The delicate work of chaplains in hospitals overwhelmed by the epidemic

• 7,560 people died in France of the coronavirus, including 2,000 in the Ehpad, according to a provisional assessment made public on Saturday 4 April.
• To avoid the risk of spread, most hospitals prohibit patients from receiving visits.
• Chaplains of all faiths try to relieve patients as best they can in this period of "spiritual distress".

Charlotte, blouse, overshoes, glasses and mask of course ... Like any caregiver, they are entitled to all the paraphernalia. Even if they are there only to heal souls. Those who suffer. Those who leave. And those who have already left, even ... Chaplains of all faiths are on the front line in hospitals to support patients suffering from coronavirus. When they manage to get through the heavy swinging doors of the intensive care unit.

“It depends a bit on the heads of departments. Some accept us, others do not, says Philippe Marsset, vicar general of the diocese of Paris. I will not hide the fact that it is easier to enter mortuary rooms today than in hospital rooms. But we are still trying to put a little humanity back where it no longer exists because of this damn virus. "

Difficult to let loved ones leave without a last prayer

For this, leave to make a few sprains from the sacred rites. Risk of contagion requires, the last sacraments had to be revised. No more farewell to the face. No more anointed oil on hands. Finished the mortuary toilet. “The bodies are placed in a first disinfected cover. Then in a second bleached and then directly in a coffin which is sealed, laments Khadidja Louanoughi who manages the Muslim chaplaincy at the Broca hospital in Paris. We don't see them. We don't touch them. It's very hard for families… ”

Prohibited from visiting, many of them call on chaplains to whom they ask to replace them to maintain a tenuous link with their loved ones in distress. "But we ourselves are limited in our actions," continues Khadidja Louanoughi. We are sometimes allowed to go to the bedside of a patient for a period of twenty minutes. As it already takes ten minutes to get dressed, it is too little. And then we are asked to pray through the window glass. It is not possible… It is sad not to be able to take the sick in our arms… ”

But this is the only way to prevent the spread of the virus even more. And all the chaplains are aware of this. "Nobody is trying to contravene health measures," says Father Franck Derville, chaplain at Cochin hospital in Paris. But families find it difficult to admit that they must let a loved one leave without being able to say goodbye, without having been able to say a prayer… ”

How to do with a respirator for two patients?

Especially since, more numerous than usual, the patients who call on a chaplain are also more difficult to reassure, if one believes the representative of the Catholic worship. "Usually, doctors give them a precise prognosis: illness, treatment, chances of recovery, duration ... But with coronavirus, it's almost impossible," continues Franck Derville. This uncertainty weighs heavily on the morale of patients… ”

Several patients # Covid_19 visited this afternoon at @HopitalCochin pic.twitter.com/wUDkc9gdNy

And on the staff. Thus, the diocese of Paris had to call on young priests from all the Parisian parishes to replace the chaplains who were older or at risk because of health problems. They are now confined to their homes with the heavy task of ensuring spiritual listening to the telephone number specially set up for "this time of distress" (01.78.91.91.78).

Our file on the coronavirus

“It has just been created, but we have in particular provided elements to answer ethical questions, already announces Vicar General Philippe Marsset. We expect to receive phone calls from caregivers who wonder how to choose between two patients when we only have a respirator? Or what if this whole epidemic is not a sign that God is sending us? "

Caregivers, families, patients: by calling this number, a priest, a chaplain manager or a hospital chaplain at the Church of Paris, will listen to you.

On this last point, the clergyman recalls that the Easter period can bring believers a good light in the current period. “We must remember everything that Christ endured before resurrecting… This is what is called the Passion. A word which, in Latin, means nothing other than "suffering".

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