From a reader…. (edited):
Father,
My sister has been in an Assisted Living Center for some time and was just today transferred to hospice. Her daughter’s family are Nons and her husband is even actually antagonistic to any religious belief.
I was contacted today about my sister’s condition and called the Care Center to request a priest for my sister’s last rights. To my surprise, they had no priest listed and were of no help. They could/ would not even give me the name of a nearby Catholic Church. I went online and called two Catholic Churches. St. ___ had no priest available as theirs was on vacation until the end of the month. They referred me to St. ___. I was connected to ___, who also had no priest as theirs was also on vacation. However, after I asked if my life long Catholic sister might actually not receive the last rights, she said she would find a priest. She called back a short time later and told me that a retired priest agreed to visit my sister. I just received a call from the Care Center that Father ___ was with my sister!!
I suggested to the Care Center that they should alert Father to how many Catholic residents were there and in need of a priest. They indicated that they would do so.
It never entered my mind that Catholic residents of Nursing homes, Assisted Living and Hospice Centers might have no access to the support of a priest.Please ask your readers to follow up with their loved ones in the various care centers. I cannot express how relieved I am that I discovered this in time. Do not take no for an answer. It took me several hours but a priest was found. What a sad state for our Church.
-signed-
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this is an evident sign of the collapse of priestly vocation numbers. Many (most) priests have been heroically shouldering the burden of fewer and fewer of our brothers by taking on more and more. I know few active diocesan priests who have only one assignment – most juggle multiple roles that, in times past, would have been covered by a number of priests.
Back in the day – and not all that long ago – when an emergency call came in, if the pastor wasn’t available, the associate could do it, and if he couldn’t, there was retired Father so-and-so down the hall, or the pastor of the neighboring parish, or the chaplain of the high school, or the nuns’ chaplain, or the judge at the tribunal. Now, there isn’t an associate priest who is retired, retired at 80 and has been worn out since he was 70; the chaplain at the high school, the nuns’ chaplain, and the judge at the tribunal are all posts taken by the selfsame pastor who is currently anointing someone three towns over because that pastor has finally managed to squeeze in a little three-day vacation, which he’ll spend catching up on sleep.
By all means, yes, check with your nursing home or assisted living facility and see who the best priest is nearby to contact in an emergency, but also pray for vocations – and encourage your sons, your nephews, that kid down the street to consider it.
There are fewer and fewer of us, and we’re exhausted.
Is this an area where canceled priests can help?
I would use the original canceled priests – the SSPX.
Praying for the souls of your reader, her sister and all those nons.
We still have enough priests in our area. I visited and took Holy Communion to a senior center for 11 years but was kicked out when I did not take the shots. Before ‘covid’, a priest would come once a month to offer holy Mass. If specifically requested, he might also hear confessions but that was more rare. All that stopped in 2020. Now at my parish, the laity are no longer allowed to take Holy Communion to the hospitals or senior and nursing homes. The sick and elderly are left bereft.
A year or so ago a group I know of started to coordinate their efforts to get access to priests in care homes for their friends & family, and ended up creating a resource page for what people can do to encourage facilities to open up to outside priests (partly a problem because of COVID, but they found places that did not have anyone coming normally) and ways to approach priests (especially when you don’t belong to that parish). They are trying to contact all care facilities in our archdiocese, but their resources would be a great place to start for anyone.
https://sacramentsforseniors.com/
I’m sorry to hear about your sister’s condition and I’ll pray for both of you. She is fortunate to have you looking out for her spiritual well-being.
I take Fr. Timothy’s point, for sure. But there is another issue: cost cutting by health organizations such as care centers and even hospitals. I am sure some priest could be found is there was a stipend provided by the hospice for a priest to be on call at specific times and this were publicized in the diocese. I know a few chaplains at hospitals who do not want to retire, even though they are well past 75, because they know that the chaplaincy position will be terminated once they retire. They are well loved among the hospital staff so that the management is reluctant to terminate their position till they retire.
A few thoughts from extensive recent and varied experience with loved ones…
1. Yes, follow up. Good facilities (especially in the “senior living” category) will seek out their residents’ interests, but the client or family asking directly is the best approach.
2. Closely connected with that – find out what they do have. Look at their activities calendar, ask their activities director. Do they have Rosary group? Do they have someone (anyone) bringing Communion? Do they have an activities bus? (get five people asking for a trip to Mass, and the senior living place will take them to a local parish as happily as they go to farmer’s market or the Dollar Store) The people who make those connections are the pipeline back to whatever parish, and an indication for where a priest might be found when only a priest will do.
3. It isn’t simply ‘priests spread more thinly’. It’s also ‘people spread more widely’. It’s not like old days when there was a hospital and one or two “nursing homes” in an area that people would go to, and not much difference in what they offered from the places in the next town. Now there are hospitals & rehabs etc… specializing in different things. Over a run of about 11 years, my late parents had various stays in 3 full hospitals, 1 acute rehab, 2 subacute rehabs, 1 long-term-care, 1 or 2 other nursing/rehab places, and two assisted living places – all within 15 miles of home, but not at any of the half-dozen places in their town and parish. There are some practical limits to the ability of the parish priest to chase his flock around to everywhere there might be, especially for “routine” things. Do make sure that the parish priest knows where the person is/going, and is updated as to status – so they can provide or help arrange critical needs.
4. Pre-planning. Have the conversation in advance, even if it’s uncomfortable. If part of it is planning major surgery, then discuss annointing ‘before’ it’s needed.
5. If it’s important to see help in some place you can’t be regularly, then consider being a part of it in your place to help fill those needs. One facility in your parish/town/area – be part of bringing Communion, or Liturgy of the Word, or driving for appointments, or driving for Mass, etc… Be a bridge in that place between what people want/need and what only the Priest can provide, and may someone do it where your family is.
6. Remember, too, that we’re not long out of pandemic, and that things like regular visiting from outsiders (including Priests for Reconciliation and Mass) got blown out of the water for a long time. Those can be slow in getting re-established. Especially when the elderly or people with multiple other conditions are the most vulnerable (even when we’ve been largely ‘past’ the pandemic the last year or so, places my Mom was in had minor outbreaks with clients and/or staff that necessitated cutting back activities and visiting). Especially when some of these places are minimally staffed.
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Is it still called Last Rites or has that term been scrubbed too?
To the writer of the unsigned post above: If anyone can be sure that they’ve performed a very practical and fruitful work of mercy that will have priceless blessings in the lives of any number of helpless souls, you are that person.
37 years ago My beloved Mother after an operation went into a coma. She had gone to confession before surgery and days after when there was no hope and it was time to remove respirator, I caled for a Priest from the Retirement home next door to hospital. When I asked him to perform the Last Rights in the Old Rite , before my eyes this retired Priest appeared to awaken from a slumber. Without a book in hand he gave my Mother all the blessings of the Last Rites in Latin. I thanked Father and can still remember as he left, he had a little more spring in his step.
God bless Him and all Priest.
A *good* priest of my acquaintance noted a few years ago that – in a state with one of the highest percentages of Catholics in the US – he was frequently flagged down and sometimes even chased into the parking lot when he visited a parishioner – or a family member or personal friend – in hospitals or nursing homes outside of his parish. Often as not it was because they had been unable to find a local priest willing or able to come. As such, for years it was his practice to ask at the front desk for a list of Catholic patients; he’d just pop his head in and greet them briefly. Naturally this led to many grace-filled encounters (and of course an occasional angry retort.) A few years ago, the facilities began refusing to share such “personal information” – not sure if that is a state or federal structure – but he always found a nurse or aide to ask! Sad that it has come to this – I experienced it myself during a recent hospitalization: they kept sending the “chaplain” (she inquired whether I came from any “spiritual tradition”…) or an Extraordinary Minister! Made me more and more grateful for those priests who show such a zeal for souls. But he says the anti-Conciliar TLM and has indietrist processions etc. in his parish so he’s not quite Frankie’s cup-o-tea…
My father died at the beginning of the ‘illness’ due to severe blood clotting. The NO priest was a typical Father Bob priest who came in and allegedly anointed my dad with the Sacrament of the Sick (it took three minutes). When I asked if he would give Dad the Apostolic Blessing before he died, Father Bob said it was included in the Vatican Two Sacrament of the Sick.
I was FURIOUS, but that was just the start. The hospital moved Dad into hospice care and withdrew all liquids and nutrition, like Terry Schiavo. I had to watch for several days as my father crept closer to eternity in an agonizing way. I thank God you hooked me up with one of the original canceled priests to say the Traditional Gregorian Masses for the repose of the dead soon after Dad passed away.
The family and friends of residents and patients — if not the patients themselves — must be the vanguard. This applies to hospitals as well. Federal privacy laws create complications — at least as health-care organizations interpret them — for patient information being given to clergy; so we can’t get lists of names from the institutions, without express permission, the way we used to be able to do so.
Hospitals, senior residences, rehab facilities, nursing homes — all will have a focus on physical health, and frequently have little appreciation of spiritual needs. Not hostile, just kind of oblivious. It discourages me to visit many facilities and see there not only isn’t any sort of chapel in any sense; there isn’t any place where people can have silence, apart from their rooms, which they may share with another resident.
Who will speak up? In my fantasy, the bishops join with other national religious leaders and give the industry suggestions on how to construct facilities to include spaces suitable for prayer, reflection and religious services. But until that day, family and friends, if not residents, must speak up.
At some point, consumers must tell these providers: do you consider providing for your residents spiritual needs a priority? Do you want Catholics to be among your customers? If so, seek guidance.
It’s not all bad; many places do have good relationships with local parishes, and some have chaplains.
In the meantime, my advice is do NOT wait till the last three gasps before summoning a priest. Last Rites can be offered well before then, and more than once. Second piece of advice: don’t assume people around you know what you want, or even, sad to say, what Catholic spiritual care at the end of life even means. WRITE IT DOWN and give instructions to someone you really trust to speak for you when you cannot speak for yourself.
And don’t wait.
When looking for a priest, don’t limit yourself to parishes. Before the need arises, look around your area to see if there are any Franciscan friaries, or Dominicans, or some other group of religious priests. They are often in a better position to lend a hand than parish priests.
My Dad had Dementia. We had him in our local care unit where the majority of people are Sicilians. One of our wonderful Priest who is Diocesan and prays the Latin Mass and the Novus Ordo came to give My Dad the
Last Rites. He is fluent in Italian and once the men and women heard him speak, they all flocked to him and he gave them blessings.
I had to fight a battle to get a “Catholic” hospital to get a priest in to give my father last rites. Do not assume that just because a hospital bills itself as Catholic, they even see the need for a priest to visit the dying.
This is obviously a bit of brainstorming buuut…
In an ideal world… by which I do not mean a world with conditions different from ours… this sort of thing would have, I think, been taken care of by the dioceses. Making use of the fact that, I think, hospitals, care centers etc. are usually physically close to each other.
They need chaplains of their own.
And those chaplains need to not be parish priests, or if they do want to be parish priests – it’s not supposed to be a career-dead-end (pace Pope Francis, priests, at least diocesan priests, are allowed a bit of careerism), have vicars in their parish.
We’ve got a vocation shortage? I don’t deny it. That means one has to set one’s priorities in some manner. A diocese needs a bishop, a vicar general, a vicar judicial, a parish-priest-of-the-Cathedral, and just about after those few positions, hospital chaplains.
Let rather parishes be led by some priest who has three, four, five other parishes, only comes there every now and then and has a brief look over the minutes of its council meetings and such (and is not expected to do more, especially not be present at said councils), and have Mass by some priest who can be found * or no Mass at all if no priest can be found (it’s driving-to-other-parishes-Sunday…). Not ideal? Oh sure not. But if that allows to fill a hospital chaplaincy, it’s worth it.
(* Of course these might somewhat regularly include the local hospital chaplain… as long as it’s clear that he’s helping out, for one Mass in one parish only, and is not burdened with the parish’s administration).
I am surprised to see that not one comment refers to the sacrament by its proper name: Extreme Unction.
This is not meant as a criticism of anyone, but there is obviously one thing we CAN do better: make sure that our elders are in a specifically Catholic nursing home (or hospice center) that serves primarily (or even exclusively) Catholics, and then push, shove, and scream until the diocese at least appoints a priest to cover such facility. If all the need / demand is in one location (or two or three to cover a larger population), then the diocese’s priests will not be scattered thin having to visit 35 different places. Also, (and there is no getting around this) a truly Catholic nursing home will be more likely to urge elders to get mass and the sacraments, even if only by social pressure. My wife was a nurse’s aide 38 years ago, at such a facility, and she saw that even then it made a difference.
Unfortunately, more and more folks are growing up without a faith and wouldn’t know a Catholic church if they lived next to it. And if the church itself is a Vatican II Special, its architecture will probably leave the viewer thinking it’s a community center and not a House of God. And to add insult to injury, most young people these days (including young professionals) suffer from a deplorable lack of curiosity. They only know what their supervisor tells them and they wouldn’t think of trying to find an answer for a request like that themselves. God help us.
One of the issues of having full time chaplains at health centers is the need for CPE certification. Even if the diocese is paying the chaplain, health care centers may block the appointment without this. Such certification can take up to nine months of full-time work. The quality of such programs can vary quite a bit and depending on the program, can involve a lot of amateur pop psychology and a Protestant non-sacramental approach to ministry. I know of several dedicated priests who became part-time chaplains in their retirement years, after biting the bullet and doing the CPE certification, which they hope will take a lot of time off in Purgatory.
A couple of thoughts…
–
Regarding the notion of facilities that ‘primarily or exclusively serve Catholics’ – there are some that primarily serve Catholics, and a few that as a result might end up exclusively serving Catholics at one time or another, but… it’s doubtful that a facility can codify policies to exclusively serve Catholics. Not if they’re taking public money like Medicare or Medicaid, I suspect. Perhaps a completely different financial model might allow that.
–
Regarding retired priests – it’s another part of lay people needing to step up and help provide that solution. Volunteer to pick up Father, drive him to whatever destination, hold his coat, wait for him, and drive him home.
One of the issues of having full time chaplains at health centers is the need for CPE certification.
Saint110676, what, exactly, is this CPE certification, and why does it need to be done by a priest who is a full time chaplain?
Let me explain my puzzlement: suppose you have a hospital, Community General, run by the county. The population at large (God be praised) has both enough Catholics that there are enough Catholic patients at the hospital to keep a priest employed full time attending to their needs. And (God be praised again) there are enough priests for the diocese to commit the services of such priest to them, full time. In this case, the appointment of a priest as “chaplain” to serve the Catholics at the hospital is at the desire and decision of the diocese, and the hospital need have no involvement. The priest may not have any space allocated to him in the hospital, and may have no formal relationship to the hospital in any way. However, because the hospital allows patients to register their religious preferences (most facilities make room for this), they don’t get in the way of the priest visiting people who have asked for priestly services.
I cannot see any need for the hospital to require ANYTHING of the priest.
Now, if it is the hospital which wants to appoint a chaplain, then presumably they will set forth some standards for such chaplaincy. Maybe they require sensitivity training, signing a form in favor of KGB-LTNKVDBQI+, and worshiping Moloch on the side, but that just implies they don’t want a Catholic as chaplain. If they do want a Catholic chaplain, and then they still try to force him to submit to brainwashing, that’s the moment the bishop should get involved and say “if you want a Catholic priest, he comes with conditions” and make them back down on the truly awful (or offal) ones. It’s the bishop’s job to sort that out, just as it is the bishop’s job to decide whether to allow any of his priests to fill an official “position” under appointment by the hospital – one man cannot serve two masters.
Seriously I know some nurses that have literally called three or four parishes within a 20 mile radius of a hospital to find a priest when a patient has asked for a priest. I can understand when a priest is at another assignment (teaching a class or scheduled confessions) but sometimes a priest will say “well he or she isn’t one of my parishioners” and won’t go. Some of these patients may be lapsed Catholics who have not darkened a Church in years. One nurse told me a priest showing up was one reason she began returning to Church herself. You also may have a patient at a major medical center who traveled several hours to see a specialist and won’t know a priest in the area.
My mother’s parish for years had a late vocation priest who would take one day out of his week to visit nursing homes. When this priest retired due to his own health reasons the newer pastor didn’t follow up with this volunteer ministry which my mother said was well received.
Our current parochial vicar did his share of sick calls (he has a background in medical research and was a later vocation ordained in his early 40s) when he was at his last parish. There were three hospitals (two large) within a 20 minute drive. Our parish also has a nursing home down the street and a bus brings a group from there to the 9 am Sunday Mass.
Some larger dioceses do have a priest assigned to hospital chaplaincy but one priest is spread pretty thin and I don’t know if they are on call 24/7. I have heard that some bishops have told their priests that when they get a sick call they need to take it even if it means getting out of bed at 0200 hours when you have to wake up at 0500 to do your Divine Office prior to the 0630 daily Mass.
While a permanent deacon can visit the sick and administer consecrated hosts a deacon cannot do the Anointing of the Sick. I have prayed a little with patients in the back of the ambulance but that was the most I could do as a layperson (I was also a one hour Catholic most of that time).
As to that one…
even if it means getting out of bed at 0200 hours when you have to wake up at 0500 to do your Divine Office prior to the 0630 daily Mass.
Hm.
I think the old rule that at least Matins and Lauds, and if possible, the rest of the Divine Office up to Terce (or Sext or None on increasingly rare occasions) should be said before saying Mass does no longer apply. Also, I do not know but should rather guess that when it did apply, catching a much needed few hours of sleep after a sick-call really would be grounds for a self-dispensation – not from the Office altogether of course, but from saying it before Mass.
Also, if the 0630 daily-Mass is not of a day of obligation, I think the priest could, with caution, go on very pressing occasions for the nuclear option: send word to the Sacristan: “I won’t be saying Mass tomorrow for the Mass-attendants assembled; please lead them while saying a Rosary or Lauds and a prayer of Spiritual Communion. Further, please make yourself ready at 10 o’clock for half-an-hour to be – on your paid time, of course – my altar server at a Mass nobody knows about.” Some solution of that sort would have to be found anyway if the priest is called to a sick-call when about to start Mass.
(If Mass has been started – which I believe means, in the Old Rite, that the priest has started to say “In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Introibo”, and in the New Rite that he has said the Introit, or else omitted it and started with “In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti” -, then the rule is that it must be finished at all cost, if, perhaps, in a bit of a hurry. But only if Mass has been started. It if hasn’t, a priest would go to a Sick-call even if it means a scheduled Mass cannot be said? Though it is preferable some other priest can be found?)
One nurse told me a priest showing up was one reason she began returning to Church herself.
Yes. And conversely: I know a nurse – born and raised Catholic, serving at a Catholic hospital – who stopped going to church because so, so, SO MANY priests would not come to the hospital. That’s in a diocese that, I think, hasn’t had even a half-way decent bishop in 40 years, and the state of the priesthood there is deplorable. It’s about as true to say the Church (in that diocese) abandoned her, as that she abandoned the Church.
and I don’t know if they are on call 24/7. I have heard that some bishops have told their priests that when they get a sick call they need to take it even if it means getting out of bed at 0200 hours when you have to wake up at 0500 to do your Divine Office prior to the 0630 daily Mass.
If we can admit that a shortage of priests makes the issue of getting priests to hospitals at critical moments a logistically difficult one, we have to also admit at the same time that this is a problem of the bishops’ making. And, if they wanted to turn it around, they could do so: Bishop Bruskewitz of Lincoln showed that you can (consistently) get vocations if you stick with orthodox Catholicism. It’s not rocket science, and the evidence is in. There is no room for doubt. So, while I might go easy on an individual priest who has been called out of bed too many times, I don’t see why we should go easy on the bishops. Rather, my suggestion is that every time a nurse or family gets a rejection from the priest because he is too tired, call the chancery and ask the BISHOP to come. Every time, call the bishop. If possible, get his personal cell number and call that. (and publish it). In reality, it is his job: the priests help the bishop minister to the people, but the primary obligation is the bishop’s.
It’s just one more place where they are falling down on the job.
I know our SSPX priests are frequently called to the local nursing homes, as they often can’t find another priest.
I have a non-Catholic friend who told me, (actually asked me what to do,)that her sister was frustrated that they were looking for a priest to visit Catholics at a nursing home. I think pre-pandemic they had Mass in it, but now they have no one. When they called some priests, they were told he couldn’t cross over to do that in another parish’s territory; but no priest would come. My non-Catholic friend,( who was baptized as a child and knows a lot from her grandmother although her own mother left the Church and took my friend out too, ) was scandalized that the priests refused to come. I tried to give her some excuses, but told her to have her sister call the bishop and ask him to find a priest for those in the home.
The problem with lay people and even deacons taking Communion is they can’t hear confessions! One cannot assume people in nursing homes don’t commit mortal sins! St. Alphonsus fought horrible temptations even as an old man!
Extreme unction and Last Rites need a priest.