Ministries of Mercy - Health at 6363 9th Avenue North, Saint Petersburg, FL 33710 US - Home

Health Ministries provide medical care to the underserved members of the community. They include parish nursing, people who work with clinics, and mobile medical services. Health ministry can be a parish-based ministry such as Faith Community Nursing or it can be more complex such as the ministry as it is delivered in our Catholic hospitals. The health ministry starts with the individual. We all are given the gift from God of our bodies and we depend on God’s blessings and our own actions to take care of our personal health. Anyone with an interest in health can assist in this ministry. There are volunteer opportunities at all BayCare Health System facilities that do not require clinical experience. Additionally, nurses can serve as part of the faith community nursing program. 

Hand in Hand with Haiti

In 2006, Bishop Robert N. Lynch of the Diocese of St. Petersburg began the Ministries of Mercy initiative to support and foster parish ministries that serve the poor, suffering, and marginalized. The initiative focuses on five areas where the need is the greatest: food & clothing, shelter, life, visitation, and health. The Ministries of Mercy are currently serving in various parishes and the following story highlights Hand in Hand with Haiti, a twinning program of Holy Family Catholic Church helping the poor in Haiti through the health and life Ministries.

Karen Jensen, chair of Hand in Hand with Haiti, a twinning program of Holy Family Catholic Church, has visited Beau Sejour, Haiti twice since Holy Family initiated its twinning partnership in 2008 with St. Gabriel Catholic Church. Parish twinning, also known as sister parishes or parish partnerships, is the intentional, mutual relationship between two parishes for the purpose of engendering personal relationships with people from another culture and to deepen parish consciousness of and commitment to global solidarity. During her visits, Karen has been a part of a team that met with the congregation, community leaders, and ministry heads to discuss how the two parishes could work together to grow in faith and serve one another. Read more ...

Catholic Mobile Medical Services (CMMS) started ten years ago out of concern from Bishop Robert N. Lynch of the Diocese of St. Petersburg to address the medical needs of the migrant workers and their families in the rural poor areas of eastern and southern Hillsborough County. Advocates identified three issues which prevented the farm workers from getting basic health care: time, travel, and cost. To overcome those hurdles, CMMS began operating from a bus and traveled to locations easy for people to get to. It offered health services when health centers were closed and the services were free. “With the bishop’s support we went from a borrowed bus to own our bus and having two walk-in clinics,” said Sister Sara K. Proctor, coordinator of the program. “The Holy Spirit was very much at work.” Read more ...

A list of some of our Health Ministries is below. To view their contact information, click here.