Help in the storms: Madonna chaplaincy program equips people for spiritual care

Livonia Catholic university aims to address shortage of lay Catholic chaplains working in hospitals, prisons, nursing homes

LIVONIA — Being a lay chaplain isn’t a career — it’s a calling. So says Marianne Burnett, coordinator of the bereavement program for Corewell Health.

“I’ve always had a servant’s heart. It’s just who I am,” Burnett said.

Burnett, who earned a Master of Arts in pastoral ministry from Madonna University in 2014, has enjoyed caring for others for as long as she can remember. As a teenager, she volunteered in a hospital and then worked as a medical assistant for more than 20 years. She went on to work for a church as an administrator for 13 years, and it was in this role where she first felt the call to chaplaincy through her visits to the homebound.

While chaplaincy might often be seen as a role just for priests and religious, lay Catholic chaplains play a critical role in providing spiritual care for those in a variety of situations.

According to the National Association of Catholic Chaplains (NACC), the average age of a Catholic chaplain is 64. Fewer people are entering lay chaplaincy programs, and this dynamic has created a critical need for chaplains, not only in hospitals, but in prisons, nursing homes, the military, and other areas where spiritual care providers are needed to comfort people as they face challenging life situations.

Jane Linahan, director of religious studies at Madonna University, oversees the pastoral ministry program at Franciscan-sponsored university in Livonia. Two years ago, the program was revised to align with the certification competencies that had been approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2021.

“We wanted a robust program so that students could be assured we were covering everything that was required,” Linahan told Detroit Catholic. “There is a need for chaplains across all faiths, and I believe our program offers a strong program to meet that need.”

Students at Madonna may pursue a concentration in chaplaincy or general pastoral ministry. General pastoral ministry involves lay ecclesial ministry within a parish, such as work as a director of religious education or youth ministry. Chaplaincy requires additional steps through the NACC, including two or more years in clinical pastoral education. This intensive clinical rotation consists of four units of 400 hours each in a clinical setting with peer critiques.

“I call it ‘bootcamp for chaplaincy,’” Linahan said. “Not only does it give training for chaplaincy, but it’s also a mirror to yourself to see if you truly are suited to this work.”

Opportunities for practical experience literally surround Madonna students, with Trinity Health’s Livonia hospital, Angela Hospice Home Care, and a nursing home all on, or adjacent to, the Livonia campus. Through Madonna’s College of Nursing and Health, pastoral ministry graduate students take courses such as “Spiritual & Ethical Considerations in Palliative/End-of-Life Care.” For those interested in prison ministry, courses are available through Madonna’s criminal justice and law program.

“You can teach pastoral ministry, but you can’t teach chaplaincy, and that’s where the (clinical pastoral education) comes in,” Burnett said. “When I teach, I tell people that the best thing to do is to sign on to be a volunteer in the spiritual care department of a hospital and experience the sounds, smells and rhythms of hospital care. That’s the best way to begin to see if it’s something you’re called to.”

In her current position, Burnett oversees a program at Corewell Health to help people who have lost a child through stillbirth or as a newborn. Partially funded by the Children’s Miracle Network, the bereavement program provides parents with memorials and spiritual support after their loss. Burnett recently started a bereavement support group with monthly facilitated group discussions for those who have experienced a perinatal, neonatal or infant death. She first gained experience in forming support groups while obtaining a post-graduate certificate in hospice bereavement from Madonna.

“I always say that as a chaplain, we’re with people on the worst day of their life, every day of our lives,” Burnett said. “Chaplaincy is about finding meaning and purpose in what’s happening to somebody as they’re in a hospital bed or dealing with a loss. Sometimes that meaning comes from faith, but more and more people do not have a faith practice or church affiliation, so we are trained to talk to everybody.”

Both Burnett and Linahan note that chaplains are not to proselytize their own faith tradition and beliefs, but to meet patients and families where they are.

“It’s not about you. It’s about what God is doing with this situation. It’s God’s agenda, not the chaplain’s,” Linahan said.

As a parishioner at St. Kateri Tekawitha in Dearborn, Burnett describes herself as “a Franciscan at heart,” reflecting on St. Francis as he washed the wounds of the lepers whom he feared because God called him to do so. When she cantors at Mass, she thinks about Christ’s suffering that is brought before her there, and of Mary’s suffering as her son died in her arms.

“Constantly at the Mass, we pray for those who are sick and for the suffering around the world, and that really does inform how I treat people,” Burnett said. “There’s a world out here that is broken, and if I can be a small part of that healing, then I’ll do it.”