DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY, IRELAND AND UK

This section is still under construction – please bear with us. 

HOSPITALS, BELFAST

The 3 major hospitals in Belfast: the Belfast Royal Hospitals, the Belfast City Hospital and Musgrave Park are served by an ecumenical Spiritual Care Team. A Vincentian priest has formed part of this team for a number of years now, alongside other religious and lay members. The work of the Vincentian Chaplain is largely concentrated on the Catholic patients and their families.

The Chaplain visits patients in a variety of wards and clinical settings – both pre and post op. Some are familiar faces and for some, it is the first encounter. The patients are at different stages of their journey. Some are gravely ill, some recovering and some are ready for home. The Chaplain’s work is largely carried out through visitations, a simple chat, someone to listen to their story. Sometimes he will give asimple blessing, distribute Holy Communion of hear a confession if requested. Sometimes too, the Chaplain will get called to administer the Last Rites and to sit with the family.

The Chaplain’s work also entails celebrating a fortnightly Mass in the Cancer Centre quiet room – it is an intimate liturgy of blessing, strengthening, intercession for them, for the many who were not able to come, and for the crowds who throng into this building daily for both radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

OUR LADY’S SHRINE, KNOCK

This section is still under construction – please bear with us.

ST PATRICK’S CENTRE OF EDUCATION, DUBLIN

 This section is still under construction – please bear with us.

THE LONDON CHAPLAINCY PROJECT

In the autumn of 2005 Fr. Chacko and Fr. Austin arrived in London. They came from India and Nigeria respectively. They came as Vincentians to care for their fellow countrymen and women who live in the south of England.

Their coming was the realisation of the dream of Fr. Michael Prior C.M. Fr. Michael was living alone in our house in West London. The house was threatened with closure. With the determination for which he was famous, he – Fr. Michael – lobbied provincials and councillors and others, to keep the house open and make it available for an international Vincentian chaplaincy. It is sad to relate that on the very day that the decision, which he so much desired was taken, he himself died in a tragic accident.

Over the last four years, our house in Osterley has been home to four chaplains – Fr. Austin (Nigeria), Fr. Chacko (India), Fr. Cirino (Philippines) and Fr. Petros (Ethiopia). Fr. Noel Travers has served as superior and has carried on his own ministry of spiritual direction and has joined Fr. Padraig Regan in their holistic care of the homeless.

A few years ago, our Superior General, Fr. Gregory Gay, visited our house and encouraged the work for our brothers and sisters from far-flung lands who have made their homes in the south of England.

To be continued …

THE PASSAGE, CENTRE FOR THE HOMELESS, LONDON

The evolution of a Chaplaincy at the Passage is relatively recent. The chaplaincy does not set out to impose one denomination or religion, or to make converts. He is at the pastoral service of each client. Before all, the Chaplain embodies in his person, the presence of Jesus Christ to all and to each in the Passage. He also seeks, through presence and friendship, to explore in their lives traces and wisps of meaning and faith. Through informal discussions with individuals or with groups he may offer them space and opportunity to get in touch with that something that goes beyond the slings and arrows of a shattered life, something that touches the yearning of the human spirit, the yearning for a final safe and lasting home.

The Chaplain is present to, and with the clients. He does not “fix” things (though through advocacy, he will direct clients to services which the Passage or other organisations provide). He is present to the clients, he moves among them and tries to get to know and be-friend them. Currently, Fr Padraig Regan CM. is Chaplain at the Passage and works alongside Daughter of Charity Sr Rosalie Hayes DC.

The spiritual needs of clients often surface in the course of informal conversations (though there are occasions when clients ask to see the Chaplain in private for counselling, direction or sacramental reconciliation). The Chaplain tries to be available, to be attentive to clients as they speak about their lives, to notice when they speak of struggles, of childhood, of family/marriage relationships, of work, of traumatic experiences, of frustration and anger because often the recollection and the recounting of these experiences are the entrance gate to deeper and to the spiritual hopes and aspirations of homeless people.