Vincentian Center Bereavement Conference

 Vincentian collaboration focuses on bereavement and healing.

The universal experience of grief and  the ever expanding fields of  neuroscience and spirituality drew almost 250 persons to St. John’s on November 9 for a bereavement conference, The Journey to Healing: We Remember; We Celebrate; We Believe. From the opening session offered by well known writer, psychologist and ethicist Sidney Callahan until the closing Mass presided over by  Most Reverend Paul Sanchez, Auxiliary Bishop of Brooklyn, an atmosphere of understanding and support prevailed among the bereaved, counselors, researchers, religious  and educators attending.

Sidney Callahan, author  of  Called to Happiness: Where F aith and Psychology Meet described the ways in which cultural research and contemporary neuro-science are presenting new approaches to recognize and deal with grief and loss. As persons seek meaning and consolation,  faith and religious convictions as well as counseling and therapy become  powerful tools in the journey to healing.

Each conference participant had the opportunity to select two workshops from a menu of nine themes including  balance for the care-giver; grief strategies of men; funeral rites and why we need them; the loss of a child as a test of faith; going it alone; and grief and spirituality. Experienced counselors and therapists led each session. Father Michael Whalen CM conducted two workshop sessions  on the need for ritual to move through loss and demonstrated the appropriateness and the value of the current  ritual, as well as other related materials.

In the final general session Paul Alexander, a practicing therapist and musician,  demonstrated in narrative and song his own journey from loss to peace.

In the closing Eucharist, Bishop Sanchez related faith to the journey  of healing. He urged the congregation  to be true communities offering  support, solace and hope  to the suffering.

The seminar was the second such program co-sponsored by Catholic Charities of Brooklyn, The Cemeteries of The Diocese of Brooklyn, and the Vincentian Center for Church and Society at St. John’s University, NY.