Denver, Colo., Dec 28, 2019 / 03:02 pm (CNA).- On Monday of National Suicide Prevention Week this year, popular evangelical pastor and mental health advocate Jarrid Wilson, 30, reportedly committed suicide. Just hours prior to his death, Wilson had posted a message on Twitter about Jesus’ compassion for the depressed and suicidal.
“Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure suicidal thoughts,” Wilson wrote. “Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure depression. Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure PTSD. Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure anxiety. But that doesn’t mean Jesus doesn’t offer us companionship and comfort. He ALWAYS does that,” Wilson tweeted.
Wilson had been a long-time advocate for mental health, and founded “Anthem of Hope,” a Christian outreach for the depressed and suicidal, with his wife. His death this September followed that of Pastor Andrew Stoecklein, another young, vibrant evangelical pastor and mental health advocate, who committed suicide last year.
In the span of just 16 years, suicide rates among working-age Americans (aged 16-64 years) spiked 34% between 2000 and 2016, according to data from the Center for Disease Control. Among Americans aged 10-24, the spike was even more dramatic – CDC data shows a 50% increase in suicides among this group between 2000-2017.
The suicides of these two pastors highlight this concerning upward trend in suicide, especially among young people, even among those who are part of a Christian community.
CNA spoke with three mental health professionals about why suicide rates, particularly among young people, are increasing, and what the Catholic Church and other faith communities can do to help.
Overconnected, and under pressure
Deacon Basil Ryan Balke is a licensed therapist at Mount Tabor Counseling in the Denver area, and the co-host of the podcast “Catholic Psyche,” which aims to educate people on the integration between the psychological sciences and Catholic spirituality, philosophy and theology. He is also a married deacon with the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church.
Balke told CNA that he thinks one of the driving factors of an increase in suicide among teens and young adults is their constant connectedness to the world through mobile devices, coupled with a lack of greater meaning in their lives.
“When I was in high school…I would go home, and I wouldn’t really have any contact with my friends unless I wanted it,” Balke said.
“And now with the saturation of the iPhone…you get the communication that is constantly there and constantly moving and so you can never unplug, and you can never continue on with life outside of the image you have to put out into the world (through social media),” he said.
“They’re always distracted, always moving forward. I was a youth minister for many years as well, and it was just – these kids never had a moment’s peace,” he added.
Tommy Tighe is a licensed marriage and family therapist in the Bay area in California, who also hosts a podcast on Catholicism and mental health called “St. Dymphna’s Playbook.” Tighe told CNA that despite having more connections, young people today are more isolated than ever.
“There’s so much more pressure…there’s so much more of a drive to be popular,” Tighe said, but social media connections often do not equate to “a close-knit community of close friends.”
According to a 2015 article from the peer-reviewed research journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, frequent social media use in children and teenagers is associated with poor psychological functioning, as it limits their daily face-to-face interactions, impairing their ability to keep and maintain meaningful relationships.
The study found that students who reported using social media for two or more hours daily were more likely to poorly rate their own mental health, and experienced high levels of psychological distress and suicidal ideation.
“There’s a trend towards superficial relationships, and of course you don’t post on Instagram ‘I’m depressed’ or something like that, so I think people don’t know who to reach out to,” Tighe noted.
Furthermore, Balke said, “I think what is also happening is the younger people have lost meaning in their day-to-day lives as well. I think all of us have lost meaning as a force in our lives.”
Balke said especially for young people, there is an increasingly intense pressure to perform academically or athletically that has replaced the things that used to bring people a sense of greater purpose, such as faith or virtue or close familial connections.
“Whether it be sports, they have to be track stars, they have to be in all AP (advanced placement) classes, they have to have like 30 college credits before they graduate high school, a 4.0 is not good enough anymore it’s gotta be a 4.3 or something,” he said. “I don’t even know how you do that. They’re pushing themselves so aggressively to the point where there’s no meaning behind it all because they don’t have an overarching purpose. These things are substitutes for that.”
“You might do something stupid like literally eating a tide pod, laundry detergent, and you become world-famous for thirty seconds. It’s so crazy,” he said. “It’s like these kids are just waiting for their next big break.”
The lingering stigma of mental health care
Another driving factor in the spike in suicides among young people and other populations is the lingering stigma of seeking out therapy or other mental health interventions, Tighe said.
“I think we try to act like we’ve really changed (as a society) in our perception of mental health, but I don’t think that’s really true,” Tighe said.
“Especially…it seems like every time there’s one of these mass tragedies in our country, mental health gets brought up and I think that pushes people even further away from wanting to reach out or identify as having an issue,” he added.
Additionally, Tighe said, not only do young people today have a harder time making meaningful relationships with their peers, parents are also often afraid to broach the subject of suicide and mental health with their children.
“I’m hoping that the younger generation of parents will be a little bit more willing, but it’s scary, right? That’s super scary to talk about.”
But talk about it parents must, Balke said, and the more specific they are, the better.
“You want to use that exact phrase: ‘Are you thinking about killing yourself?’ Or ‘Are you thinking about suicide?’ You don’t want to use the phrase ‘self harm,’ or ‘Are you thinking about hurting yourself?’” he said. “You want to be very clear.”
Some people fear that bringing up suicide may plant the idea of suicide in their child’s head, or may worsen their depression, but Balke said that studies show that these fears are unfounded.
“Statistically speaking – you can’t catch suicidal thoughts,” Balke said. “You’re not going to be pushing kids to become suicidal by asking, ‘Are you thinking about suicide?’ That’s actually… helping them come out of that isolation.”
The Soul Shop movement: helping congregations prevent suicide
In 1999, Fe Anam Avis was the pastor of a Presbyterian church in a small suburban town in southern Ohio when the suicide of three students within seven months rocked his community.
Searching for help and resources for his grieving congregants, he found that there was little to nothing when it came to faith-based resources for suicide prevention and mental health. He started traveling to speak about suicide, but noticed that clergy and church leaders weren’t among his audience members.
“He said, ‘I would go to these towns and they would have me in a fire hall and I would give a presentation about suicide and a hundred people would show up in a small town. And not one of them would be a clergy person,’” Michelle Snyder told CNA. Snyder is the director of Soul Shop, an organization founded by Fe that trains clergy and congregations in suicide prevention and interventions. Fe has since retired.
“(Fe) said consistently it felt like people in the church were not connecting this issue of suicide prevention with faith, and pastors were just not showing up to engage with this as an issue as a matter of faith.”
That’s what spurred Fe to found Soul Shop movement, a group which now travels the country to give workshops to congregations on how to speak about suicide, how to prevent it, and what the warning signs are.
“I’ll often say to a group of faith community leaders, if you’re asking yourself the question, ‘Is anybody in my parish thinking about suicide?’ you’re asking yourself the wrong question. Because the right question is, which six people out of the hundred here are thinking about suicide right now?” Snyder said.
Part of the training consists in simply raising the awareness among clergy and church leaders that there are people in desperation within their own congregations who are at risk for suicide and need help. Snyder said they also train congregations on how to support people who have been impacted by the suicide of a family member or friend.
In addition, they study the stories about suicide, or suicidal ideation, found in Bible passages.
“There’s quite a few,” she said. “We’ve got Judas, the story of Judas, and that’s a suicide. But you’ve also got stories like Elijah (who was) praying to die. You’ve got Saul, who fell on his own sword and killed himself…you’ve got Job, who said death would be better than what I’m experiencing. You’ve got lots of heroes in the Bible who thought about (it) or else just said, ‘I’m in so much pain. Death would be better,’ but who didn’t attempt (it). So you’ve got lots of suicide – you’ve got suicide attempts, you’ve got suicides, you’ve got suicide intervention.”
They also train church leaders in spotting some of the warning signs of a person who is at risk for suicide.
Tighe said some of those warning signs include people who have been noticeably depressed for long periods of time, social withdrawal, talking about suicide or self-harm, or the giving away of prized possessions, among other things.
A warning sign that might seem strange, Tighe said, is when someone who has been depressed for a while is suddenly and inexplicably happy again.
“If someone’s been super depressed and then all of a sudden they’re sort of feeling really good…that makes us very nervous, because sometimes it’s because they’ve made the decision like, okay, on Friday, I’m going to do it. And they feel like a burden lifted off their shoulders, because there’s an end in sight,” he said.
When those risk factors are spotted, those are the times to specifically ask people if they’re considering suicide, Tighe added.
During the Soul Shop trainings, Snyder said, the group takes a public health approach to suicide, meaning that they train faith communities to take a collective responsibility for the health of their own people.
“We spend a whole day equipping communities of faith on how to be communities of faith in relationship to this issue,” she said.
One of the biggest suicide prevention tools that communities of faith can provide, Snyder said, is being “soul-safe” communities of faith, where people feel connected and valued as whole people, and not just for one aspect of their identity.
People who are more resilient to suicide are those whose don’t have all of their “eggs in one basket,” Snyder noted.
“If every egg is in the basket of being on a full scholarship for football, and then I get injured, every egg was in that basket. I have no Plan B, and so that becomes a risk. And helping our people in our congregation become well-rounded people with lives that are full and rich and diverse can be a suicide prevention initiative.”
At Soul Shop, church communities that are trained in suicide awareness and prevention are called “soul-safe communities,” Snyder said, which are “communities where people are intentionally connected to each other…communities where everybody knows what to look for. Communities where we are aware of our tendency to shun when we get uncomfortable and are challenged to not do that.”
What else can be done?
Besides hosting a Soul Shop or other suicide prevention training, what else can pastors and parishes do to help prevent suicide?
Balke said he would encourage all pastors to meet with their staff and frequent volunteers in order to familiarize them with locally available mental health resources. They should know the location of clinics, the hours of those clinics, and what crisis numbers to call, he said.
“They need to have quick access to them, so that when someone is coming in their office, or after a bible study or whatever it is when this kind of conversation comes up, they have it on their phone ready to go and they won’t have to go searching for it,” he said.
Tighe said he recommended that parishes have flyers posted on their bulletin boards with information on local mental health resources, as well as local crisis hotlines to call or text. In the United States, texting “741741” will connect users to a crisis text line.
Text lines get great response rates, Tighe said, because “everyone’s like, okay I would send a text, because it’s easier. And they’re incredible. We get people who come to our clinic who are like, ‘I was driving to the bridge, (because that’s a very popular thing here in the Bay Area for people who are suicidal), and for whatever reason texted these people and they told me to come to your clinic before I went.”
Pastors and clergy should also make it a point to build a personal relationship with the mental health professionals in their congregation, Balke said.
“Someone that they can just phone and say, ‘Hey, what do you think about this? What should I do in this situation?’” he said. “I have a number of priests and deacons who have phoned me on a regular basis and say, ‘You know, someone came into my office and said this this and this. What’s going on here?’”
Pastors and other church leaders also need to treat suicide and mental health issues with the seriousness they deserve, Balke said, and not treat them as something that is either not a serious issue, or something that can be solved solely by prayer or spiritual direction.
“Mental health in the Church is a real problem, and…it’s not necessarily being addressed with the seriousness, from an institutional level, that it deserves. People are committing suicide in our parishes and in our churches.”
Snyder said that she is confident that, if properly trained, churches and parishes have a key role to play in preventing suicides in their communities.
“We talk a lot about putting your seatbelt on before the accident happens. And that’s kind of what we’re describing here, is how do we do that in faith communities long before crisis strikes,” she said.
This article was originally published on CNA Sept. 15, 2019.
[…]
As long as we’re looking at past visitations, we might as well go back to the Visitation on Seattle back in 1985. The concluding and publicly available letter to Archbishop Hunthausen from Apostolic Pro-Nuncio Pio Laghi (November 14, 1985) balanced the good with the bad.
The five included “concerns” were these:
“(a) The need to bring into clear focus–working together with priests, religious and theologians–certain teachings of the Church and their implications for the pastoral practice of the Archdiocese. These include the role of conscience in making moral decisions; the role of the Magisterium in giving definitive guidance in matters of faith and morals; the nature and mission of the Church, together with its sacramental and hierarchical structure; an anthropology which provides an authentic understanding of the dignity of the human person; and a Christology which correctly reflects our Catholic faith concerning Christ’s divinity, His humanity, His salvific mission, and His inseparable union with the Church.
“(b) In particular, the need to present more clearly the Church’s teaching concerning the permanence and indissolubility of marriage and to ensure that the Archdiocesan Tribunal, both its constitution and practice, conforms with all the prescriptions of the revised Code of Canon Law.
“(c) Greater vigilance in upholding the Church’s teaching, especially with regard to contraceptive sterilization and homosexuality.
“(d) The need to ensure that pastoral practice regarding the liturgical and sacramental ministry of the Archdiocese is in accord with the Church’s universal norms, especially in the celebration of the Eucharist. This includes, for instance, routine intercommunion on the occasion of weddings or funerals. Such a need also involves the Sacrament of Reconciliation, mentioning particularly the proper sequence of first confession/first communion and regulations regarding general absolution.”
“(e) The need to review the ongoing education of the clergy and the selection and formation of candidates for the priesthood., and to be clear that laicized priests are excluded from certain roles in accord with the rescripts of their laicization.”
In which of these concerns of the Church has Strickland been remiss, or not?
None. Unfortunately, this is not 1985, and JP II is not the Pope.
I guess all Francis’ talk about dialog doesn’t apply to shepherds who challenge or reject his narrative. A sad state of affairs.
Speaking as a political scientist, Paris was too easy. Puerto Rico was the test case to cancel. Few Bishops spoke up. Tyler should be exiled soon, like Tucho did to poor Emeritus Archbishop Aguer. With the Synod, pressure is mounting on Ordinaries to march in the Synodal Pride Parade or at least keep their mouth shut – beats being homeless. Each region has Bishops on the hit list. Hopefully, the purge will be short lived.
They are Christ’s apostles; they don’t belong to Peter. Peter belongs with them and they with him. Wasn’t James permitted martyrdom before Peter was.
He mustn’t look at them as a political scientist or call the alienation “hope” whether short-lived or not in order to make it somehow not alienation.
Pope Francis hasn’t clarified the ambiguity concerning “legalizing homosexual civil union” that “he stood for”. He should remedy it and dispel the storm.
That one is fairly easy to do. Other strange things he has done may not be easily rectified even if when they are accurately described to him with love.
Those who overlook the falsehoods of life (power, pride and lust) are polarizing. They disrupt all that is truly good (beauty, truth and love). Bishop Strickland is merciful by not condoning evil.
Joseph Strickland is a true bishop.
Mike Lewis – at “Where Pedo Is” – has already engaged in his usual character assassination against Bishop Strickland. It would be really illuminating to have someone like John Zmirak conduct a forensic analysis of the financing of Mike Lewis. His writing is predictably nefarious, like that of Mark Shea, only without the obscene Trump Derangement Syndrome formulas.
How do you spell injustice?
Easy: V-A-T-I-C-A-N.
Clergy like you who mock the Holy Father are the reason so many young people today embrace atheism. I pray God have mercy on you for any young person who you have driven to atheism and anti-theism through your poor example as one bearing the indellible mark of sacred orders.
I’m truly curious about the assertion here. Are you actually claiming that young people are so sensitive to criticism of Pope Francis that when they hear someone (especially clergy) make negative comments about him that they lose belief in God? How, exactly, does that work? If that is the case (and I’m am not convinced in the least), then it is incredibly irrational on the part of these alleged young-people-turned-atheist. Anyhow, some evidence of this would be great to see.
Would you change the way you write, edit, and moderate CWR if the evidence was produced?
Would clergy like Deacon Edward start conducting themselves on social media in a manner that dignifies the clerical state?
Our Lady of Fatima warned Sister Lucy in both the second and third secret that there would come great persecution in the Catholic Church against the Holy Father and Catholics who stand with him.
Today the persecutors include both clergy that cultivates social media likes rather than souls, and online Catholic media.
That persecuted Pope is widely seen as JPII.
In my interpretation of the visionary, the figure in white under attack represents the whole Church not the Pope.
A points out a serious problem at large and B replies that A is a closed up non-communicative intellectualist. What B has done is add to the problem. Insisting that A must receive counselling does nothing for the problem.
Waiting 30 years to get to debrief A does nothing for the problem. You could wait 500 years it’s still a problem unaddressed and unresolved in the right ways. Copy-catting A and sustaining the problem is the same problem not dealt with as and when it should be.
Plain as day. Plain as a moonless night. Plain as the sun at noon in a cloudless sky. Plain as the full moon bursting through the storming empyrean rage. Plain as the sand on the seashore.
Where was this energy when JP II and Benedict XVI were Pope?
I hope you are not trying to pit St John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI against Pope Francis. All three speak with the voice of St Peter.
What say you Mark D.
People get upset with Pope Francis and show their dismay because it’s a familial atmosphere. Why call it mocking. Or perhaps they feel somewhat put out themselves for being left in the lurch by strange sayings and doings and reports and one or two of them do mock at that; yet some understanding would move you to empathize.
More. Rapporteurs “pro-Francis” now add their own 2 cents or big bills, say what they will with pepper and spice etc. and no-one can correct them; and you Mark D and others let it all pass unchecked. How come is that.
“Pro-Francis”?
Of course I am pro-Francis. I am an orthodox Catholic. I believe the Church teaching that St Peter speaks through his successors. And I see where attacking the successor of St Peter eventually leads. My old friend Gerry Matatics is one example. More recently, former Catholic Answers radio host Patrick Coffin is another.
In truth my favourite pope personally since the Second Vatican Council has been Pope Benedict XVI. (Which is no surprise to anyone who knows me since prior to his election to the See of St Peter, Josef Ratzinger was my favourite western theologian of the past century)
However, Pope Emeritus Benedict made it clear on several occasions, both publicly and his memoires, that he fully supports Francis as pope. Who am I as a simple lay Catholic to question Pope Benedict’s example?
Mark D I sense you could be all one way binary yes-or-no such as we are not supposed to be as the rapporteurs relate about it.
Then aside from you I notice that the “pro-Francis” rapporteurs (as I have them, some call them talking heads) aren’t all saying the same thing nor do they mean the same thing even when they use a common vocabulary.
Also I note that an image of “seamless garment” was introduced which is a complete distortion of the Scripture yet it escapes everyone who would have the responsibility or office to redress it.
So much of these types of issues is necessarily intellectual but this word “intellectual” got too generalized as a pejorative I think very hard to bring back into a right focus.
Other twists can be highlighted, this will do for now. Matatics is free to deepen faith in a more traditional line and your use of his story does not resolve anything. The same for your referencing JPII and Benedict and your equation among Popes.
But your equation among Popes could just be immoderate by itself.
Mark D: Knock off the hysterical posturing and virtue-signaling. It’s unbecoming of a grown man.
The outrageous behavior of this Vatican has been well-chronicled. If you choose to ignore the facts, I can’t help you. But trying to shame me as a member of the clergy comes across as woefully desperate.
Simply put, Bishop Strickland is guilty of publicly proclaiming Christ in deference to the whims and diktat of bergoglio.
Surely Paul Rasavage meant to say that Bishop Strickland proclaimed Christ ‘in defiance of’, rather than ‘in deference to’ the whims etc. Or possibly that he proclaimed Christ ‘without deference to’ the whims etc. Incidentally, I noticed that this pope has suggested that the CDF was acting immorally under Cardinal Ratzinger. I wonder what we should think of this ‘investigation’ of Bishop Strickland.
The Vatican inquiry is the equivalent of “leaving a horse’s head in the bed.” Serves as a warning not only to Bishop Strickland, but any other bishop who may be thinking about stepping out of line.
Not so much a “witch hunt” in the traditional sense of rooting our evil but a witch hunt in the modern sense of “being hunted by witches” to perpetuate evil.
“but a witch hunt in the modern sense of “being hunted by witches” to perpetuate evil.”
That’s all a witch hunt ever was. Because they *always* project.
Bishop Strickland is a WONDERFUL man and true defender of the faith. He is the epitome of Catholicism. Without a doubt, the Truth with Clarity and Charity.
Bishop Strickland says “I have made mistakes”. Let the Vicar of Christ show the same mercy to his bishop that Christ Himself showed regularly to his Apostles. Let Pope Francis say to Bishop Strickland – “Feed my sheep” or “Feed our sheep” and let the good bishop carry on in boldness tempered with the humility Our Lord expected of the sons of Zebedee. Let us for once have in this pontificate a true unity, not a head-hunting.
From here it seems to me that the Pope does NOT like America or its citizens, he especially does not like those of us who disagree with him and so he uses his power to make life hard on them, them including me.
We’ll get through this.
All of this makes me want to rewatch the Death of Stalin movie. This too shall pass. There will be other Popes. Christ gave us the papacy.
Having been blessed to know Bishop Strickland, should the worst come, I offer him the good example of St. Athanasius in exile. He used his time out of office to spread the teaching of Nicea, pray in the desert and write the Life of St. Anthony, send out holy letters to his former flock, etc.
You’re absolutely right. It’s not about holding on to power. It’s about being obedient to the fatherhood of God and proclaiming His truth. Those who lust after power – especially among the bishops and the Vaticanista sycophants- will ultimately find themselves destroyed by the very power they lust after. Don’t doubt me.
The fact that Bishop Strickland who keeps, holds, and teaches The Catholic Faith is being investigated by those who do not keep, hold, or teach The Catholic Faith, is evidence enough that The Veil Has Been Lifted, exposing The Great Apostasy, led by apostates who deny The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, and thus The Divinity Of The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity.
What are we waiting for?
Christ’s Sacrifice On The Cross will lead us to Salvation, but we must desire forgiveness for our sins, and accept Salvational Love, God’s Gift Of Grace And Mercy; believe in The Power And The Glory Of Salvation Love, and rejoice in the fact that No Greater Love Is There Than This, To Desire Salvation For One’s Beloved.
“Hail The Cross, Our Only Hope.”
“St.Michael The Archangel Defend us in battle!”
“For where your treasure is there will your heart be also.”
Peter D’s summary of a eighties visitation is what a visitation should be: is the Catholic Faith being taught? Having delicious numbers of vocations should indicate that the Holy Ghost is at work here and is wonderful in our seeing.
What’s happened here is like something out of the cutting room floor to Goodfellows: the boss ain’t happy and these are dangerous times, accidents can happen capish?
Really sad times, but look at the evidence!!!!
“…Denies Wrongdoing…”?
Was he accused of wrongdoing or there is there an unfortunate innuendo suggested by the headline?
“By their fruits you shall know them”
“We wish to raise our grave concern over the apostolic visitation to Bishop Strickland.”
Friday, August 18, 2023
The part Father Z chose to excerpt:
We wish to raise our grave concern with the recent apostolic visitation of Bishop Joseph E. Strickland and the Diocese of Tyler by papal representatives. There are two grounds for our concern. First, no special circumstances exist in the Diocese of Tyler, whether spiritual or administrative, that warrant an apostolic visitation. Second, the visit to a diocese without such special circumstances when public and demonstrably grave circumstances of heterodoxy and moral failure exist in other unvisited dioceses worldwide raises legitimate questions about the justice and charity of the process, as well as potentially gives rise to scandal among the faithful.