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October 8, 2020The work of priests and hospital chaplains can be beautiful and inspiring, but – in this time of coronavirus – it also can be difficult and discouraging.
“COVID has so consumed everything. It’s possible to lose the dignity of the person because of the disease,” said Father Kevin Ratterman, a chaplain at Mercy Hospital in Ardmore. “Much is being lost to social distancing and lack of access.”
Precautions taken to prevent the spread of the disease have limited people’s access to pastoral visits and the sacraments.
“We take all of the necessary precautions when going to the hospital, including wearing gloves, masks, using cotton balls during the Anointing of the Sick and limiting contact,” said Father Brian Buettner, pastor at Saint Joseph Old Cathedral. “Our dedicated doctors and nurses give great medical care, but patients’ spiritual health needs to be cared for as well.”
Father Ratterman tells his parishioners at Saint Mary Catholic Church in Ardmore to seek him out for anointing before a procedure and tell him when they will be in the hospital so he can visit.
He used to celebrate Mass at the hospital every Wednesday and visit all Catholic patients. Since the pandemic, Masses have been cancelled and he can visit patients only if he has a name. He won’t know if a Catholic is admitted in an emergency situation unless the family alerts him or the person asks the staff to contact a priest.
Father Ratterman knows how much it means to patients to receive those sacraments. He recalls one time when he got an urgent call and arrived to find 10 people working on a patient.
“Father, get in here now and do what you have to do,” shouted the doctor doing chest compressions.
As soon as the abbreviated rites were completed, the doctor called the time of death. The patient wanted to be anointed and the team had kept him alive so he could be.
“Patients are starving for company. Many hospitals only allow one person to visit, not one person at a time, but one individual who can come visit them during the duration of their stay,” Father Buettner said. “The suffering is uniquely close to Christ and his Passion. To be a priest, coming along side ailing souls and helping them bear their cross, is a powerful, yet often hidden aspect of a priest’s life.”
Father Ratterman did his training for hospital ministry at what is now Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City and served as a hospital chaplain in Enid and Ponca City. A chaplain needs to be responsive to people of different faith traditions and minister to them “where they’re at,” he said.
Chaplains once had access to patient records that indicated who was Catholic and could note in the patient’s file that the person had been anointed and received Communion. Privacy regulations protecting individual’s health information changed that. And COVID-19 brought more restrictions.
“The system is more and more dependent on someone telling me they’re in the hospital,” Father Ratterman said.
From blessing a newborn to ministering to the dying, the chaplain can be the most important person to the family in the moment.
“Beautiful moments take place in a hospital,” Father Ratterman said. “There is nothing more beautiful than a beautiful death.”
It’s beautiful when the family is gathered around the bed holding hands and being one in prayer as their loved one begins the journey into the next life, he said.
“They may not be able to respond,” Father Ratterman said. “But you always assume they can hear and you give them peace of mind and heart that they are not alone at their most vulnerable
point.”
With the pandemic, family members currently cannot stroke the person’s hand or place a cool washcloth on their forehead.
“That human aspect has been relegated as dangerous and really doesn’t take place,” he said.
“We have to be conscious of being so consumed with chasing COVID that we don’t lose that we’re talking about human life.”
K.S. McNutt is a freelance writer with the Sooner Catholic.
Fr. Kevin Ratterman, pastor at St. Mary Catholic Church in Ardmore, serves as a chaplain at Mercy Hospital in Ardmore. Photo provided.
