Houston Parishes Train for Hope and Healing
The training responds to Pope Leo XIV’s October intention and backs the U.S. bishops’ slogan that everyone who needs help should receive help.
The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston recently expanded training for mental health and disability ministry under its “Hope and Healing” initiative, led by Auxiliary Bishop Italo Dell’Oro. More than 130 parish leaders, drawn from roughly three-quarters of the archdiocese’s parishes, took part in a two-day Disability and Mental Health Training organized with the National Catholic Partnership on Disability.
Melissa Alvarez, associate director of faith formation for persons with disabilities in the archdiocese, described the gathering as a decisive step for parish life. “Hosting NCPD is a big step toward welcoming all persons with disabilities into the life of the Church. It’s a dire need, and it’s super important that every parish knows how to do that,” she said.
Meeting a Dire Pastoral Need
Charleen Katra, executive director of the National Catholic Partnership on Disability, framed the work against a wider crisis. “We have an epidemic, at this point, of mental health concerns across the country, in the world, so the Church is no different,” she said.
The sessions addressed mental health awareness, trauma-informed care, suicide prevention, disability ministry, and strategies for parish support. Organizers also offered a Spanish-language track focused on immigration-related family stress, recognizing the burdens many households in the archdiocese carry.
Katra pressed leaders to aim higher than accessibility alone. “Inclusion is good, but meaningful belonging is different. We want to move from inclusion to belonging. Both point to something greater. They point to communion,” she said.
Gina Ferrera of Amazing Grace underscored what is at stake when parishes fail to welcome. Without a genuine welcome, she warned, people “stop coming to Mass. They go to another denomination.”
In Step With Rome and the Bishops
The formation aligns with Pope Leo XIV’s October prayer intention for mental health ministries. It also supports the U.S. bishops’ National Catholic Mental Health Campaign, whose slogan states: “Everyone who needs help should receive help.”
Participants are not trained to act as therapists. They learn to recognize signs of distress and to refer those who suffer to qualified professionals, so that the parish becomes a place of first welcome rather than a substitute for clinical care.
The Galveston-Houston effort seeks to equip ordinary parish leaders so that persons living with disability or mental illness find not only access, but belonging in the life of the Church.