By John Kalinowski|Special contributor

The seventh annual Samaritan Healthcare and Hospice pastoral care workshop, entitled “Now and At the Hour of Our Death,” was held Oct. 19 in St. John of God Center, Westville. Sponsored in part by the Dioceses of Trenton and Camden in collaboration with Marlton-based Samaritan Healthcare, the workshop offered nearly 100 attendees an agenda of speeches, music, meditation and fellowship for those who minister to Catholics enduring progressive, chronic illnesses.

Mary Ann Boccolini, president and CEO of Samaritan Healthcare and Hospice, detailed her organization’s eight-year commitment to the annual workshop, noting Catholics are the largest demographic of hospice care at Samaritan. Brother Thomas Osorio, chair of the Via Lucis advisory committee, offered attendees an opening meditation before the day’s two keynote sessions discussing the theme of forgiveness.

St. Joseph Sister Catherine Nerney, whose presentation highlighted the conference theme of  reconciliation and forgiveness, reminisced about her days in post-war Rwanda during her presentation, “The Transforming Light of Forgiveness: a Power that Overcomes Darkness.” She related stories of forgiveness and, even, reconciliation between the bitter tribal factions that ravished the country for many years. The ability of the people who come from a deep Christian religious background was difficult, she acknowledged, but through understanding, faith and the love of God they could come to forgive and get beyond the tragedies of murder, rape and genocide. Sister Catherine gave powerful witness to the memories that the people hold, the losses they endured but yet in the end as children of God, the ability to accept and forgive others.

Deborah Grassman, a Veterans Administration hospice nurse for more than 30 years, was a caregiver for over ten thousand veterans. Her presentation on orgiveness, “Restoring Wholeness, Promoting Healing Among Veterans and Others at End of Life,” centered on the guilt and shame endured by veterans at the end of their lives. The regrets on having been a warrior and killed the enemy, and of their inability to experience or articulate guilt resulted in self-destructive ways such as Post Traumatic Shock Disorder, alcoholism, drug use and suicide. Grassman’s advocated meditation as a gift from God to ease pain and suffering from within, then offering it up to God through the suffering that Jesus Christ endured for us.

 St. John of God Brother Thomas Osorio, chair of the Via Lucis advisory committee, led prayers for the congregation, and music was performed by the order’s bell choir. The workshop concluded with a circle meditation by Sister Catherine where participants wrote a prayer on multicolored leaves, then picked up another’s supplication. The Lord’s prayer was prayed through music and dance with participants’ hands joined and raised upwards to heaven.

The Samaritan Ministry for Catholic patients provides care for people living with any serious illness when cure is not possible. Their mission offers a team approach to end-of-life care with an emphasis on respect and sensitivity for Catholic sacraments, traditions and moral teachings, a Via Lucis, or way to Christ’s Light.

John Kalinowski serves as diocesan director, Department of Pastoral Care, and is a lay chaplain.