Beyond the church doors

Staying connected through Homebound Ministry

I will never forget you (Is 49:515)

It is this Scripture verse that Pope Leo XIV includes in the introduction to his June 15, 2026, letter released from the Vatican, celebrating the sixth World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. He goes on to write that these words — “I will never forget you” — refer to God’s promise to each one of us, and fill us with comfort and hope.

Unfortunately, Pope Leo states, many elderly people experience loneliness and feel forgotten.

“God’s love, which forgets no one, offers itself as an act of justice and a response to the anonymity in which human life all too often ends up lost,” the Pope writes. “The lives of many elderly people, in particular, seem to be covered by a veil that blurs the features of their faces and shrouds them in oblivion. This is what happens in homes where loneliness reigns and also in those care facilities where each person’s uniqueness risks being reduced to a bed number or an illness.”

Fortunately, an extension of God’s love, this “act of justice,” is witnessed in many Catholic parishes through a homebound ministry. Within this ministry, parish volunteers serve the needs of individuals in the community who are unable to attend Mass in person due to advanced age or infirmity, who may live at home, in a hospital, or in a nursing home facility. A primary reason for visiting homebound individuals is to bring them the Eucharist, and as Deacon Tom Picciano, pastoral care associate at St. Vincent de Paul/Blessed Sacrament in Vestal, explained, these volunteers also bring an important connection to parish life that would otherwise be missing.

“It is important to keep the connection with those who can no longer attend church in person. … Often they don’t recognize the connection they have when someone visits them with the Eucharist. It’s also a connection with the parish and their faith,” Dc. Tom shared. “It gives them an opportunity to speak about being Catholic. It can also allow time to consider what comes next as they look ahead to their mortality. In many cases, it may be the only contact they have with the outside world on some days. I tend to allow them time to speak. I try not to ask a lot of questions. Perhaps that’s because I carry one word with me from the very beginning of the Rule of St. Benedict’s — ‘LISTEN.’”

Jackie Adams, who has led the homebound ministry at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Vestal for about six years, echoed Dc. Tom’s statement about the importance of this ministry that helps maintain an individual’s bond with their parish.

“The idea of this ministry, in my mind, is to keep [the homebound] connected to their parish. [They’re] a very important part of their parish,” Adams said.

Father Zach Miller, pastor at Christ the King and Pope John XXIII parishes in Liverpool, described the homebound ministry as “an outreach of the parish life to those who can’t physically be with us.” About eight years ago, Fr. Zach’s parishes redeveloped their homebound ministry, and when he became pastor, it was brought to his attention that it wasn’t very clear who all of the parishes’ homebound people were. Now, there are over 80 homebound individuals who are ministered to in the communities of Christ the King and Pope John XXIII parishes.

“Sometimes it just takes the initiative to want to better know what the need of the community is,” said Fr. Zach. “So often, if someone just stops attending Mass, it gets overlooked. It might be that they’re not there because they can’t get there, or there might be a medical reason. If the community helps to ask that question of ‘Who’s not here with us?’, it can help to provide for the need.”

And the need for accompaniment among homebound individuals is growing — not only within Fr. Zach’s parishes, but also in many communities throughout the diocese. One reason for this growing need is that the population is aging as the baby boomer generation is getting older and living a lot longer than past generations, Fr. Zach explained. The result is an opportunity for parishes to come together and work with one another to meet the needs of the homebound.

“I know that there is a great need across the entire diocese, not just for volunteers in parishes, but also in the hospital setting and the nursing home setting. Often that’s a challenge for parishes, to meet the pastoral need. … Could a vicariate work together in collaboration on helping to support those from across different parish communities? If you have a common nursing home, does one parish have to be the sole provider, or could it be a grouping of volunteers and parishes?” Fr. Zach said.

Both Adams and Dc. Tom said the need for homebound ministry in their parishes has changed a lot in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“During the first part of COVID, we had more volunteers who would visit the homebound. As time has gone on, the number who visit the homebound has decreased. We have several people who help with the homebound and take turns visiting the nearby nursing home each week for Communion services. We could use more people for meeting the needs of the homebound. It would help to have some to assist on Sundays at the nursing home,” Dc. Tom explained.

No matter the setting, those who volunteer with the homebound ministry are bringing vital support to some of the most vulnerable people in parish communities.

“As a church, we insist [on] and we value highly, the respect of human life from the very moments of conception until our natural death. In our life courses, in our different time periods, this is a way to outreach to those who are in need and are truly hurting within our own communities. It also reminds us, for those who are healthy, that weakness and fragility do not necessarily lessen a faith life, but they actually call us to strengthen it,” said Fr. Zach.

For Adams, sharing Jesus with homebound individuals through the Eucharist and offering them the human companionship that helps keep them connected with their communities is the best job she could ask for.

“These folks … don’t have opportunities for the relationships they used to. Sometimes, the only activities they’re doing are doctor’s appointments, and we all know how sterile that can be,” said Adams. “So having one of our volunteers go in once a week — that’s the bright spot of their week. I [know] a lady who passed, and she was sick when she passed. Toward the end, she canceled the occupational therapy, the physical therapy, and the visiting nurse. But she wouldn’t cancel me because I was her connection to the Church. … What I know, and what I hear from those who really love this ministry, and there are many, is that it doesn’t have to be a huge chunk of time out of your schedule. And what we get back is a hundredfold more than what we’re giving. And we see how important it is to them. It’s amazing.”

If you feel called to help within the homebound ministry in your parish community, start by reaching out to your parish office. In the Liverpool parishes of Christ the King and Pope John XXIII, contact Dc. Tom Cuskey or Patti Gavigan at 315-652-6591. For St. Vincent de Paul/Blessed Sacrament in Vestal, contact Dc. Tom Picciano at 607-722-3988 ext. 204. For Our Lady of Sorrows in Vestal, contact Jackie Adams at [email protected] or call the office at 607-748-8287.