Check out NCR ncronline.org/news/faith-parish/when-youre-mentally-ill-no-one-brings-you-casserole.

Some of the Catholic resources listed there may have info on orders that are well-educated and progressive with well-developed capacity for embracing this bit of diversity. There might also be people who could advocate for a discerner who feels a strong pull but is encountering orders that are skittish.

Jean

By the way, the word “asylum” brought to mind an article I read this summer in the July City Arts Seattle: “Commemorating a History of Violence: On the former site of a brutal insane asylum, the city of Lakewood commissions a striking memorial. By Stacey Levine

(1st paragraph) Recently I visited the public art installation constructed on the ruins of Western State Hospital’s Hill Ward. From 1871 to 1915, Western State was termed an “insane asylum”; after that it was renamed a “hospital.” Despite its shifting names, it became known for its terrifying, unsanitary conditions, inhumane lockup rooms and doctors determined to perfect the art of lobotomy primarily on female patients. Perhaps the hospital’s most famous inhabitant was the 1940s film star Frances Farmer, and questions about her tragic story are part of its mystery and power (see “Always in Her Shadow,” page 23).” the link is cityartsmagazine.com/tacoma/issues/CAT079/CAT079_hospital.html

I haven’t been to the memorial yet but, when I do, I’ll think of this exchange and say a prayer in thanks that we know better now and that people like you use the strong, vibrant voices formed for and in them by God.

Jean

You’re right again that my illness has offered me immeasurable strength, insight and compassion. I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone, but I wouldn’t trade it for a different journey.

Peace to you Jean!

I remember reading Brother Michael’s words and also being taken aback.

I agree with him that the cost of managing any given chronic illness would be a real question but, as you point out, that question would be relevant to any chronic health condition or illness experienced by a candidate.

I wanted suggest that he spend some time with any chapter of the “Mental Health Association” (national non-profit org with local chapters throughout US) and ask them to help him get to know a broad and deep continuum of people living with managed mental illnesses. Whenever people talk about “the criminally insane” and they are not speaking about a very specific instance, I think “Okay here we go. ‘Law and Order’ and ‘Freddie Kruger’ and sensational stories in Vanity Fair and the Sunday NYTimes Magazine and the ten o’clock tv newsmagazines strike again”. (I love ‘Law and Order’ and Vanity Fair and Sunday NYTimes Magazine, and I almost bailed on summer camp the year Freddie entered my universe).

Most mental illness cannot be characterized by **either** extreme: “simple” or “criminal”. And, honestly, that use of the word “simple” led me to think Brother Michael has also confused or conflated “intellectual or developmental disabilities” with “psychiatric illness”, managed or otherwise.

I would, in fact, put money on it that mental illness is and has always been a reality in religious communities, whether clerical or consecrated. And I would put money on it that Brother Michael knows and has always known priests, brothers and sisters who are living with mental illnesses. The fact that he may not be aware of it is no more surprising to me than that he may not be aware of the physical illnesses or challenges that his fellow brothers, priests, and sisters are living with it. Managed illnesses are, in fact, managed.

Jean

And, Anne Therese, my guess is that not only have your “gifts and blessings have far out-weighed” your bipolar illness but that your gifts and have blessings – your soul – may have, in some ways, been purified by the cross of your illnes.

I think a good indication of a person’s level of functioning is their ability to maintain employment and a healthy social life prior to considering religious life. Many people would be surprised to learn that many very successful people they know manage a mental illness.

There is nothing “simple” or “criminal” about me, I would no more apologize for my mental illness then I would apologize for having been given brown eyes. You take what you’re given and my gifts and blessings have far out-weighed my bipolar illness (which is akin, I think, to having been handed diabetes or some other medical condition–yet, we don’t question the competency of someone in need of insulin).

Anne Therese

I find it interesting that the details always are what is dwelt on most. Of course, definition is what language is all about.

I would be interested in how you think that the knowledge of finishing your triathlon has (or hasn’t) changed your ‘benchmark’ of what ‘hard’ is. Has it changed your definition? As I get older, but especially in the last few months, I have felt more… grown-up… in the right ways. I seem to have more confidence in my abilities now that I have finished college. In many ways I had to redefine myself as a person and a soul through the process. If you had told me that I would achieve the things I did these past 4 years, I would have LAUGHED at you. In a very real way, I can sense that I am stronger for it. I wondered if you had the same sort of experience.

Blessings!