May 26, 2023 4 min read

St. Oscar Romero Parish in Canonsburg is offering an outlet for those living with mental health challenges or who know someone who is.

A Mental Health Ministry has been in place since October, springing from efforts of parishioners John and Jonna Murphy of Washington.

After attending a Diocese of Pittsburgh workshop in August with Deacon Ed Shoener of Scranton – president of the Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers – the couple developed the ministry proposal.

The first meeting was held in October, with 18 people in attendance. Meetings are typically held at 7 p.m. Mondays at the St. Patrick Center, 249 West Pike St., Canonsburg.

“That was great,” John Murphy said, adding he thought the first meeting would be sparsely attended. “We’ve maintained that for about eight or nine months.”

The parish, comprised of St. Patrick’s in Canonsburg, Miraculous Medal in Meadowlands and Holy Rosary in Muse, has about 3,000 families.

The ministry’s goals include providing a welcoming, safe and sacred space for those seeking help for themselves or for others, reducing the stigma associated with mental illness and building relationships to be able to help one other through challenges.

“Our real goal is to develop relationships and be a resource for the parish,” John Murphy said. “Parishes ought to be families. We want to develop a group that is a mix of people suffering from mental illness, people who have mental illness in their family or people who have lost friends or family members to suicide.”

The pair admits they don’t have any formal mental health training, but they have much experience, as their son Dusty has battled bipolar 1 disorder for almost five decades.

“The more open we are about mental illness and the impact, the more people understand and the stigma is less,” Jonna Murphy said. “The fact that the stigma is so great, people don’t just offer that up. If we hadn’t been in that circumstance where everyone was discussing their family, and I was open enough to discuss that he’s been with us, they wouldn’t have said anything. That is really our goal – to help them understand and to walk in faith with them.”

The group uses The Sanctuary Course for Catholics, a study guide that explores key mental health topics and examines meaningful ways to offer companionship, support recovery and promote well-being. The group has now embarked on the “When a Loved One Dies by Suicide” series.

Another function of the ministry is to provide a vetted list of professional doctors and therapists. Jonna Murphy said she wants people to take advantage of the recently created 988 suicide and crisis lifeline.

“You want it to become so commonplace,” she said. “You don’t have to dial that big number anymore; you can dial 988 and you can get filtered to what you need.”

The Rev. George DeVille, who has many years of experience working in the area of mental health, is a regular meeting attendee.

“There’s starting to be an awareness that was never there before about the problem of mental illness,” he said. “It’s amazing that in this group almost everybody has somebody that has some sort of mental illness. What a strain that is on the family. At least there’s an awareness in talking about it with each other, and I’m sure that’s helpful. At least in this group there’s an exchange of ideas and it helps that people are able to express this.”

So far, feedback has been positive.

“Their gratefulness is really surprising,” John Murphy said. “It’s not because it’s us. It’s because the church is doing it and taking on this challenge, responding to it the way churches ought to. If you make it friendly enough and sincere enough, you might get back to the some of the older days when people actually looked out for each other.”