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ST. EDMUND'S CLERGY SABBATICAL PROGRAM
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St. Edmund’s Retreat offers sabbaticals for clergy who need healing. They live in our Catholic Community, which is located on a small island off the coast of New England. Recovery unfolds within the rhythm of the Church’s liturgical calendar. Each day finds its order, reflections, and peace in the liturgy of the hours.
The need for healing and renewal among diocesan and religious priests, brothers, and sisters is growing.
The joys and challenges of the priesthood are very great and lifelong, lasting from formation through retirement, but ordained or religious life makes increasingly high demands of each person.
Diocesan and religious priests, brothers, sisters, and seminarians find themselves suffering from a staggering workload, overwrought schedules, solitary lifestyles, emotional isolation, financial constraints, and social distrust. Pastoral encounters have become ever more complex as the faithful grapple with personal crises, relational chaos, and grave social ills.
It is not surprising that diocesan and religious priests, brothers, sisters, and seminarians suffer from burnout, depression, anxiety, addiction, or other mental health and behavior issues. Early intervention reduces the risk of crisis and may alleviate the need for the controlled setting of a medical facility. Yet, even after excellent professional care at a treatment facility, many need additional time for a conversion of heart, mind, and daily lifestyle habits. Here, at St. Edmund’s Retreat, they can find such respite in a Catholic setting accompanied by knowledgeable and experienced people who are versed in principles of recovery, spiritual healing, renewal, and refocusing.
Sabbaticals at St. Edmund’s Retreat serve different purposes. Some people need rest from physical and mental exhaustion. Others benefit from time living in a sober community to develop and practice skills for lifelong wellness. A growing number of men and women seek further formation for current or future assignments where pastoral care will require a higher level of trauma-informed and addiction-recovery expertise.
Seminarians find they can focus, with support from our multi-faceted team, on personal issues before ordination, enabling them to enter priestly life as healthy, balanced, and contented men.
Religious and consecrated women are welcome! Unfortunately, limited space restricts St. Edmund’s Retreat from offering residential sabbaticals to women, but customized retreats in renewal or formation have helped individuals and groups.
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HEALING OUR CLERGY, HEALING OUR CHURCH
Prayerful Community Routines
- Morning Prayer
- Daily Mass
- Holy Hour
- Rosary
- Evening Prayer
- Night Prayer
- Multiple Chapels
- Grotto
Community Members
January 2023 Snapshot- 5 Priests
- 5 Seminarians
- 9 Collegiate Men
- 2 Staff Priests in Residence
- 3 Lay Residents
Success Markers
- 85 to 87% Sobriety after 5 years
- Seminarians Ordained
- Priests Returned to Ministry
Therapeutic Resources- Individual Sessions
- Group Sessions
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- EMDR and Other Modalities
- Trauma-Informed Professionals
- Addiction-Certified Staff
- Sacred Arts Classes
- Survivor Support Groups
- Island Pet Companions
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Recovery Care for All Dimensions of Each Human Person
- Personal Spiritual Director with St. Edmund’s Founder, Fr. Tom Hoar
- Community Prayer, Meals, Activities, Programming
- Catholic Therapy That Respects Religious Vocations
- Daily 12 Step Meetings, Relapse Study Group, Group Therapy
- Pastoral Care for Trauma, Formation in Trauma Ministries
- Sponsorship by 12 Step Veterans for Substance and/or Process Addictions
- Creativity Programs in Sacred Arts, including Woodworking, Pipes & Drums
Fr. Thomas F.X. Hoar, SSE, PhD, serves as Spiritual Director for each Sabbatical resident. His experience in guiding recovery among wounded men and women includes 20 years of working with priests, religious, and seminarians; 44 years working with college-age men and women; and 33 years of personal recovery. Fr. Tom speaks and offers retreats to clergy in the United States and internationally, including on recovery topics. Following one such speech, Most. Rev. Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger invited Fr. Tom to revamp formation programs in the Diocese of Albany as Director of Vocations and Clergy Formation. Fr. Tom’s vitae and references are available on request.
INCLUDED ON THE CLERGY SABBATICAL TEAM ARE: Full-time resident Teresa Pitt Green is foundress of Spirit Fire, a Catholic restorative justice healing ministry which has collaborated for over 20 years with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Conference of Major Superiors of Men. With 39 years in 12 Step recovery, Teresa serves in many capacities, including leading short- and long-term peer support groups for priests who have been sexually abused or who otherwise suffer from traumatic experiences. Deacon Steven DeMartino serves as consultant and regular retreat leader and offers a lifetime of service to clergy wellness and Church healing, currently as Director of Priest Wellness for the Archdiocese of New York and as Director of Safeguarding for the Conference of Major Superiors of Men.
Ready? Do you know a diocesan and religious priest, brother, sister, or seminarian who is facing, undergoing, or needs treatment for addiction, mental illness, or burnout? Call Fr. Tom to discuss options and a plan that provides this man or woman with the best opportunity to return to ministry restored and whole—once wounded, now serving as wounded healer and witness to the hopeful message of Jesus Christ, the Great Physician and Healer of us all.Fr. Thomas F.X. Hoar, S.S.E., Ph.D.
President and CEO of St. Edmund's Retreat
Main Office (860) 536-0565 Ext 166
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