Hospital Chaplaincy & Pastoral Care

Holistic or multidisciplinary health care means taking care of the whole person, which includes our spiritual wellbeing. Spiritual wellbeing relates to our sense of life meaning and purpose. This often includes our beliefs, values and connection with our faith community through religious practices/rituals. Hospital chaplaincy and pastoral care provides this connection.

CatholicCare’s Hospital Chaplaincy & Pastoral Care Team provides five lay Pastoral Care Practitioners (PCPs) to seven hospitals within the Diocese of Broken Bay including Gosford, Wyong, Royal North Shore, Northern Beaches and Mona Vale, Hornsby Ku-ring-gai and Sydney Adventist Hospitals. We also have an Administrator for Catholic Volunteer Eucharistic Ministry at Royal North Shore Hospital. Our PCPs work alongside, and complement the ministry of, our Priests and volunteer Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion from local Catholic Parishes who provide sacramental support at each hospital.

Our team of PCPs have been commissioned with the gift of time to offer people in hospital. Catholic Pastoral Care in the Diocese of Broken Bay is the ministry of presence, “being with others”, our patients, families/friends/carers and staff. That often includes building relationships, listening to life stories without judgment, articulating empathy and respect, nourishing, sustaining and guiding, particularly in times of grief and trauma, engaging a Catholic priest, enlivening the spirit and providing Sacraments, ritual and prayer when requested.

Our PCP’s names, mobile phone numbers and hospitals are listed above and you can call them directly if you or your loved one is in need of pastoral support while in one of the hospitals in which we minister. Alternatively, you can contact your local Parish Office and ask them to make a referral on your behalf to our PCPs, Priests or volunteer Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion.

Every person has the right to receive hospital chaplaincy and pastoral care support when in hospital, whether or not they have a religious affiliation or faith community. Whilst our CatholicCare PCPs mostly attend to the pastoral needs of those who identify themselves as Catholics, they will also attend to the pastoral needs of others and, if necessary, refer a person on to a representative of their own faith through the pastoral services offered by each hospital’s chaplaincy department.