ABSTRACT

This chapter is about the chaplaincy provided in hospitals, in the army, and in penitentiary institutions. The contemporary profession of spiritual care is considered as the result of a development from an ecclesial initiative to a practice that is no longer controlled by the official Church. Since the 1970s, priests, pastoral workers, ministers, rabbis, and humanistic counsellors have taken up the care of souls for patients, soldiers, and inmates, salaried by the institutions for which they work. Through ecumenical cooperation, establishing a common professional organization, and as a result of specialized training trajectories, a separate profession has emerged. These chaplains often work outside their own denomination. What started as an ecclesial service to the world of care, military, and justice has evolved into a new, precarious profession, sometimes only loosely connected with organized religion. Rather than an instance of secularization, this persistence of care of souls is regarded as a successful dissemination of the ecclesial tradition in the secular domain.