Spiritual Care at Loyola University Medical Center
“Loyola promises patients that we go beyond the illness to treat the whole person. We also treat the human spirit.®”
Loyola is proud of its heritage as a Catholic medical center, operating within the Jesuit tradition and mission. Since opening in 1969, Loyola has valued spiritual care, or chaplain services, as an essential element of our outreach to patients, families and staff. As members of the healthcare team, spiritual care chaplains share our commitment to treat the human spirit.
During a time of personal or family illness, chaplains are here to assist you in drawing upon your personal spiritual resources and explore with you your spiritual concerns. Here at Loyola, out of the best of our Catholic tradition, we are a “home for all faiths.”
Spiritual care chaplains are specially trained in a particular healthcare service area to help patients and families deal with specific types of illnesses. At Loyola University Medical Center, chaplains are available to you and your family 24 hours a day, seven days a week; at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, two full-time chaplains are available. We also provide chaplain services to Loyola’s outpatient centers and primary care clinics.
Upon your request, we are ready to contact your church, parish, synagogue, mosque, temple or house of worship. We honor your religious beliefs and encourage you to draw from your faith tradition for healing and wholeness. We invite you to learn more about Loyola’s Catholic identity and Jesuit mission.
We encourage patients and families in the hospital to call us:
- When you need to talk.
- When you feel lonely.
- When you are scared or worried.
- When you want someone to pray with.
- When you fear you are losing your faith.
- When you feel grateful or blessed.
- When you desire the sacraments.
- When you think about giving up.
- When you are sad or angry.
- When you feel confused or guilty.
Onsite Spiritual Services for Patients and Families
Loyola's Paul V. Galvin Memorial Chapel provides a welcoming place for reflection and spiritual renewal 24 hours a day for patients, families and staff. This “home for all faiths” is located on the lower level of the hospital at the Maywood campus. We offer this space for the peace and comfort of our patients and their families, as well as our staff.
Worship services are televised in-house at Loyola University Medical Center on channel 4, along with other spiritual programming. Roman Catholic Mass is celebrated at noon Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and on holy days. Each day, Catholic and Protestant communion is available to patients and families upon request. On Friday afternoons, Muslim hospital staff gathers for Jummah prayer.
Who are the Chaplains?
Loyola’s spiritual care chaplains have graduate academic credentials, advanced clinical training and professional affiliation with the National Association of Catholic Chaplains or the Association of Professional Chaplains. Students in our Clinical Pastoral Education Program receive supervision and clinical experience as they prepare for full-time spiritual ministry.
What Services are Offered with Spiritual Care?
At Loyola, chaplains address what we describe as “the needs beneath the medical needs.” Whether patients or families are in the midst of a sudden crisis or an ongoing chronic struggle, our chaplains are available to provide comfort, support, prayer and healing. Whether you are a patient in the hospital or are receiving medical care at one of our outpatient facilities at the medical center campus, ask your nurse or doctor to call the spiritual care office or to page a chaplain to visit you. Or you may call 888-584-7888 and ask for extension 6-9056.
Our chaplains address:
Spiritual Needs
- Celebrating relief, healing and gratitude
- Dealing with suffering, loss, grief, change or discouragement
- Ethical decisions regarding continuing or discontinuing treatments
- Searching for meaning and hope
Religious Concerns
- Grace-filled moments
- Other ways God is present (or not) in life
- Prayer, scripture and faith
- Reconciliation or forgiveness
Specific Sacramental or Denominational Needs
- A bible or other spiritual resource
- Anointing of the Sick
- Communion, reconciliation, baptism and blessing
- Community or church concerns
- Contacting church, parish, synagogue, mosque or house of worship
Beyond the Hospital
Loyola offers a variety of follow-up services and community outreach programs. Chaplains are involved in grief support groups, parish training projects and hospital memorial services.
Spiritual Care at MacNeal Hospital
At MacNeal Hospital, we understand that physical health is just one component of wellness. Our Spiritual Support services are available to you and your family as you navigate through changes in your health and your life.
Chaplains are present on site 24/7 at MacNeal. Our chaplain’s office phone number is 708-783-5907. For on-call weekend chaplains call 708-783-3394. The chaplain on duty carries pager 6462. A chaplain will respond with a return phone call or page as soon as he or she is available.
Chapel
Our chapel is open for prayer and meditation to people of all faiths. The chapel may be used for occasions of worship and memorials. It is open 24 hours a day and located on the first floor main hallway north of the Entrance B.
The Chaplain Manager is Matthew Brophy, M. Divinity. To reach him, please call 708-783-5907 or email MATTHEW.BROPHY@luhs.org. The evening and weekend chaplain on-call phone number is 708-783-3394 or pager 6462.
Pastoral care chaplains are members of the interdisciplinary model of patient health and wellness. The chaplains serve the patients and their families during times of illness or critical decision making moments. The chaplain’s role is one of integrating one’s faith during time of sickness and suffering for the patients and their loved ones. The pastoral care chaplains assist the patient and families to identify the key elements of their faith during illness or crisis.
The pastoral care chaplains have graduate academic credentials and advanced clinical pastoral education to better assist those most in need. The interdenominational chaplain team will pray with patients and their families during these times of personal illness or crisis. The chaplains will be present with patients and or family members as requested by the family or hospital staff.
If the patient or the family desires, the chaplain may be the liaison between the patient and his/her place of worship.
Pastoral care chaplains address spiritual needs, religious concerns and specific denominational needs.
Spiritual needs:
- Searching for meaning in times of illness
- Spiritual guidance, pastoral counseling and crisis ministry
- Dealing with suffering, loss, grief, change or discouragement
- Ethical decisions regarding continuing or discontinuing treatments
- Religious concerns:
- Bedside Prayer with patients and families
- Reconciliation and forgiveness
- Spiritual guidance and pastoral counseling
- Recognizing the hand of God in one’s life
- Specific sacramental or denominational needs:
- Arrange for Anointing of the Sick or other sacraments on an emergency basis
- Distribution of Communion assisted
- Contact patient’s church, parish, synagogue, mosque or house of worship
- Assist visiting clergy
- Conduct worship and devotion services
