Coping with change: a challenge for sponsors

In the past 25 years a trend away from lifetime commitment in religious institutes, a rising number of retired religious,, and the Second Vatican Council's call for greater lay involvement in all aspects of ministry have led to many changes in Catholic-sponsored health care facilities. The development process of religious institutes parallels that of individuals as they mature from infancy to late adulthood. After Vatican II, religious institutes underwent an "intimacy versus isolation" stage similar to that experienced by people in their twenties, in which interpersonal relationships became more important. Now institutes are in a stage of "ego integrity versus despair," where they must consider changes--closing facilities, mergers, affiliations,, or divestiture of sponsorship--and how they can keep their mission alive afterward. Religious leaders must be energetic in creating programs that allow laypersons who share the institute's mission, charism, and philosophy to carry out its ministry. But in the midst of these changes, religious members also will experience grief at the loss of their sponsorship or control over their facility. They pass through the same stages people experience after the death of a loved one: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Only by confronting and accepting their grief can institute members go on to either new ministries or reaffirmed commitment to their current work.