Ellen Radday

I was first certified in 1990 at age 53 and re-certified regularly through 2010. I served as Director of Region IV, which meant also being a member of NACC's national board, the NLC, for five years. I served as NACC's representative on several occasions for the USCCB's research on lay ministry and its draft statement on women. I was co-chair of NACC's joint national conference with APC in 2000. I have served many times on certification teams and also as an ITE. Due to a recent health problem, I have had to pull back from these activities although I did serve as an interviewer in Boston in October 2007.

I have lived in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, from 1967-1970, 1979-1982 and steadily since 1986. Previously our family accompanied my husband in a variety of overseas postings with the U.S.Information Agency. In 1989 we decided to retire and remain in the U.S., so I was able to pursue what I felt as a call to ministry. Thanks to a series of providential events, I discovered that professional chaplaincy was open to Roman Catholic women and that the requirements were CPE and certification by the NACC. Seeking contemporary theological competence, I also enrolled in a graduate program at the Washington Theological Union. I did this part-time bcause my elderly mother had come to live with us, and I was recruited for a chaplaincy position in a local, secular, for-profit nursing and rehabilitation center. I was the chaplain there for about 8 years. In addition to spiritual care for residents, family and staff, I developed an internship program as well as a joint ethics committee for several of the company's nursing homes in our area. Though I had resisted when I was recruited, I came to love the long-term care and rehabilitation environment, where as the chaplain I experienced being a pastor. When the company abruptly discontinued its spiritual care program in 1998, I was free to devote more time to my mother, who died later that same year at age 96. I did not actively seek another position, but once again I was recruited by people I had met during CPE, and began serving as a part-time hospital chaplain in 2001. I resigned in 2005 in order to care for my granddaughter when her widowed mother returned to work.

Hanging over me throughout all of this time was the realization that the local hierarchy did not really affirm or utilize professional ecclesial ministers like myself. Although I had my pastor's support, I never knew whether the bishop would bestow the ecclesial endorsement required for certification and renewal of certification. I brought this issue up regularly when I was a member of the NLC, proposing that we take seriously the potential for refusal of ecclesial endorsement for lay applicants, even if they complete all of the other requirements for eligibility for certification.

Although I have been sought out by lay persons who have been interested in chaplaincy, in good conscience I could never promote the process required for NACC certification, because I knew it could all be for naught if the bishop chose to withhold his endorsement.

In addition, during all these years (1987-2007) I almost never met anyone outside the NACC venue who has heard of NACC or of lay persons serving as professional chaplains. When I participated in the USCCB research sessions on lay ministry and the role of women in the church, as NACC's representative, neither the bishops nor the other representatives of lay ministry associations had ever heard of NACC or of lay persons certified as chaplains; this, in spite of the fact that we claim we are certified in the name of the bishops.

I loved being a chaplain - providing spiritual care, leading religious services, proclaiming the Good News of God's love for each one of us. Being a chaplain brought together my life experience, my talents, and my faith. I regret retirement but have found a few ways to exercise pastoral ministry.