Pastoral Care for Loneliness
A New Apostolate
Matthew Fforde
A dramatic ‘sign of the times’, the epidemic of loneliness has been spreading in
various forms throughout society in recent decades, particularly in the West. Because
of this malady of our times, many of the men and women of our epoch experience the
unhappiness of ‘lonely modernity’. To respond to this affliction and counter the
consequences of the retreat of Christian culture, this book proposes a new initiative,
a new social ministry, a new apostolate: pastoral care for loneliness.
Examining the
causes and the aspects of this epidemic, the author offers a series of proposals
for the implementation and the development of this form of pastoral care. As a response
to Christ’s instruction to care for the afflicted, and forming part of the ‘New Evangelisation’,
this book is addressed to everyone - Christians, those of other religions and those
of no religion at all - but is especially an appeal to the Catholic world: clergy,
religious orders, charitable groups and lay associations.
As the author concludes
‘how beautiful it would be if after our deaths Christ could say to us: “I was alone,
I suffered because of it, and you kept me company.”
978 0 85244 993 6 96 pages £9.99
