Father Sengole Thomas Gnanaraj, administrator of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Richmond, Ind., is pictured April 22, 2020, outside Reid Health Hospital. He is among a select group of priests in the archdiocese who are ministering to the dying during the coronavirus pandemic. (CNS photo/Sean Gallagher, The Criterion)
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Priests, in adherence to their duty to deliver sacraments to the dying, have been designated essential workers in Hawaii during this time of the coronavirus. This means they are permitted to hear the confessions of patients, to anoint them and to give them holy Communion, under the restrictions of proper hygiene and social distancing.
However, this does not apply to patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. They require special consideration.
Bishop Silva last month requested and received from the State of Hawaii Covid-19 Task Force an exemption for priests to be considered essential workers in their spiritual care of the sick.
He told his clergy of the designation in an “urgent memorandum” April 9 explaining the exemption.
“Pastoral care of the faithful remains the clergy’s ultimate mission,” he said. “Pastors are obligated to respond to the needs of people belonging to their parish boundaries.”
“However, the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly altered the procedures by which we respond to these needs,” he said.
The ministry exemption applies only for patients “who are in imminent danger of death who are not known to be suffering from the coronavirus,” he said. “For those who are suffering from the coronavirus, extreme precautions need to be taken, and the directions of medical personnel in health care facilities must be strictly followed.”
“If the authorities of the healthcare facility do not let you into the patient’s room, the celebration of the sacraments is not possible,” he said.
What would be permissible, he said, is to pray with and for the patient “over the phone to give comfort and spiritual support.”
There is no vaccine or cure for COVID-19.
Bishop Silva said that priests using this exemption should be healthy and not in a “high-risk group” for catching the coronavirus — the elderly, or those who have respiratory or other chronic diseases. These priests “should seek out another priest to make the visit, if at all possible,” he said.
Priests ministering to the critically ill or dying must take along a copy of the bishop’s document allowing the exemption, must use personal protective equipment such as face masks and gloves, and must wear their clerical collars.
In his memo, the bishop listed a number of new rules to follow, prompted by the pandemic. The guidelines are primarily for the parish priest who has received a call on behalf of someone in imminent danger of death who has requested the sacraments. It is not for hospital and hospice staff chaplains who follow their own protocol.
For those not dying, “it shall be at the prayerful judgement of the pastor to determine the best way to tend to that person’s needs,” the bishop said.
Here is a partial list of the bishop’s new instructions:
- No prayer books. Make a copy of prayers for each patient and discard it after the visit.
- Do not offer comfort with any physical contact.
- If the patient is able to make a confession, everyone except the priest should be dismissed from the room while the confession is heard.
- In addition to sacramental absolution, it is “commendable” to give an “Apostolic Pardon,” an indulgence given for the remission of temporal punishment due to sin.
- For the anointing of the sick, a separate disposable or washable vessel for the Oil of the Sick should be prepared for each patient before the visit.
- The usual oil stock (container) with cotton should not be used unless it is sanitized and re-filled with new oil after each use.
- The laying on of hands should be done over the patient without touching the patient.
- The anointing should be done with a cotton swab or while wearing disposable gloves.
- Dispose of anything that has come in contact with the patient.
- Wash or sanitize your hands after administering the anointing.
- Give Viaticum (final Communion) in the hand, if possible.
- If the patient cannot consume an entire host, use a spoon to serve a small piece. Wash the spoon immediately. Wash or sanitize your hands.
- At the first opportunity, wash the pyx that held the host.
