Guidelines for Receiving Pastoral Ministers in the USA

they maintain rigid boundaries and keep social distance, those whom they serve may perceive them as authoritarian and lacking the capacity to connect with people in a loving and caring way. If their social boundaries are loose and too permeable, others may view them as engaging in inappropriate intimacy and lacking in profes sionalism. The inability to establish and main tain appropriate boundaries has been linked with child safety issues and inappropriate con duct with adults. • Sufficient attention to resources of the spiritual life. A healthy and productive life for an inter national pastoral minister includes using tradi tional spiritual resources that foster growth in holiness and the integration of public ministry and personal spirituality. These resources include regular prayer, spiritual direction, the Sacrament of Penance, and retreats. • Reasonable self-care. An appropriate level of self-care is important in a pastoral context because ministers are vulnerable to chronic stress, burnout, and emotional crises. Healthy self-care includes, for example, professional development, balance between professional and personal life, healthy lifestyle choices (exer cise, healthy diet, hygiene, rest, relaxation), and development of personal and professional emotional support systems. Pastoral ministers ought not to be preoccupied and overly atten tive to self-care nor should they be neglectful. Appropriate self-care also enables pastoral min isters to serve in such a way that others would not be inordinately distracted. • Accurate self-knowledge. All pastoral minis ters need to have a clear sense of their strengths and vulnerabilities, including their capacities and limitations for celibate intimacy and sup port. Clear and honest self-knowledge facilitates self-acceptance and a willingness to grow in strengths and to address areas in which personal and professional growth are needed. • Capacity for collaboration. Effective collabo ration, an essential ingredient in effective pas toral ministry, includes: the capacity to listen well, the willingness to engage with others, initiative-taking, the ability to recognize and encourage the gifts of others, and a cultivated sense of purpose or mission.

Case Study 2 When Sister T. arrived in the United States, the cul tural orientation provided by the hosting diocese sug gested that she could benefit from soliciting feedback from a select number of parishioners concerning her pronunciation of English. At the recommendation of her pastor, Sister T. made contact with a very friendly and willing family in the parish. They offered her help ful language feedback, as she had requested. She appre ciated their friendliness and began to consider them friends. When they shared with her their plans for an upcoming vacation, she suggested that she could join them. Their puzzled reaction to her suggestion con fused her, but she said nothing. A few months later, Sister T. was short of money, because she was sending a large part of her salary to her community in her native country. She thought that her feedback family in par ish could make her a cash advance. They said that they could not, and again she was confused. Even worse, they withdrew from her, and she felt isolated. This case illustrates the complexity of the inter play of different cultural expectations coupled with the particular psychological challenges an interna tional pastoral minister might have with maintaining appropriate boundaries. Criteria for Conducting Appropriate Psychological Assessments It is also very important to note how the assessment ought to be conducted. The canonical right to pri vacy must be fully respected (CIC c. 220; CCEO c. 23). This includes, for example, obtaining a written release from the international pastoral minister giv ing permission for the evaluation process. 4 The fol lowing approaches indicate an appropriate process: • An interactional and conversational style of engagement that enhances a candidate’s sense of personhood • Respectfully listening to the candidate’s fears, expectations, and questions • Giving as much information as possible about 4 Before any attempt is made at undertaking a psychological evalua tion, the international pastoral minister must give explicit, free, and informed consent. He or she must be informed in advance of the nature of the process, who will be conducting the evaluation, and the extent to which the information will be utilized and shared.

Psychological Considerations | E-3