Pastoral Care

The Pastoral Care department at Saint Peter's University Hospital offers emotional and spiritual support to patients and families. As part of the health care team, we offer spiritual care to all, regardless of religious or cultural tradition. Through gentle presence and prayerful encounter, we celebrate your hopes and joys, join in calming your fears and anxieties during your hospital stay, and search with you for deeper meanings during life's crises.

Pastoral Care can help:

• When you need someone to listen to and support you
• When you or your family feels stress, anxiety, uncertainty, grief, anger or sadness
• When you need encouragement
• When you feel alone and lonely
• When you want to talk about spiritual concerns or pray with someone
• When you feel you are losing control
• When you need help to continue religious practices during your hospital stay
• When you need bereavement support
• When you need to consult about an advance directive or living will or about end-of-life and ethical issues

Our chaplaincy services are provided by professional certified chaplains for patients and families of all religions. They are assisted by:

• Bikur Cholim
• Clergy visitors from the Catholic, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu and Protestant faiths
• Eucharistic ministers
• Trained chaplains' assistants and Pastoral Care visitors

To reach the Pastoral Care department, call ext. 8565. To page a chaplain or a priest for immediate response, or for night and weekend emergencies, call (732) 651-3998.