Every month, the Hospital Chaplaincy program of the Diocese of Camden has deployed its 250-strong team of Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist and pastoral care volunteers, and 20 lay, religious and clergy chaplains to 18 hospitals and healthcare facilities throughout South Jersey. They make 10,000-11,000 visits to the sick and dying, with 5,000 opportunities for the to receive Communion.
In these days of COVID-19, many healthcare institutions are banning visitors. For the priest and associate chaplains, this means not being able to bring hope, comfort and an intimate, grace-filled presence to those in their most difficult moments — to some, even the last moments of their lives.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Father Sanjai Devis, director of the Hospital Chaplaincy Program for the Diocese of Camden. “The chaplains feel the pain of not being able to assist personally.”
Msgr. Dominic Bottino, chaplain at Jefferson University Hospitals in both Cherry Hill and Stratford, calls the situation “disorienting — chaplains are not used to not being in constant touch with our people.”
For the time being, Jefferson has restricted all visitors, even chaplains who hear confessions and administer the sacrament of anointing of the sick.
His times with patients and their families are “powerful and beautiful experiences, and a great consolation,” he said. “The sick and their family members meet up with the church, in their most profound moments. This is the time when they need the sacraments and spiritual consolation the most.”
Msgr. Bottino said he is offering his daily Masses for them.
Father Glenn Hartman is the chaplain at Virtua Voorhees Hospital, the Virtua Health and Wellness Center in Berlin, the Samaritan Center at Voorhees and Elmwood Hills Healthcare Center (Blackwood).
“If patients want to talk on the phone, I will pray with them and offer them words of encouragement,” he said. He also tells them he will say the Prayers of Last Rites for them when he celebrates Mass.
Anthony Poekert, associate chaplain at AtlanticCare Regional Medical Center and the Bacharach Institute for Rehabilitation, both in Pomona, now speaks with the sick over the phone.
His institutions have restrictions and are allowing priest chaplains — in the case of Pomona, Father Robert Matysik — to visit only those “actively dying” and without COVID-19.
“Most of those I’ve spoken on the phone with are delighted that I’m calling,” Poekert said. “They’re lonely.”
The warm visits, face-to-face interactions and healing touches might have gone away for now, but the church’s mission has stayed the same.
“My challenge as a chaplain is how I provide comfort, support, the love of the Catholic Church and a sense of being united through a phone call,” Poekert said. “As well, we provide support to family members and to hospital staff, who are in need of spiritual care.”
To this end, he said, chaplain Sister Margaret Conboy, SSJ, will be visiting AtlanticCare and the Bacharach Institute three days a week to meet with healthcare staff and provide emotional and spiritual support.
at the bottom and then tap “Add to Home Screen”
