Voluntary pastoral care: course offers chance to accompany it!

Voluntary pastoral care: course offers chance to accompany it!

The demand for volunteering is increasing, and the dioceses Speyer and Mainz take an important step to support this development with their qualification course "Pastoral care needs faces". This course is aimed at people who want to devote themselves to the pastoral accompaniment of old people in old people's and nursing homes. Erika Ochs from the diocese of Mainz and Walburga Wintergerst from the diocese of Speyer take over the training management. The program aims to help people who can no longer come to church services or other offers of the parish due to age or health restrictions. Volunteers visit the residents, bring the reception of communion and celebrate services directly in the home. With this one would like to maintain contact with the communities and give the old people back a piece of liveliness.

The participants of the course are obliged to work in an old people or nursing home for 2-3 hours a week. Your tasks are based on personal interests and specific needs of the respective facility. The training extends over nine months and includes various modules that also treat topics such as grief, death and dying. Other modules are devoted to the special needs of people with dementia or the challenges. Interestingly, the modules are offered both digitally and in presence, which gives the participating flexibility in training.

training content and networking

The practical aspects also play an important role in training. An internship is planned in an institution during the course, and each participant is assigned to a mentor from the home parish who offers support. Openness for different religious communities is essential and no membership in the Catholic Church is required. The participants should be personally, physically and mentally stable in order to master the challenges of this voluntary work.

Registration for this free qualification course can be made via the responsible parish, and about 30 places are available. The costs of the training are borne by the parishes or the episcopal ordinarians; However, participants in the diocese of Mainz have to bear their own travel expenses. The registration deadline for the course is May 31, 2025. Interested parties can contact seniorenpastoral@bistum-mainz.de or senioren@bistum-speyer.de directly by email.

The importance of voluntary pastoral care

The need to form volunteers in pastoral care has become more important in recent years. These volunteers bring valuable life and experiences in pastoral services that are active in various areas, including stationary and outpatient hospital pastoral care, telephone pastoral care and hospice accompaniment. Basic training is essential to be performed by pastoral work. This includes the development of pastoral skills, understanding of one's own roles and the expansion of ethical and factual skills. In addition, advanced and further education offers, as they have been implemented since 2016, offer regular refreshment of knowledge and take up the requirements necessary for the exercise in order to ensure high-quality and responsible accompaniment of people in crisis situations in the future. The center pastoral care emphasizes the need for constant further training and support from mentors.

Overall, the initiative of the dioceses of Speyer and Mainz not only shows a clear need, but also the commitment to strengthen the pastoral work through qualified volunteers. reports that these courses form a central component of pastoral care in order to offer people the support they need in difficult situations. The positive design of the life of others and the chance of becoming part of a community should be the most important motivational factors for many participants to get involved in this meaningful work.