Posted on 10/27/2020 6:08:39 PM PDT by marshmallow
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced on Tuesday that it has reached agreement with hospitals in Virginia and Maryland to change policies to allow clergy to visit hospitalized patients during the coronavirus pandemic.
The complaints that were settled include virus protocol at the University of Maryland medical system – Medstar Health — a network of 10 hospitals in that state.
A married couple who were severely injured in a car accident in August and were hospitalized in that system in grave condition were denied clergy visitation to receive religious sacraments during end-of-life circumstances.
At Mary Washington Health Care in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in July a mother who tested positive for the virus was separated from her newborn and the hospital denied her request for an in-hospital baptism for the infant consistent with her Catholic faith.
“Let’s not forget what many people live for and an integral part of many people’s lives is their expressions of faith and they seek spiritual support and comfort, especially in times of crisis,” Roger Severino, director of OCR, said on a conference call on Tuesday with reporters.
“What these resolutions show is that you can safely treat the patient without neglecting the whole patient — that’s mind, body and soul,” Severino said. “So no part of the patient should be neglected.”
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
It was a huge area. A hot day. Many people had come unprepared and were fainting in the heat.
The EMTs thought they were doing a great service by rushing instantly and noisily to everyone that appeared to be in trouble. They had no compunctions about pushing people aside and yelling their way to the next fainter.
To them, the only thing that mattered was the physical bodies that were in trouble and absolutely, positively would have died if they had gotten there a millisecond later.
They had absolutely no concern for the attendees' spiritual wellbeing, as it was often difficult to hear what the Pope was saying or understand what was happening on stage given the constant interruptions by the EMTs.
As the author William Golding once ended a book with:
Herr doctor doesn't understand people.
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