The theme of “war and peace” accurately defines the clinical environment, namely the contemporary hospital, which has become more technologically developed, aggressive, and more engaged in the struggle with the inevitable painful death which is the bearer of eternal peace. The standards of care for the patient, in an ongoing desire to create comfort and alleviate the suffering that we will all experience are only part of the final chapter of life. Counted by some in minutes or hours and by the luckier ones in weeks, months or years, if we have the chance to live a full life, our human existence is well described in Moses’ prayer in Psalm 89:
Our life ebbs away under your wrath;
our years end like a sigh.
Seventy is the sum of our years,
or eighty, if we are strong;
Most of them are toil and sorrow;
they pass quickly, and we are gone. (Ps 89:10-11, NABRE)
This specialization of modern medicine is also the main reason why the people of God feel limited in the hospital environment when an incurable disease is discovered. The diagnosis process is based on the experience and involvement of doctors in creating a plan to finding a quick recovery method for the patient, but in adverse cases at least a plan that will prolong life as much as possible. At this level there is another battle that is often neglected in the vast majority of cases among medical staff. This battle is in the realm of morality and Christian ethics. The Church is involved, being prepared to support the patient at two different levels of life. On one hand, informed by faith, it can hold on to all external pressures as well as the emotional ones caused by her inner suffering. On the other hand, it is a “prophetic voice” that reminds modern medicine that although it does not matter at what level of development it will come to, it will always take into consideration the plan and wisdom of God.
When the patient is exhausted from suffering, the Church through her representatives has the duty to support, to be an advocate for the patient’s existential good, and to provide the necessary spiritual vigor in the struggle for healing.
The truth is that this moral battle is found in one form or another in every sick person, regardless of age, gender or ethnicity. Who has the primary role of responding to this devastating struggle and directing it to such a degree that it will have positive results in the name of the common good shared by the patient and the medical caregivers? These lines in the Unirea Canton magazine introduced an important theme for our society both in Romania and here in the United States: the notion of “wellness,” to “be healthy with vigor.” Our eparchy is at the forefront of this movement through professionally educated priests as well as clinical spiritual professional, better known as chaplains. This pastoral care activity in the clinical setting for the benefit of the patient is carried out throughout the territory of our diocese by dozens of Greek-Catholic priests for several decades now. Generally, priests as chaplains have a primary role in general healthcare, specifically in the hospital setting.
Not only confessors and administrators of other sacraments, priests can be medical professionals. This profession is still underdeveloped in the current medical scene in Romania. The cleric in generally is predisposed as a spiritual parent to help the suffering and the dying by the virtuous calling to be the image of Christ and to relieve suffering as in the biblical example of the “good Samaritan.” [1]
The hospital priest can go further in his pastoral work by bringing hope where there is no light, by becoming an ally against suffering, and also by bringing peace when people are on a turbulent sea. If the priest is trained in the clinical environment and uses medical language, he then becomes even better prepared to respond for the patient’s benefit and relieve his or her sufferings by finding together the anchor of faith and by interpreting the presence and divine plan in the midst of any form of calvary created by suffering.
Moreover, the hospital chaplain is meant to identify and highlight how the patient’s spiritual life and religious practice is a vital sign, such as oxygen level or blood pressure.
This way of recognizing spiritual value is beneficial for all people in healthcare because it addresses the sick at all levels of its existence: body, intellect and soul. From another point of view, spiritual vigor helps when the body or mind has an incurable disease, for the soul can be cured and healed by the presence of Divine Grace. Such a realization can bring spiritual strength in favor of the suffering one, and that person can be “cured” spiritually even if he or she suffers from an incurable disease of the body.
Also, since we address the priest’s role in modern medicine, we will also talk about collective cases, not just individual ones. The priest’s involvement is, of course, a necessity also brought about by the great number of sick people seeking to alleviate daily suffering, now counted in billions on the Earth’s surface. Moreover, modern medicine, in the pursuit of curative technology, continues to advance rapidly, creating involuntarily another form of suffering localized at the existential level – the sacrifice of human dignity on the altar of modern medicine. The people of God often become only statistics when a country’s medical system is counted in millions. Individual reality and sufferings are completely lost in the rush for healing. The tendency is for the patient to become the diagnosis itself, and when healing becomes difficult or impossible, the person is extracted from the familiar environment and begins a medical exodus that can lead him to other major cities or other countries that benefit from specialists and clinics more advanced in the art of healing. Thus, human dignity and the community’s solidarity are often sacrificed and wiped out of the memory of the medical team, who intuitively understand that they cannot be witnessing suffering on a day-to-day basis or respectively, on case by case basis. Consequently, they develop a certain resistance over advanced cases of suffering.
In the Christian tradition, and especially in the Catholic Church, we see how the priest through his calling is prone to be ‚his brother’s keeper’ for anyone and anywhere on Earth, especially for his brother or sister found in distress. A priest prepared in the clinical setting as a chaplain can become a specialist in the healthcare system capable of responding to these hardships as well as being a resource and support not only to the sick but also to those working in medicine by diminishing moral, psychological, and spiritual stressors.
The priest who through his ordination shares the three offices of the Lord Jesus – as a priest, prophet and king – can bring deep wisdom to all those engaged in the healthcare system. He thus manages to strengthen both the medical team and the patient with the family. Our eparchy enjoys many well-prepared priests. Father Radu Țițonea from the parish of New York is specialized in medical bioethics. Father Alin Dogaru from the East Chicago Parish got his doctorate in the spirituality of trauma. I myself, as a priest in a mission in north of Los Angeles, am also among the first generations of American chaplains specializing in the spirituality of palliative care. In addition to those mentioned here, our eparchy has many such dedicated and prepared priests, true spiritual fathers, who add spiritual vigor to the healthcare system in the United States and Canada. Our eparchy supports this movement in its incipient form in Romania as well.
[1] Luke 10, 30-37.
Father Calin Tamian BCC is Manager of the Department of Clinical Spirituality at St. John Hospital in Oxnard, California.