New diocesan ministry offers resources to chronically ill people and their caregivers

Friday, Nov. 14, 2025

SALT LAKE CITY — People dealing with chronic illnesses and their caregivers often can feel isolated; the rest of the world seems to go on with their lives while they struggle to make it through each day. 

The Diocese of Salt Lake City, through its Office of Marriage and Family Life, is addressing this need with a new ministry. The diocese is partnering with Maureen Pratt, director of The Peace in the Storm Project, a Catholic ministry that offers support for adults with chronic pain, chronic illness and their caregivers through small faith-based groups. They provide resources to people who are chronically ill and their caregivers to help them feel connected to the faith and the Church as they deal with these challenges.

“I just think the most important thing is that they can turn to the Church, that they can go to their church and find the help and the support and the accompaniment that they need,” said Crystal Painter, director of the diocesan Office of Marriage and Family Life.

Drawing on her own journey through illness, Pratt, who has been chronically ill throughout much of her life, has written two books that can be used as resources for discussion groups at the parish level.  Pratt, who had Hollywood career plans after graduating from the University of California - Los Angeles, began to write about her journey. These efforts resulted in Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain and Illness, a book that was used by a woman in a Catholic parish in Connecticut with a faith fellowship group, leading Pratt to realize that her calling was broader than she had anticipated, she said.

“People at that parish … told me that they felt the ministry should be in every parish in the country, because it really was helping people come closer to the faith, closer to their parishes, and closer to God,” she said.

Over time, the ministry grew.

“As groups began to form in dioceses throughout the country, I was hearing from people who were saying that there was a great need to do the same sort of spiritual and theological ministry with caregivers, and having had the experience [with] my mother, I wrote the devotional Peace in the Storm for Caregivers,” her second book, Pratt said.

“Caregivers too feel isolated and as if their schedule is something completely other than someone who’s not caregiving, because the loved one can need you at any time, and that creates a stress, an ongoing stress,” she said.

“Some caregivers kind of fade away because they feel like they can’t go to church with their loved one ... and so the caregiver’s spiritual life can suffer because they are pulled from the community,”  she added.

With the Peace in the Storm Project, groups meet to reflect on Scripture, pray and discuss their experiences in a supportive environment. Peace in the Storm provides discussion guides, bulletin announcements and templates for flyers, along with the resources and support that a parish would need to start one of these groups.

The resources that Pratt and the Peace in the Storm project offer are sorely needed in the Diocese of Salt Lake City, Painter said.

“It has to be an ongoing accompaniment with both the people who are sick and also the people who are caring for them, and that takes a whole community,” she said. “Like with any ministry, it requires people to come forward and say, ‘I want to help.’” 

Peace in the Storm is sponsoring two upcoming free “Hope and Beauty Without End” retreats. The first, for caregivers will be on Saturday, Nov. 22, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. The second, for persons with chronic illness and pain will be on Saturday, Dec. 6, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Visit www.thepeaceinthestormproject.com/news-and-events for information.