Doesn't look like a fire hazard to me. And since there is a tabernacle there, the candle should remain.
Posted on 05/05/2023 7:13:09 AM PDT by Twotone
A Catholic health system in Oklahoma has threatened to sue the federal government for violating its First Amendment rights over a decision to deny re-accreditation to one of its hospitals if it doesn’t follow an order to extinguish a long-lit sanctuary candle for safety purposes.
Following a hospital inspection in February, a federal surveyor deemed that a living flame in the Saint Francis Hospital South chapel – part of the Saint Francis Health System – violated code, as it is “an open flame burning unattended 24/7.” The surveyor issued a citation demanding the candle be extinguished.
Saint Francis Health Systems and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, meanwhile, argue that Saint Francis cannot extinguish the flame as a matter of faith, since the living flame in the chapel is “a sign of the living presence of Jesus.” As such, they claim the order is a violation of the First Amendment.
Lori Windham, vice president and senior director at Becket, who wrote a letter to the federal government on April 28 regarding the Saint Francis order, called the demand to extinguish the candle “absurd and unlawful.” She threatened legal action if the order isn’t rescinded.
“The government has a simple choice: Either stop this attack on Saint Francis’ faith or expect a legal firestorm,” Windham said in a May 2 statement.
In her letter, Windham highlighted the negative impact of denying Saint Francis re-accreditation.
“If you refuse to accredit Saint Francis Hospital South, it will result in such unreasonable financial losses to the Saint Francis Health System that it would abruptly and immediately jeopardize its services to the elderly, disabled, and low-income patients who rely on Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP),” Windham said in the letter.
Barry Steichen, executive vice president and COO of Saint Francis Health, said the order is unfair.
“We’re being asked to choose between serving those in need and worshiping God in the chapel, but they go hand in hand,” Steichen said in a May 2 statement. “Our work depends upon our faith in the living God, and the sanctuary candle represents this to us.”
Founded in 1960, Saint Francis Health Systems operates five hospitals in eastern Oklahoma, serving more than 400,000 patients each year. Saint Francis Hospital South in particular is the largest hospital in the state of Oklahoma, and the 12th largest hospital in the nation.
According to Windham’s letter, since the hospital opened it has traditionally had a sanctuary candle with living flame as an act of worship. Pictures of the candle in question show a single encased candle mounted on the wall of the Saint Francis Hospital South chapel. The encased candle rests in a bronze holder, which is affixed to the wall of the chapel, and covered by a bronze top.
A sprinkler system is visible on the ceiling above the candle. And Windham noted in her letter that the flame is far removed from medical equipment and patients. She also questioned the timing of the order, given that the government and local fire marshal have repeatedly approved the candle through the years.
The surveyor carried out the inspection for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services.
An April 20 letter from the government to Saint Francis Health System denied the hospital’s appeal and request for reconsideration of the order. In the letter, an HHS official broke down the government’s decision, citing that the hospital must meet “life safety from fire requirements,” and emphasizing the need for the candle to be supervised, as the surveyor noted in his assessment.
The letter, in part, states that the CMS decision is consistent with its policy memorandum for nursing homes, specifically, that lighted candles must be “placed in a substantial candle holder and supervised at all times they are lighted,” adding a recommendation that Saint Francis Health Systems engage in a plan of correction process with a government official.
Still, Windham argued in her April 28 response letter that the government’s actions are unjust, alleging that the citation is inconsistent with applicable fire-safety rules.
“In requiring Saint Francis to extinguish its flame, you are trying to extinguish not just a candle, but the First Amendment rights of Saint Francis Health System, as well as vital healthcare for the elderly, poor, and disabled in Oklahoma,” Windham stated in the letter.
There should be no lit candle.....period...common sense. The church has no such right.
Churches/religious people have no right to keep a candle burning in a chapel? common sense?
Well then you better get to work. There are at least 17,000 other facilities that need those candles extinguished. For safety reasons, of course.
They ought to shake the dust off their sandals, close the hospital down, and move on.
oh,pooh.
votive candles don’t burn down churches,socialists do.
I wonder how this case would be viewed if the hospital in question was run by an Islamic organization and blared prayers from a minaret five times a day.
Yeah. After all, the sound could damage someone’s hearing. Its for safety....
This is what scumbag government employees do. Government employees are the enemy. Massively cut government and send them to the unemployment line. It will be interesting to see if they can maintain employment in a real job in the private sector.
I hope they win.
Too much government overreach these days.
To paraphrase an astute observation from another Freeper:
When you take money from Caesar, you shouldn't be surprised when he forces you to act like a Roman.
Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in South Jersey has a tradition of lighting up her statue ,which is atop the hospital, whenever they perform a transplant. They lite her up during my brothers 15 hour liver transplant. Four years now. Still going strong.
Doesn't look like a fire hazard to me. And since there is a tabernacle there, the candle should remain.
Every person who demands or even whines that the Catholic Church must sell inspirational and precious items and give the money to the poor, unvented for drug and alcohol abuse or not, should be complaining about this that the church has to waste money on lawyers
Catholics recognize the real presence and signify it with a flame inside a red glass chimney
For millennia
Suddenly we can’t manage a flame
Is there any record of fires being started by these?
This explains why suddenly there is no presence in my stupid baptihospital suddenly
Now Jesus is no longer here in the Eucharist
Let’s see how that goes
They want Jesus out
Anyone who thinks this is stupid or trivial must listen to the exorcists. I recommend Fr Chad Ripperger
They will tell how the evil one believes in the real presence to the point of the possessed being able to choose a consecrated host out of a pile of hosts
This is one purpose. The government this pedophile gang of demonic election stealers driving Jesus- whome they fear and loathe- out
Make no mistake
You're exhibiting zero common sense. And nobody cares whether it's your period.
This is a case the government will lose. There are thousands of similar sanctuary candles in Catholic churches and other Catholic facilities that have been there since before the model fire codes were even created. The codes have always clearly provided for their allowance and the precedent is clearly set. That this particular candle has been in place since 1960, has passed numerous inspections, is installed safely, and even has fire sprinkler coverage, the idea that it suddenly a menace to society is simply ludicrous.
Yeah, that candle clearly has everything in the world to do with a hospital’s accreditation. /sarc
Why not? Is it some sort of saftey hazard? Can you provide any examples where a votive candle has burned down a hospital that originated from the hospital chapel?
How easily we forget that parochial schools and Catholic hospitals were established by Catholic bishops in the U.S. back in the 19th century because they had no interest in having their people ruled by the Protestant government of this country.
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