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A Catholic mental health ministry provides vital spiritual accompaniment and pastoral care for people experiencing mental health challenges and mental illness, as well as those who care for them. It offers a healing presence in the lives of people with mental illness and helps overcome the stigma and discrimination that people living with a mental illness encounter in the Church and in human society.
Catholic mental health ministry recognizes the value of professional mental health care and the importance of collaboration with healthcare organizations and professionals, religious, clergy, educational institutes, counseling centers, teachers, nurses, and other community organizations.
The characteristics of a mental health ministry will vary depending on the culture and needs of the community, for instance what is needed in a large parish in a major city will differ from what is needed in a small rural parish, but the basic tasks are similar. A mental health ministry could include these elements:
The Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers (CMHM) assists lay ministers, religious, deacons, priests, and bishops to establish mental health ministries. The CMHM offers an on-line Learning Center and other resources (all for free) to equip ministers with the pastoral skills and practical knowledge to allow them to confidently minister to people with a mental illness without fear or prejudice.
At a 2024 Vatican conference organized by the CMHM dedicated to mental health and pastoral care Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J. Prefect, Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development said in his opening remarks, "Mental Health Ministry is essential to integral human development and a universal human right”
(Click Here to read and download the statement by Cardinal Czerny)
We provide spiritual support to people living with a mental illness to assist them to live in holiness. We encourage actions to prevent any discrimination that would prevent them from full participation in the life of the Church.
We do not provide diagnosis, counseling, treatment, medical assistance or behavioral health support, but instead may provide assistance in helping people living with a mental illness find treatment and medical services in their community.
To the parents, family members and friends of people living with a mental illness, we provide spiritual support and comfort in their efforts to care for and help their loved ones.
We do not provide diagnosis, counseling, treatment, medical assistance or behavioral health support, but instead they may provide assistance in helping find additional educational and other support services to aid in their understanding of mental illness.
To clergy and other ministers in the Church, we provides the tools, methods and insights that allow them to confidently minister to people with a mental illness without fear or prejudice.
To the wider Church, we work to educate and inform people about the issues, struggles and joys that can be found in people living with a mental illness. We witness a strong and authentic communion with the pope and the local bishop and will operate and participate in the Church’s apostolic goals, with a particular focus on those goals directed towards ministering to people living with a mental illness.