Assessing and Meeting the Health Needs of Roman Catholic Priests in the Archdiocese of Chicago

Abstract

In 1985, the Bishops' Committee on Priestly Life and Ministry recommended bishops form holistic health boards for their priests based on the results of a 1982 U.S. survey of Catholic priests. In 1995, a holistic health committee was formed under the office of the vicar for priests for the archdiocese of Chicago. One of the committee's first actions was to survey the priests of the archdiocese of Chicago to identify baseline health behaviors and needs. Survey results (n = 524; 52% response rate) revealed the need for the committee to promote health education, preventive care, and annual physicals. The committee conducted a series of health fairs, improved the insurance benefit for an annual physical, and conducted a series of health-related talks targeted to priests. A follow-up survey in 2006 (n = 389; 46% response rate) indicated improvements in health behaviors of the priests. Comparisons to statewide and national data indicate that overall, engagement in healthy behaviors is higher for priests than for men who are not priests.

KEYWORDS:

• clergy health
• health status
• holistic health
• population health
• priests' health

Acknowledgments

The priest's health committee of the archdiocese of Chicago is indebted to the passion and drive of our founding chair, Julia Lane, PhD, RN. This publication is endorsed by the committee and members are open to questions from readers.

Notes

Note. No statistically significant differences were found using the z-test.

Note. na means that the question listed was not asked in that survey. z-test of significance between 1996 and 2006, *p≤.05; **p≤.01. Significance testing not done for age group analyses.

Note. Bold indicates a statistically significant difference between 1996 and 2006 responses using the Mann-Whitney U test.