Priests-in-training learn to minister to the sick at St. Vincent’s
BRIDGEPORT — Miguel Betancur Lenis is learning to listen.
Lenis, 33, is in his third year as a seminarian for the Diocese of Bridgeport. He is currently studying at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., and plans to be ordained as a transitional deacon this spring. That is the last step before joining the priesthood.
As part of his education, Lenis — who is originally from Colombia — has spent one day a week at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, doing pastoral care training.
For four hours each Wednesday, he meets with patients, prays with them, and is generally present for their spiritual needs. Not all the patients he visits with are Catholic, or have any faith at all. Some are people who, despite their illness, want a sounding board for their complaints with the church.
“One of the encounters I had was with a person who wasn’t a believer and used to be Catholic,” Lenis said. “She was completely against the Catholic faith, but we had a nice conversation. She had wanted, for a long time, to express how she felt. I wasn’t debating. I was just listening.”
The latter situation took place during a recent shift, Lenis said, and, for him, it was a lesson in the importance of being there for people.
Lenis is one of three men receiving pastoral care training at St. Vincent’s Medical Center. The hospital started the program at least six years ago through a collaboration with the Diocese of Bridgeport, said Deacon Tim Bolton, manager of the pastoral care department at St. Vincent’s.
The training was suspended for roughly a year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, but, in September, the latest crop of seminarians started receiving training at the hospital.
Their training includes learning about such topics as infection prevention and ethical and religious directives for health care. But the major piece of the training, Bolton said, is spending time with the patients — all kinds of patients.
“They’re visiting patients from various denominations,” Bolton said. “They’re not just visiting Catholic patients. They get exposed to a pretty broad variety of folks.”
In addition to Lenis, the seminarians getting trained at St. Vincent’s are Ferry Galbert, 36, and Andrew LaFleur, 24. For Galbert, the hospital setting is at least somewhat familiar, as he is a registered nurse and spent five years working at Stamford Hospital.
But offering pastoral care is different from offering medical care, Galbert said.
“It’s really been a blessing for myself and the other men, too, just to be an instrument the lord can use and to use us just by being present,” said Galbert, who is originally from Haiti.
LaFleur, a Bridgeport native, said he’s not had a lot of opportunities to visit with patients so far. He said many of the times he’s
been scheduled to be with a patient, he’s not been able to get in the room, either because that patient has been put in isolation, or for some other reason.
“Sometimes there’s a sign on the door that says ‘Please do not disturb’ and you have to respect that,” LaFleur said.
However, he said the lack of access doesn’t mean he isn’t learning about how to exercise his faith in the healthcare setting.
“This type of work has encouraged me or almost pushed me into not being afraid of certain things,”
LaFleur said. “You can’t be stuck in your head. You have to be with people.”
LaFleur said the frequency with which clergy visit the hospital depends on where they’re assigned. If their church is in a big city, it’s more likely for them to visit the hospital.
Bolton said many denominations require pastoral education as part of their training to become clergy, but Catholicism doesn’t. However, some places offer it, including the Diocese of Bridgeport.
The first seminarian to do pastoral training at St.
Vincent’s through this current arrangement was Fr. Christopher Ford, now vocations director for the diocese. He said he largely ended up training at St. Vincent’s because Bolton was a family friend. However, the experience offered him perspective and empathy that he carries with him to this day.
“First two or three months of training, (Bolton) didn’t let me see any Catholic patients,” Ford said. “He put me with patients where ‘going to the book’ was not an option.”
That’s how Ford learned
how to relate to people on a deeper level — not just as a patient or as a member of a specific religion.
“There’s a person in front of you and they’re going through something,” he said.
After the seminarians complete their training and move on to the transitional deaconate and, presumably, the priesthood, it’s likely they’ll use the skills they’ve learned during their pastoral training.
“Ministering to the sick — that’s one of the most common calls we get,” Ford said.