no longer coordinates the ministry. “It got to be a meaningful experience for people who were too young to retire but who were, most of them, finished raising their children.”

Ministry of care in the Archdiocese of Chicago is now coordinated by the Office of Divine Worship, in concert with other departments. The office can help parishes set up or find training for ministers of care and keep track of who is certified to be a minister of care.      

“We have to care for those who need us,” said Todd Williamson, director of the Office of Divine Worship. “There’s a great line in the introduction to Pastoral Care of the Sick [the book of rites to be used in pastoral visits to the sick] and it quotes Paul: When one member of the body of suffers, the whole body suffers with it. That’s the basis of the ministry of care. The care for those brothers and sisters who are sick is the responsibility of everyone in the community.

“It really presents this sense, when someone is sick, when someone is ill, what is the first response of the church? Gather around them. Support them in prayer. Support them with the sacraments. Support them with fellowship. … The very first rite in Pastoral Care of the Sick is not anointing, is not Communion. The very first rite is visiting the sick.”

While nearly all parishes have some form of outreach to the sick, many of the most active saw their numbers of volunteers drop during and after the COVID-19 lockdowns. That includes Sts. Joseph and Francis Xavier, where the ministry now is coordinated by MaryClare Birmingham.

“We had to go quiet for quite a while,” she said, adding that the rolls of active volunteers were down to 72 in the fall of 2024. That’s a lot of people, but it was a significant dip in a parish community that supports its ministers of care with monthly small group meetings, larger meetings twice a year and other ways to connect with one another and the larger parish. Many ministers of care, she said, participate for 20 or 25 years.

“We ask all of our ministers to serve once a month, scheduled six months at a time,” Birmingham said. “If they are out of town for a period of time, that’s fine. When you’re in town, we’d like you to fulfill that commitment. We visit private senior living and skilled nursing homes, rehab centers and Evanston Hospital, and we expose those in training to all those environments. Then they can express a preference. It’s such a flexible commitment, it works with their lives. The ministry is so personally gratifying.”

Holy Name Cathedral, which has also had a large ministry of care, is also trying to build back up, said Lori Doyle, director of service ministries at the cathedral.

“We are bringing on new ministers slowly but surely,” Doyle said. “Everyone who does the ministry finds it remarkably fulfilling.”

Because of the location of Holy Name Cathedral, ministers of care there do a lot of hospital visits, especially at the nearby Northwestern Memorial Hospital complex. Those ministers must receive training not only in ministry of care, but also hospital procedures and requirements, Doyle said.

“We really let them pick what kind of environment that they want to serve in,” she said. “Each environment offers an opportunity for a different kind of service.”

While the cathedral is looking for any volunteers, Doyle said she would especially like to see more young adults step forward.

“They are fantastic ministers,” she said.

While Sts. Joseph and Francis Xavier and Holy Name Cathedral parishes do their own training and formation for ministers of care, Deacon Tom Carlson has been hosting one-day training sessions for ministers of care from a variety of parishes at UChicago Medicine AdventHealth La Grange for the past few years.

The hospital provides the room and lunch for the daylong training for free, and three times a year, Carlson teaches about 35 people how to do ministry of care.

About half come from Vicariate V, where Carlson is assigned to Holy Guardian Angels Parish in La Grange and Brookfield, and the rest come from all over the Chicago area, including from neighboring dioceses. Most come from parishes that do not sponsor their own training sessions.

“During COVID, my mother had been in a homebound experience and I was bringing her Communion,” Carlson said. “I had my wife and a sibling join me, and we participated in a Vicariate V training. When I realized it was difficult to find training, I thought I could do something.”

More than 200 people have now participated in his training sessions.

“I think people are motivated in different ways towards the ministry,” Carlson said. “Some people are more comfortable providing the service for a family member or family friend. Some people are more open to a general need and go to nursing homes or hospitals. Most people, including myself, at some point, feel that we are unworthy, but we are answering the call of the Holy Spirit.”

People who are interested in becoming ministers of care should contact their pastors first, because ministers of care are representatives of the parish and do not act on their own, he noted.

Birmingham said that is one reason that Sts. Joseph and Francis Xavier makes sure their ministers share notes about their visits, so the next minister knows what needs the people have.

“We want there to be a continuity of care,” she said. “We minister on behalf of the parish community. We are not doing this solo. We are not doing this as ourselves. We stress that we minister as a ministry corps.”