Renata Steffens
On Wednesday April 2, Bon Secours Health System hosted close to 140 attendees at its third annual Pastoral Care Symposium entitled 'Re-imagining Pastoral Care in an Evolving World,' at The Gibson Hotel in Dublin. Pictured here (Front L/R) Sr Maria Cimperman RSCJ, Catholic Theological Union, Sr Mary Haddad, President and CEO, Catholic Health Association, USA and Ms Orla Keegan, RCSI/Irish Hospice Foundation. (Top L/R) Andrew McCarthy, BSHS Chief Mission and Sponsorship Officer, Fr Dwayne Gavin, Head of Mission, Bon Secours Cork, Bill Maher, CEO BSHS, Alan Sharp, CEO Designate, BSHS, Bishop Michael Router, Chairperson, Council of Healthcare of the Irish Episcopal Conference, Eric Clarke, RCSI/Irish Hospice Foundation and PJ Sexton, Group Director of Mission, St John of God Hospitaller Service 
Healthcare chaplains from across Ireland gathered for their annual symposium in Dublin last week. In its third year, the event gathered 137 chaplains from all the main hospitals, hospices and other care facilities in the Republic and Northern Ireland at The Gibson Hotel on April 2.
Fr Dwayne Gavin, Head of Mission at Bon Secours Hospital Cork and Care Village, who organised the symposium, told The Irish Catholic the event aims to “nourish the chaplains who are already in all of our hospitals across the country” and “to try and attract more people to hospital chaplaincy… to provide the best of spiritual, emotional care to our patients. A holistic care for our patients in line with our Catholic ethos.”
He said that because of their “mission at Bon Secours, which is to care for the sick, the dying and their families within a Catholic ethos, that we decided it was worth investing in conferences like these, to reach out to others, our colleagues in other health care institutions, in order to help them to grow and to enrich their profession, vocation, ministry.”
The priest said that coming from his understanding of Catholic healthcare, once the healthcare chaplains, especially non-ordained ones as it is different for clergy, “understand, when we have a vision that [the chaplaincy] is Catholic or Christ centred, that it becomes not just a profession, but a ministry.”
The priest said that Bishop Michael Router was one of the nine speakers, and they “were delighted to have [him] with us for the whole day.” Another speaker was Sr Maria Cimperman who was part of the Synod Assembly in 2023 and 2024 as a theologian expert and facilitator.
Another Sister who spoke in the third symposium was Sr Mary Haddad, and she talked about the importance of never forgetting the history and contributions Sisters have made to pastoral care in Ireland. “Mercy and Little Sisters of the Poor and Sisters of Charity, all of the founders of what are now our main hospitals in Ireland, like the Mater Hospital in Dublin or St Vincent’s and a lot of regional hospitals would have been founded by the sisters,” the priest said. “The presence of pastoral care or healthcare chaplaincy is an extension of their ministry.”