Rev. Joseph Cotugno is the sacramental minister for the Capital District Psychiatric Center in Albany, but he didn't want a story about the Catholic presence there to focus on him.
"It should really be about Charlie," he said of Deacon Charles Hall, Catholic chaplain for CDPC. "I am amazed at the work that he does there."
Father Cotugno's own work at CDPC consists of celebrating Mass there every other week and being available for the Sacrament of Reconciliation as needed. The duties delight him.
Unique experience
"I really enjoy going over there," he stated. "The experience of celebrating Mass is unique every week! You don't know what patients you're going to have in front of you and at what level they're going to be functioning."
Homilies at CDPC, he said, tend to be interactive. Unlike some parishes in the outside world, patients who attend Mass at the center are eager to participate and respond.
One woman is often recruited to play "Amazing Grace" on the chapel's organ, he said; even though she only plays the chords, people do their best to sing along.
Interaction
Outside of liturgies, "I've sat down and done some talking with a few of them," the priest said of the patients. "Those encounters have been meaningful for me, and, I think in some way, have been meaningful for them. I see them as very real human beings who are sick and that sickness has been very debilitating."
When people ask about the time he spends at the center, Father Cotugno tells them, "I'm moving in with my brothers and sisters." He said he finds it inspiring that the patients are very protective of one another, and sees them as very much a fellowship.
"It means a lot to me to be able to go there," he said. "I feel there's some sort of effect my presence has on them. Is it me or God working through me? I get a positive response from them all the time.
"This is working with people from whom you're going to get nothing. You don't expect anything in return for being with these people. There's a sense that God is present among these people. I go there, and among all the dysfunctionality, they have formed a community. I look forward to going there; I do." (KB)