Now Kalivoda works part-time as a chaplain at Addolorata Villa, a continuing care retirement community supported by the Franciscan Sisters of Chicago. He talks to and prays with residents and their families. He enjoys it, he said, because he has time to get to know the residents and develop a sense of family. He and 28 others have taken the course in clinical pastoral education for older adults, the only such accredited course offered in a Catholic facility in the archdiocese. Betty Skonieczny, Addolorata Villa's pastoral care director, said the program began five years ago, growing out of a need perceived by her and by officials at Alexian Brothers Medical Center.
Older adults have special spiritual needs.
I saw there was a deficit in the educational programming for ministering to them. There weren't many opportunities in long-term care facilities. So they are grieving, and they are asking God why they are suffering so. Often, the hardest loss to cope with is the loss of a family home, or for men, a car and the independence that comes with it. The process is to empathize with them on those losses, and help them not feel guilty for feeling the loss.