A first-of-its-kind disaster spiritual care workshop was held Tuesday, March 10 at Catholic Social Services’ Our Lady of Guadalupe Center in Columbus.
The workshop garnered nearly 30 clergy. Priests and deacons were trained to serve in the event of a natural or man-made disaster in the 23-county diocese.
The diocesan Office of Catholic Charities, part of the Vicariate for Catholic Social Doctrine, worked to create a diocesan disaster response plan. Guidelines were released late last year.
The plan is designed to help parishes, schools and organizations in mobilizing people and resources – including financial donations and volunteers – to provide a coordinated, organized response.
A diocesan disaster response team was created to develop, modify and execute the plan if needed.
Unlike pastoral care, disaster spiritual care is a trauma-informed, short-term response carried out alongside disaster relief agencies, law enforcement and emergency responders. It is offered in more chaotic and temporary settings: shelters, disaster scenes or family assistance centers.
To prepare clergy to offer support immediately following a tragedy, the diocesan Office of Catholic Charities, headed by Deacon Dave Bezusko, gathered priests and deacons for a six-hour training on disaster spiritual care.
“Pastoral care happens typically on our terms, on our parish grounds, at church,” Bezusko said. “Disaster spiritual care can happen anywhere.”
“You’re in a very secular setting. It’s a temporary setting: ‘I’m going to see you and work with you today for the next 15 minutes and then I’ll never see you again at all,’ as opposed to if it’s a pastor-parishioner relationship.”
Tim Serban of Portland, Oregon, who leads a national disaster spiritual care team for the American Red Cross, presented at the workshop. Groups of priests and deacons were trained to assist clergy chaplains and the diocese’s disaster response team.
The response team was formed to support parish pastors in affected areas. Clergy trained at the disaster spiritual care workshop will offer additional support and deployed as needed.
“Within the footprint of our diocese, we need to be able to respond with the compassion of Christ to people who are suffering their worst day,” Bezusko said. “These are our opportunities to get the other clergy in place to provide that support in an organized way.”
Clergy at the training event represented each of the diocese’s 10 deaneries. Priests and deacons hailed from 14 of the Columbus diocese’s 23 counties.
Serban, who is a member of the National Association of Catholic Chaplains and has served in Catholic health care for 32 years, described the Columbus diocese’s disaster spiritual care workshop as a first of its kind.
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“This is one of the first diocesan specific trainings that is being offered – in fact, among the first in the nation that is providing this type of preparedness training,” Serban said.
A similar program is offered in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Texas. Most U.S. dioceses, however, do not have established response trainings.
Serban offered clergy tips and tools to fill “the operational wedge of the disaster plan for the diocese so that it provides the first tier of training.”
“I often say that every hour that a team spends training before disaster hits is equivalent to 100 hours after,” he said. “This six hours of training is equivalent to about 600 hours because you just can’t bring people together after something happens.”
Clergy at the workshop had opportunities to ask questions, engage in tabletop practice exercises and were given self-care tools to support themselves when ministering post-disaster.
Serban noted that parish pastors often work individually.
The training “shifts their focus from, what I often say is, answering questions to … a disaster spiritual care mode of listening – and … a team as opposed to any one person,” he said. “Nobody should be doing this alone.”
“So often you only have one priest, one deacon at a parish, or a small handful,” Bezusko added. “How can we support our brother clergy who themselves might be impacted by the disaster or be overwhelmed by the needs that are now in front of them?”
Father Ted Sill, pastor at Gahanna St. Matthew the Apostle Church, learned how to assist the trained clergy chaplains and the diocesan response team.
The workshop was an eye-opening experience for the pastor who has served at St. Matthew the Apostle for 16 years.
“I hope I never have to use any of this spiritual counseling that we’re being trained for,” he said, “but glad I’m able to contribute if that need arises.”