Late February saw Saint Luke Institute (SLI) staff on the road in Arizona and Texas – a swing through the southwestern US that established new connections for partnerships, and included a fundraiser that garnered nearly $17,000 in pledges to support the organization’s new Partners in Healing Society.
Marc DelMonico, Ph.D., Director of Mission Partnerships & Communications, visited the dioceses of Tucson and Phoenix in Arizona for multiple engagements with diocesan leaders to discuss SLI’s clinical and educational services. These meetings were adjunct to attendance at the annual Association for Graduate Programs in Ministry (AGPIM) conference in Tucson, where Dr. DelMonico engaged lay leaders and others responsible for academic and human formation for professional lay ministers at multiple institutes of higher education. SLI is a partner organization of AGPIM and so is able to offer updates on the work of the organization to the AGPIM leaders and promote opportunities for partnership, especially around educational outreaches, both in-person and online via SLIconnect.org, the online learning platform.
During the last weekend in February, SLI also held its first on-the-road fundraiser at Holy Trinity Church, a Vincentian parish in Dallas, Texas. SLI President & CEO, Fr. Patrick J. McDevitt, CM, PhD, Director of Mission Advancement Christina DiMeglio-Lopez, and Dr. DelMonico, were on hand to meet and greet parishioners throughout the weekend in various contexts to discuss the mission of SLI and encourage support of the organization through its newly inaugurated Partners in Healing Giving Society, which encourages monthly or quarterly recurring donations. We were hosted on site by Fr. Milton Ryan, CM, pastor of the parish, who graciously provided space to meet in the parish rectory with parishioners interested in learning more about SLI. At the event, Fr. Ryan offered a moving testimony to his own positive experience working thorugh issues of depression through the care of SLI when it was engaged in the work of the Saint Louis (Missouri) Outreach Center in the 2010s, empahtically stating “Saint Luke’s saved my life.” As part of the evening’s events, he also offered a from-memory rendition of the second movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 (“Pathétique”). Fr. McDevitt praised Fr. Ryan’s testimony and indicated how it highlighted the importance for clergy and religious, as well as lay ministers, to be attentive to their own mental health in order to be effective and joyful ministers of the Good News of Christ. See excerpts of Fr. Ryan’s testimony below.
Fr. McDevitt presided and preached at several of the parish’s weekend liturgies for the Second Sunday of Lent and highlighted the work of SLI in remarks after communion. View his proclamation of the Gospel and his homily below from the parish’s livestream. The fundraising weekend, the first of several scheduled for 2026, provided opportunities to interact with parishioners after each Mass to encourage support of SLI through the Partners in Healing Society. One individual was so touched by Fr. Ryan’s and Fr. McDevitt’s presentation that they became a pledged recurring donor of over $1,500 per quarter!
Fr. McDevitt remarked that the weekend’s success highlighted what he has always said about the care of ministers: “Just as there is an African proverb ‘It takes a village to raise a child,’ so also it is true that it takes a whole Church to care for the mental wellbeing of those who minister in its name.” He noted that the success of SLI’s efforts and connections in Arizona and Texas are building blocks towards SLI’s strategic efforts as it appraoches its 50th anniversary year in 2027.