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Vol. 19, No. 4
July/August 2009
Vision is published six times a year by the
National Association of Catholic Chaplains.
Its purpose is to connect our members with
each other and with the governance of the
Association. Vision informs and educates
our membership about issues in pastoral/
spiritual care and helps chart directions for
the future of the profession, as well as the
Association.
ISSN: 1527-2370
Executive Editor
David A. Lichter, D.Min.
Editor
Laurie Hansen Cardona
lcardona@nacc.org
Graphic Designer
Gina Rupcic
The National Association of Catholic
Chaplains advocates for the profession of
spiritual care and educates, certifies, and
supports chaplains, clinical pastoral
educators and all members who continue
the healing ministry of Jesus in the name of
the Church.
NACC Editorial Advisory Panel:
Michele LeDoux Sakurai; Michelle Lemiesz; Linda
Piotrowski; Rev. Freddy Washington, CSSp;
and board representative Norma Gutierrez,
MCDP.
NACC National Office
4915 S. Howell Avenue Suite 501
Milwaukee, WI 53207-5939
(414) 483-4898
Fax: (414) 483-6712
info@nacc.org
www.nacc.org
NACC reads ‘When Crickets Cry,’ by Charles MartinWe are excited to introduce our “One Book, One Association” selection for 2009 -- “When Crickets Cry,” by Charles Martin. Modeled on the Library of Congress “One Book” projects, initiated by the Washington Center for the Book in 1998, this NACC project has been designed to gather you, the members, together as a community by selecting one novel and encouraging reading, writing, and discussion. 
We are especially grateful to a group of dedicated chaplains who read this book during the summer, offering comments, and coming to consensus that this would be an exciting selection for our members to read as a group. Special thanks to NACC members Michael Doyle, Jim Letourneau, Mary Beth Moran, Marilyn Williams and NACC staff members Laurie Hansen Cardona and Becky Evans. Inside Vision you will find the comments of Ms. Moran and Ms. Williams. On these pages you will also find: Charles Martin biographical information and an interview with him; discussion questions; information concerning continuing education hours; and ideas for meeting with other members of our association. This information will also be available on our website. |
Could heaven be any sweeter than this?By Peg Newman, M.Ed., BCC The men are all seriously mentally ill. Most suffer from dementia as well as mental illness. I imagine some also have a degree of mental retardation. To me, they are angels – God’s angels. They minister to me. They accept my love and they love me in return. They create a very special place for my heart to be nourished and renewed every single week. To me, they are near-perfect expressions of God’s love.
Informatics: Capturing and measuring spiritual careBy Lisa Burkhart, Ph.D., RN Chaplains have always intuitively known the importance of spiritual care. They have seen its transformative ability to shape people’s lives, particularly at those moments of great need, when the distressed, pained, and grieving find hope, acceptance, and salvation in those sacred moments of spiritual connections. There was never a doubt as to its power. However, chaplains also know they minister within an institutional infrastructure with scarce resources and are continually challenged to meet great needs with few resources. Decision-makers in health systems ask for data to help allocate scarce resources. Chaplains have been asked to provide “data” to describe what they do or measure the impact of what they do. This process of data collection, aggregation, report generation to justify one’s calling can be time-consuming, tedious, and frustrating.
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