Nigerian Catholic Priest Leading Conversations on Healthcare Workers’ Wellbeing in the United States

By: Segun Abe

A Nigerian Catholic priest serving in the United States, as published on KRCR TV, an ABC News affiliate in Northern California, Fr Callistus Ojike is making significant contributions to healthcare chaplaincy through his pioneering work as a board-certified chaplain and an expert in health law and bioethics. He serves on the national certification committees of both the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC) and the National Association of Catholic Chaplains (NACC), the two leading professional chaplaincy organizations in the U.S., helping ensure chaplaincy remains ethically sound, evidence-informed, and clinically integrated within healthcare systems.

A Chaplain at the Crossroads of Faith and Healthcare

Advocacy In June 2025, Fr. Cally, as he is fondly called, delivered one of the most attended sessions at the National Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His presentation, “Five Years After the Death of Dr. Lorna Breen, Three Years into the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, and the Well-Being of Healthcare Workers: The Role of Spiritual Care,” offered groundbreaking insight into how mental health, staff resilience, and spiritual care intersect in modern healthcare. Drawing on extensive frontline experience, he highlighted the connection between spiritual care and policy, emphasizing how they both work together to protect the well-being of healthcare professionals across the U.S.

Fr. Cally explored critical workplace stressors, including compassion fatigue, moral injury, and burnout, and proposed an integrated framework showing how spiritual care nurtures emotional resilience and ethical practice through pastoral presence, reflective exercises, debriefing sessions, and wellness programs emphasizing whole-person care. He underscored the importance of structured opportunities for staff to process grief and emotional exhaustion following patient deaths, asserting: “Caring for caregivers is not optional; it is essential and has far-reaching public health consequences.”

A Nigerian Voice at the Forefront of National

Advocacy Following the conference, KRCR-TV, an ABC News affiliate in Northern California, featured the works of Fr. Cally in a televised interview on July 3, 2025 where he articulated that the well-being of healthcare workers is inseparable from the quality of patient care and the moral resilience of healthcare institutions. He strongly advocated for the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, which is currently up for reauthorization in Congress in the United States. The legislation was named after Dr. Lorna Breen, a New York emergency physician who took her own life during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fr. Cally noted that her story reflects a wider national crisis, with about 400 U.S. doctors dying by suicide each year, a rate more than double that of the general population.

Earlier Nigerian and Professional Background Born in southeastern Nigeria

Fr. Cally completed his seminary formation at Bigard Memorial Seminary in Enugu and the Seat of Wisdom Seminary, earning a degree in Philosophy and a postgraduate degree in Theology from Pontifical Urban University in Rome. Following his priestly ordination in 2010, he was assigned to the Sons of Mary, Mother of Mercy (SMMM) Theologate in Owerri, where he served as Bursar, Vice Rector and the SMMM director of liturgy, demonstrating early leadership in administration and pastoral formation. His academic foundation is matched by advanced professional preparation in the United States. In 2025, he completed Clinical Ethics Intensives and Health System Certification in Clinical Ethics through Common Spirit Health’s Department of Mission Innovation, Theology and Ethics. He also undertook Clinical Pastoral Education Residency Levels I & II at the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento between 2022 and 2023, gaining hands-on experience in hospital chaplaincy and pastoral care.

Bringing Global Experience to the U.S. Healthcare

In early 2021, Fr. Cally moved to the United States for advanced studies in Bioethics, Health Law, and Clinical Pastoral Care at Pennsylvania State University and University of California Medical Center. His strong academic foundation in Nigeria is complemented by advanced professional training in the United States. In 2025, he completed CommonSpirit Health Clinical Ethics Intensives Certification through its Department of Mission Innovation, Theology, and Ethics. In his professional capacity, he continues to bridge faith, law, and healthcare ethics, mentoring staff, supporting patients, and contributing to research, advocacy and discourse at national conferences with future plans to advance chaplaincy education and research, leadership training, and staff wellness initiatives across the country, and to extend to Nigeria.

As hospitals across the nation grapple with burnout and emotional strain among staff, voices like Father Cally’s are shaping a new narrative, one where spiritual care is not just for patients, but for the healers themselves. The Redding-based chaplain’s philosophy is simple but profound: healthcare workers deserve the same compassion and support they provide to patients. His chaplaincy emphasizes pastoral care, which recognizes the entire person through presence and conversation, offering loving support and spiritual guidance. He extends this into whole-person care, acknowledging every dimension of a caregiver’s life, physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. His Nigerian heritage adds a global dimension to his mission. By bringing values of community, dignity, and intentional care into American hospitals, he is helping shape a system that prioritizes compassion alongside clinical excellence. His approach benefits America by reducing burnout, fostering trust, and strengthening the resilience of healthcare teams nationwide.

By offering presence, conversation, and spiritual guidance, Fr. Cally helps caregivers process the emotional toll of their work and return to patients with renewed energy. This approach reduces burnout, fosters trust across care teams, and improves patient care through more resilient, compassionate staff. His pastoral care, peer mentorship and overall chaplaincy model is emerging not only as supportive care but as a strategic strength for America’s healthcare system.

A Foundation Built on Leadership, Advocacy, and Care for the Marginalized

Father Cally’s chaplaincy extends far beyond supporting caregivers, it directly transforms the patient experience. At Mercy Medical Center, he is known for sitting with patients in moments of fear, listening to their stories, and offering spiritual guidance that restores dignity and peace. His approach recognizes that healing is not only physical but also emotional and spiritual. By helping patients process uncertainty, grief, or end-of-life decisions, the Mercy Medical Center chaplainprovides comfort that medicine alone cannot deliver. In this way, Father Ojike’s spiritual caregiving strengthens America’s healthcare system by ensuring that patients receive whole-person care, care that addresses the body, mind, and spirit together, fostering trust and resilience throughout the healing journey.

Fr Cally’s Nigerian roots, where he served as a priest and lawyer advocating for the marginalized, provide the foundation for his chaplaincy work in the U.S. Those early experiences honed his leadership, ethical judgment, and pastoral sensitivity. By integrating faith, ethics, and clinical care, he strengthens resilience, trust, and whole-person care across the healthcare system. His Nigerian background and professional expertise make him a driving force for holistic care, resilience, and compassion in healthcare.

For the full interview as published in KRCR TV, see https://krcrtv.com/news/local/chaplain-advocates-for-caregiver-support-at-national-convention