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BETHESDA, Md. -- Dr. Ira Byock, a pioneer in palliative and hospice care, believes Catholic health care has a unique role to play as the nation's understanding and acceptance of end-of-life care begins to turn a corner.

"Catholic health care has a lot to contribute to helping our culture grow the rest of the way up," the director of palliative medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., told Catholic News Service Aug. 10. The goal, he said, is "integrating the fact of mortality into full and healthy living."

The archdiocesan Office of Laity and Family Life is sponsoring an enrichment day for grief ministers and others involved in the ministry of consolation from 9:30 a.m.-3:45 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5, at the Holy Spirit Parish, 3130 Parkwood Lane in Maryland Heights.

Deadline to register is today, Oct. 28.

Several presenters will address a number of topics related to grief. They include:

The Crosier family understands that love cannot be counted by chromosomes alone.

Last September, Scott and Sheryl Crosier welcomed into their family a son, Simon Dominic Crosier, who was born with trisomy 18, a genetic disorder that includes an extra chromosome 18. Less than 10 percent of all babies born with trisomy 18 live until their first birthdays, according to the trisomy 18 Foundation.

When a parish family reaches out to its members who are grieving, it's a form of evangzelization.

That's what Michelle Ritter believes. The parish nurse, who splits her time between two north St. Louis County parishes, St. Martin De Porres in Hazelwood and St. Ferdinand in Florissant, has spent the last several years developing a grief support ministry for parishioners there.

When members of the National Catholic Ministry to the Bereaved convened here last week, they were brainstorming ways to expand the organization into an umbrella of services for those involved in bereavement ministry.