SW News: The United States Department of Health and Human Services has ruled that hospitals cannot deny the sacraments to patients based upon concerns relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision was issued on October the 20th in response to complaints by two patients.  In each case, the hospital in question had cited COVID-19 protocols in order to deny a request for a priest to visit in order to administer a sacrament – in one case, baptism, and in the other, anointing of the sick.  The US Health Department’s Office for Civil Rights has now ruled that those incidents should not have occurred.  They will now ensure that all patients will have access to the sacraments in a way that both respects religious liberty and the highest standards of infection control.  The decision has been welcomed by the Chairman of the US Bishops’ Committee on Religious Liberty, Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, who stated that, “a true understanding of human wellbeing accounts, as Jesus did, for the health of both body and soul.”

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