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Vol. 20, No. 3
May/June 2010
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:
Austine Duru; 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
In this issue: highlights of the March 2010 National Conference
Do we live in joyful hope this Easter season?By David Lichter, D. Min.
Do we live in joyful hope because of the Easter mystery we celebrate? In this column that is written within days of the March 19-23, 2010, NACC National Conference in St. Paul, MN, I want to comment on three topics -- the 2010 National Conference, our membership, and Vision -- and tie them to the question above. I hope my reflection will be helpful to you. |
Guillain-Barré journey transformed priest’s life, musicBy Laurie Hansen Cardona, Vision editor
The talk by Fr. Joncas focused on his personal experience in 2003-04, when he spent months in hospital and outpatient rehabilitation recovering the use of his arms and legs and the ability to breathe without a ventilator after a diagnosis of Guillain-Barré Syndrome. His talk, titled “Individual Change and Promise: A Shelter in the Time of Storm -- Sickness, Healing, Ministry and Music,” was interspersed with his own musical compositions that flowed along with his story line, notes climbing and tumbling in tones at times subdued, other times, tumultuous, later, lilting, expressive of the confusing, helpless, pleading, hopeful times in his journey. Fr. Joncas said his experience with suffering had transformed his compositions.
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Byock: Non-negotiable elements of human caring must be honoredBy Laurie Hansen Cardona, Vision editor
The chair of palliative medicine at Dartmouth Medical School challenged those listening to ensure that society commits to providing the basics to the dying. “The basic things – hygiene, bladder function, oral care, turning, mopping of the brow, provision of fluids, perhaps canned broth, the keeping of company, perhaps in silence, perhaps in prayer, or gentle singing of lullabies -- these are the components of care that define a bottom line of non-negotiable elements of human caring that we all must not allow society to sink beneath,” the physician said. “We must commit to be present to the other, including the last, the least and the lost. This is the stuff of basic human responsiveness.” “Discussions of obligations of care often find little place within the prevailing contractual framework of provider-patient relationships, which emphasize individual rights and liberties, but not so much responsibilities,” Dr. Byock said. One possibility, he said, is to change the framework to focus more on covenant relationships than on contractual ones.
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First-timer, but not a last-timerBy Sandra Lucas, BCC I loved having the pink “First Timer” ribbon on my name badge at the NACC Conference. People greeted me, made sure I was all set, and made me feel welcome. I wore my ribbon proudly! After years of wanting to participate at the national level, I loved it all -- the pace, the workshops, the speakers, the liturgies, the awards. I was grateful for the opportunity to connect with other department directors over lunch. The opportunity to share strategies and ideas was (almost) worth the price of admission! I even liked the annual business meeting -- which I had debated cutting in order to see the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Science Museum. Being a first-timer, however, I didn’t want to miss a thing. There were three highlights for me, among many wonderful events...
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This Vision issue comes to you in the midst of our Easter season. Most likely you will receive it in early May, after the Fourth Sunday of Easter that proclaims readings that remind us that we are made new in the Easter mystery -- a new heaven and new earth we live in! Do we believe it? Do we see it! I recall the poignant phrase of Dr. Shawn Copeland, one of our NACC 2010 Conference plenary speakers, who noted that “hope is a divine requirement, not a heavenly gift.”
Well-known liturgical musician Fr. Jan Michael Joncas, SLD, spoke about “what it’s like to be on the other side of the bed from the chaplain” during his March 20 plenary talk at the NACC National Conference in St. Paul, MN.
It’s not the capacity for caring, but the commitment to care that is “our most critical deficiency,” palliative care physician Dr. Ira Byock stated in a plenary session at the NACC National Conference in St. Paul.