Here’s something you don’t hear about very often: a Catholic psychiatrist who has, in effect, made the mind his ministry:

Dr. Tom Welch, keen of mind yet mild-mannered, has emerged as a champion of compassion.

The 44-year-old Catholic psychiatrist — in addition to keeping a private practice and teaching — tours the country helping Catholics move past the most tenacious of stigmas.

We should be as comfortable talking about mental illness as we do discussing arthritis or a broken bone, says Welch, a member of St. Philip Neri Parish in Portland.

After 14 years of practice, Welch knows that there is really little difference between people with mental illness and everyone else. A little brain chemistry usually does it.

“We all struggle and we all have areas where we are not yet to the place we want to be,” he says, sitting in his tasteful yet modest office, a former Catholic elementary school classroom at St. Philip Neri. “For some people, those areas may just be more visible.”

Those who are mentally ill, recovering from addiction and maybe in trouble with the law — those are his kind of people.

“I enjoy working with people with severe mental illness,” he says. “They are the underdogs. They get left out. They get discriminated against. They are the most deserving.”

It’s an act of discipleship for Welch. He knows Jesus sought the outcasts and he tries to follow the way of the Lord, as demanding as it is. He considers his time with these people a “glimpse into the divine.”

He does not advertise himself as a “Catholic psychiatrist.” Nor does he toss scripture quotes around in therapy sessions. But if a patient seems open and if it would be helpful, he can speak the insightful language of faith.

For example, one man spoke of his life struggles as climbing a mountain. He seemed to think that God was a vengeful force who wanted to keep him off the heights.

“Oh,” Welch recalls saying. “I think God is big on getting to mountaintops.”

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PHOTO:  by Ed Langlois / The Catholic Sentinel