{"title":"Navigating the Ethical Tension Between Autonomy and Protection in Medically Assisted Dying: A Spiritual Care Approach.","authors":"Stephen Bernard Ubi","doi":"10.1177/15423050261459273","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15423050261459273","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article examines several ethical, legal, and spiritual aspects of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) in Canada, a practice that has been legalized in Canada since June 17, 2016. The article identifies the underlying ethical tension of patient autonomy, and the principle of care providers protecting vulnerable populations. The article reviews how the legal framework of MAiD has evolved in Canada, where now individuals with any irremediable medical condition have access to this program; and where the care community appears divided regarding MAiD options for people's mental health. The article looks at the ethical, legal impacts of MAiD for medical providers, with a specific focus on their moral conscience; mental health wellbeing; duty to \"do no harm\". Spiritual care providers have a role to play in MAiD situations, as they act as a non-judgmental supportive presence who honor their own ethical limits, as well as the various belief systems of their patients. Utilizing a case example and ethical frameworks, the article advocates for compassionate care for individuals in serious and persistent suffering that is rooted in patient centered care, as honoring dignity and personhood with safeguards against potential abuse. The overall recommendation in this exploratory article is for equitable interdisciplinary care that includes considerations of ethics, spiritual care and legalities.</p>","PeriodicalId":44361,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling","volume":" ","pages":"15423050261459273"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2026-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148273392","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"<i>To Serve is to Die:</i> A Touching Doctors' Legacy.","authors":"Dalmacito A Cordero","doi":"10.1177/15423050251395009","DOIUrl":"10.1177/15423050251395009","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This paper is a reflection on the role of doctors in everyone's life. It is anchored and inspired from three Filipino doctors who serve as frontliners and died during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through sacrifice and service, they provide unconditional care up to the point of risking and losing their lives. They deserve trust and cooperation from their patients to execute an effective treatment and care management.</p>","PeriodicalId":44361,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling","volume":" ","pages":"17-19"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145490456","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Panic and Pandemics: Addressing Collective Trauma.","authors":"Mary Beth Yount","doi":"10.1177/15423050261457690","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15423050261457690","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44361,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling","volume":"80 1-2","pages":"3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148200471","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sacred Sensations: Achievable Spirituality in Severe Autism.","authors":"B Jeffrey Vidt","doi":"10.1177/15423050261420829","DOIUrl":"10.1177/15423050261420829","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This essay explores the spiritual lives of individuals with severe autism through the lenses of embodiment theology, disability theology, and personal storytelling. Drawing on the author's experience as both a father of a child with severe autism and spiritual care provider, it reframes spirituality as an embodied and sensory reality rather than primarily cognitive. The essay challenges providers to expand their spiritual imagination, recognizing sensory experiences as sacred and inviting new approaches to spiritual care.</p>","PeriodicalId":44361,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling","volume":" ","pages":"20-23"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146132831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Interfaith Spiritual Care in the Hospital Setting: Three Illuminating Encounters.","authors":"Hannah D Morales Olson","doi":"10.1177/15423050261420831","DOIUrl":"10.1177/15423050261420831","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The hospital setting can present physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges for individuals. It is important to recognize these challenges and empower individuals to manage them. The health care team is in a unique position to listen to the needs of hospitalized individuals. Three vignettes illustrate active listening, compassion, and access to resources. With these tools, health care clinicians can humanize the hospital experience and alleviate the emotional burden patients face in the hospital setting.</p>","PeriodicalId":44361,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling","volume":" ","pages":"32-34"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147356726","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"\"Arbitrary Factors\": A Hospice Chaplain's Reflection on Deeply Human Dramas Among Healthcare Chaplains and Within their Organizations During the COVID-19 Pandemic.","authors":"Shuji Moriichi","doi":"10.1177/15423050261420830","DOIUrl":"10.1177/15423050261420830","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Various \"arbitrary factors\" shaped healthcare chaplains' experiences during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. The author's reflection provides personal recollection, uniquely situated in the particular local organizational dynamics and inter-personal relationships among the professionals, supplementing the qualitative survey articles by the field's on-going effort to collect, organize, and interpret the pandemic's impact on the spiritual care practitioners.</p>","PeriodicalId":44361,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling","volume":" ","pages":"24-28"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146132839","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dying with Dignity: The Need for Pastoral Care for Patients with Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders.","authors":"Dalmacito A Cordero","doi":"10.1177/15423050261433508","DOIUrl":"10.1177/15423050261433508","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This paper highlights the role of pastoral/spiritual care for patients facing a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order. Although DNR is sometimes seen as an unfortunate way of foregoing the patient's hope to survive, it can be a form of pastoral care to let them die with less pain through withholding excessive and burdensome treatment, thus keeping their dignity intact. More importantly, pastoral care involves the indispensable loving support of families, pastors/priests, and community members.</p>","PeriodicalId":44361,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling","volume":" ","pages":"35-37"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147494650","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Burnout Syndrome among Catholic Clergy in Spain: Prevalence and Associated Factors.","authors":"Damián Picornell-Gallar, Eduardo González-Fraile","doi":"10.1177/15423050261438496","DOIUrl":"10.1177/15423050261438496","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Burnout represents a complex occupational risk with significant psychosocial implications. This study estimates the prevalence of burnout among Spanish Catholic priests and examines its correlations with sociodemographic, quality of life, anxiety, depression, and personality factors. A total of 116 priests completed a battery of psychological instruments. The prevalence results varied depending on the assessment scale used. Lifestyle, type of priesthood, quality of life, anxiety, depressive symptoms, and personality traits, were significantly correlated with burnout.</p>","PeriodicalId":44361,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling","volume":" ","pages":"4-16"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147628921","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Staying Informed Without Losing Ourselves: Coping with the Media in Challenging Times.","authors":"Mary Barber","doi":"10.1177/15423050261420824","DOIUrl":"10.1177/15423050261420824","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44361,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling","volume":" ","pages":"38-39"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146120594","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Accompanying LGBTQIA+ Students in Faith-Based Education: A Reflection on Pastoral Care and Pedagogy.","authors":"Jonathan James O Canete","doi":"10.1177/15423050261427016","DOIUrl":"10.1177/15423050261427016","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This reflection explores the integration of pastoral care and pedagogy to support LGBTQIA+ students in Catholic higher education. Drawing from classroom experiences, it highlights fostering inclusion while balancing Church teachings and students' lived experiences. The article discusses pastoral accompaniment, empathy, and the importance of creating safe spaces. It emphasizes faithful presence over easy answers, urging educators to embody radical hospitality, embrace self-reflection, and accompany students with compassion, fostering belonging and hope within the educational community.</p>","PeriodicalId":44361,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling","volume":" ","pages":"29-31"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147277436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}