Hospital chaplains for the sickMPs allied to introduce a chaplain for each of the major religions in British hospitals and launched a pressure campaign to ensure pastoral care of the sick. The “All Party Parliamentary Group for Chaplaincy” enjoys the support of over fourty members of the Chamber of Commons from different religions. The British government in recent years said it intends to reduce the number of chaplains in the hospitals and guarantee a single ‘multi-religious’ representative, which would care for patients from different faiths. In the past month a report filed by the religious studies centre “Theos” revealed that hospital budget cut in the past two years reduced the number of chaplains by 17%. “We fear that chaplains would be viewed as a figure that could be spared”, explained Health shadow minister, president of the new Parliamentary group. In June next year an important conference on Catholic Health will be held which will be attended by Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, primate of English Catholics.
