ENGLAND
A public opinion campaign was launched by the Catholic bishops of England and Wales against the decision of the health authorities of Worcestershire to sack six chaplains, of whom three Catholics, from three hospitals in the county. For economic reasons the three hospitals of Worcestershire will remain without Catholic priests, leaving Catholic patients faithful to Rome without the sacraments, even on the point of death. The Catholic Church fears the example might be followed by other health authorities in the rest of the UK. In a letter to the trust responsible for the three hospitals that have been stripped of Catholic chaplains the archbishop of Birmingham Vincent Nichols points out: “For Catholics, having access to the ministry of the Church, to the sacraments in particular, is an essential part of life”. The archbishop also explained, in an interview with BBC radio, that the sacking of the Catholic chaplains cannot be justified from an economic point of view, because the saving obtained would be derisory in comparison with the deficit of the trust in question, which is of the order of some 20-30 million pounds. According to the Catholic weekly “The Tablet”, only a “perverse approach to the most important human needs” could lead to a failure to recognize that Catholic chaplains represent an excellent investment: they guarantee the holistic approach to health that regards patients as something more than a mere body to be treated. The British Ministry of Health has reaffirmed its own commitment to employing Catholic chaplains, but the local health authorities which have the last word on the matter are independent of Whitehall. In the past the role of spiritual assistance in hospitals was left to the parish priest, but with the increase in the number of hospitals Catholic bishops decided to employ some priests part-time for this role. Unfortunately the Catholic Church, too, is having to come to terms with ever less priests. While pastoral assistance in general may be provided by the ministers of other confessions, Catholics can accept the sacraments only from a Catholic priest.
