I serve as a chaplain in a pediatric hospital in a former steel town in the Rust Belt.

For decades, the population has been shrinking, now well below 100,000. Like many Rust Belt cities, this community faces high unemployment, poverty, addiction, and neighborhoods dotted with abandoned properties.

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Many residents are of Polish and Italian descent, raised in Catholic homes, and educated in parochial schools. Yet, as parents of my patients, most still believe in God but have drifted from the Church. They no longer attend Mass and have no parish to call home.

Non-denominational churches have emerged in the town, offering contemporary worship, coffee bars, and small-group meetings. But for many I meet, church—of any kind—feels out of reach.

I often walk alongside those battling addiction or struggling in its aftermath. Some were prescribed opioid painkillers after an injury, only to be cut off when the epidemic was finally acknowledged. Left to find relief however they could, many turned to street drugs or entered treatment programs. Others carry the weight of generational trauma, self-medicating with whatever substances they can access.

Yet despite their distance from religious institutions, most people I serve still believe in God—or at least recognize a spiritual dimension to their lives. They long for connection.

Declining church attendance is often interpreted as a sign of growing secularization. But my daily encounters tell a different story. People are still seeking the Divine; they just aren’t finding it in traditional spaces.

Chaplains are uniquely positioned to meet this need. We offer spiritual care without barriers—meeting people where they are, without judgment or expectation. We are trained to walk with individuals through life’s deepest questions and disruptions. Drawing from diverse traditions, we hold space for those seeking meaning, even when they don’t know where to look.

Chaplains stand in the gap.

We are not replacing faith communities; we are here for those who don’t see their place in them. And in that sacred space, something new can arise.