HEALTH & WELLNESS
Spirituality and cops: keeping the faith
CHERIE CASTELLANO LPC Cop2Cop
After 18 years of supporting cops in crisis there have been very few constants in the work I have done at Cop 2 Cop. Reverend John McCrone has been one of them. Constantly, quietly, humbly serving officers and their families in need,“ Father John,” as all of us lovingly refer to him in the law enforcement community, has spent more than 20 years serving all of us in so many ways. To begin this article, I first want to thank Father John for his service and spiritual guidance, bringing light into the darkness often experienced by our law enforcement community. You are an answer to our prayers.
When it comes to cops and spirituality, research has demonstrated that those officers who experience“ Post Traumatic Growth” versus PTSD have a strong sense of self, good family / marital relationships and a belief in a higher power. Amen to that! Father John has been synonymous with cops and spirituality at the NJSPBA since the mid-1980s.
Born in Newark on Dec. 23, 1953, he attended Sacred Heart School in Valesburg, Irvington High School and Seton Hall University. He entered Immaculate Conception Seminary in Mahwah in 1977, and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark in 1982. He served his Deacon Internship at Our Lady of Lourdes in Mountainside, and since has served in many parishes.
Father John was the coordinator of Catholic Chaplain Services for institutions and hospitals in Bergen County for almost 10 years, expanding the Pastoral Care Department of Bergen Pines County Hospital, and serving as coordinator for Ministry to People living with HIV and AIDS for the Archdiocese of Newark.
Following the 9 / 11 attacks, Father John counseled families of victims, and was a presence to the responders and volunteers onsite, for many weeks. He has been invited to offer the prayer at the National Law Enforcement Memorial Police Week in Washington, D. C.
He served as the Dean of Northwest Union County and was appointed by Archbishop Myers as co-chair of the 2011 Priest’ s Convocation for the Archdiocese of Newark. He currently serves as State Chaplain for the NJSPBA, and as a chaplain for the Mountainside Police Department and the Union County PBA Conference. He is currently the Pastor at St. Paul Roman Catholic Church in Ramsey.
To begin my interview with Father John, I asked him how it all began in terms of his connection to serving the law enforcement community.“ I grew up in a family with law enforcement, so when you grow up with a cop you learn what cops do,” he said.
“ After being ordained, I got asked to be Essex County Sheriff’ s Office Chaplain because my family member worked there after retiring from the Newark Police Department. Even since then, wherever my assignments took me, I valued the relationship I had with departments and locals. While assigned in Paramus in Bergen
County, Mike Madonna, the former PBA president, appointed me to be the NJSPBA Chaplain.
“ Around the same time Archbishop McCarrick decided we should honor law enforcement and those who had died with a Mass. The first Blue Mass we held was in St. Frances Xavier Church in Newark and has gone on( for 22 years).”
My next question asked him to tell me about lessons learned in serving cops in need.“ First off, you need to be welcomed into the group when it comes to officers,” he said.
“ It’ s a hard group to break into and( it’ s) hard to gain their trust, so establishing trust so you can serve them is essential. I also think that clergy allow for confidentiality. Confidentiality in the law enforcement culture is a key factor to our ability to help. Good chaplains need to be ready for almost anything based on their own experience. They need to be ready to find out what the guy or gal wants, and what they need. Spiritually, we should be ok at handling the handoff if someone needs a detox or marriage counseling above our limits – dealing with guys who have had line-of-duty deaths who need expert care even though they seem like they are ok.
“ The work we do as chaplains is often spontaneous and unique, as we hear about what crisis or need is going on in their lives. As a spiritual support for cops we are the“ catch all,” and then we connect them to the people who can take it from there.”
I then asked him to name a profound memory of supporting cops.“ Profound moments for me are always( when) I have gotten into cops lives in a way that very few do,” he said,“ so I hear the good and the bad and( the) in between.”
“ It is a privilege to be invited into a deeper level of understanding( of) their lives – helping them discern what is a bump in the road and what is a crisis. If you’ re having a bad day, it’ s not a crisis; if for six months you hate everyone, that may be a crisis.”
When I asked Father John to summarize his experience, he added,“ I think there is an old expression, a military leader shared:
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