{"id":149587,"date":"2025-09-17T04:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T04:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/149587\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T04:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T04:18:08","slug":"u-s-bishops-launch-healing-and-hope-initiative-to-promote-strengthen-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/149587\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. bishops launch \u2018Healing and Hope\u2019 initiative to promote, strengthen mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n \"Tessa
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

By Tessa Gervasini<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 16, 2025 \/
\n 14:07 pm<\/p>\n

Ahead of World Mental Health Day on Oct. 10, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has announced an addition to its ongoing National Catholic Mental Health Campaign <\/a>to amplify local engagement on mental health.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The title for the initiative, \u201cHealing and Hope,\u201d<\/a> was taken from the National Catholic Mental Health Campaign\u2019s introductory statement, written by Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia and Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, Bishop Robert Barron.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs pastors, we want to emphasize this point to anyone who is suffering from mental illness or facing mental health challenges: Nobody and nothing can alter or diminish your God-given dignity. You are a beloved child of God, a God of healing and hope,\u201d the U.S. bishops said this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The initiative \u201cbuilds upon the goal of promoting healing and hope for all who struggle with mental illness and is inclusive of the people who accompany them,\u201d the USCCB said in a Sept. 15 statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHealing and Hope\u201d is intended to combat the present mental health crisis affecting people across the nation, especially younger generations. Pew Research found<\/a> that as of April, 55% of parents report being extremely or very concerned about the mental health of teens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The U.S. bishops have added three new elements to the mental health campaign to strengthen Catholic engagement ahead of World Mental Health Day, including a revitalized digital campaign with reflections by bishops meant to \u201cinvite all people into deeper conversation on the realities and stigmas of mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n

The initiative will also launch state conferences on mental health beginning in early 2026 with a meeting in New Jersey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the conferences, \u201cbishops, clergy, religious, and laypeople in dioceses\/eparchies and local groups will have an opportunity to gather for dialogue on local mental health realities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Healing and Hope will also prompt parishes to host \u201cMental Health Sunday\u201d on the weekend of Oct. 11\u201312. Parishes are encouraged to share at Mass about the national campaign and its mission, integrate petitions around mental health issues, offer a special blessing for caretakers, and consider launching a Catholic mental health initiative in the parish community.<\/p>\n

All the faithful in the U.S. are encouraged to participate by praying the Novena for Mental Health<\/a> from Oct. 10, World Mental Health Day, to Oct. 18, the feast of St. Luke, the patron saint of health care.<\/p>\n


\n \"Tessa
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Tessa Gervasini is a staff reporter for Catholic News Agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Tessa Gervasini Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 16, 2025 \/ 14:07 pm Ahead of World Mental Health Day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,63592,84,393,394,79477,182,79478],"class_list":{"0":"post-149587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-catholic-news","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-mental-health","13":"tag-mentalhealth","14":"tag-u-s-bishops","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-usccb"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}