Pastoral counselling of the sick: (case study : Ecumenical Chaplaincy of CHUV/Aumônerie Oecuménique du CHUV – Centre hospitalier universitaire vaudois, Switzerland, and Religious Assistance Service of the hospitals in the Romanian Orthodox Church, Romania)

Abstract

The thesis “Pastoral Counselling of the sick (case study: Ecumenical Chaplaincy of CHUV/Aumônerie Oecuménique du CHUV – Centre hospitalier universitaire vaudois, Switzerland and Religious Assistance Service of the hospitals in the Romanian Orthodox Church, Romania)” presents the importance of Pastoral counselling, a unique form of counselling which uses spiritual and psychological resources for healing the persons who are in existential crisis. Pastoral counselling is necessary for the existential searches and for finding possible solutions in order to acquire the balance of life, in relation with God, with other people and with the social environment. In this thesis my interest was to find out what the Romanian Orthodox Church could learn from the other Churches in Lausanne (Switzerland), who had already worked out a detailed Pastoral counselling program for the sick in order to offer religious assistance to the people. I analyzed the services of the Ecumenical Chaplaincy of CHUV for the spiritual care of the patients and I compared this with the services of the chaplains for the Pastoral counselling of the sick in the Religious Assistance Service of the hospitals in the Romanian Orthodox Church. The main conclusion of the thesis is that in the Romanian Orthodox Church it is important to develop a new perspective of ecumenical cooperation between confessions recognized by the Romanian Government, that can provide some unique opportunities for sharing and exchanging experiences and for mutual learning in the Pastoral counselling of the sick