Pastoral care of patients with Ebola Virus Disease: A medical and canonical opinion about pastoral visits to patients with contagious and highly fatal diseases

Abstract

The Ebola Virus Disease is a contagious and highly fatal illness that up until recently had been geographically limited to remote areas of Africa. In 2014, Ebola patients have been transported to the United States for care or have been newly diagnosed in the United States. With the intensive medical care and isolation policies usually needed by these patients, we inquired whether pastoral care would be possible.

Using clinical and canonical considerations, we analyzed the permissibility and logistical challenges pastoral care presents to the priests and lay ministers, as well as the healthcare system.

We conclude that with the approval of local, state, and federal health officials, pastoral care, including provision of the sacraments, is possible. It would require proper training, proper equipment and policies, and a significant commitment of time. While the risk to the pastoral team is difficult to define, it seems low in an Ebola-capable medical system. These risks to priests and ministers seem reasonable given the inestimable benefits of receiving the sacraments during critical illness.

Lay summary: Traditional pastoral visits to hospitalized patients might prove difficult or impossible for diseases that are contagious and highly fatal. This inquiry examines the feasibility, challenges, and logistical solutions to these visits. With input from bishops, priests, a canon lawyer, an epidemiologist, a physician, the CDC, and others, we conclude that pastoral visits are possible. Visits will require permission of health authorities, commitments of time, training, and a small but significant risk to the health of priests and others who volunteer for this ministry.

Keywords:

• Ebola
• EVD
• Pastoral Care
• Confession
• Reconciliation
• Holy Communion
• Holy Eucharist
• Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick
• Infection Control
• Personal Protective Equipment
• Funerals

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephen E. Hannan

Stephen Hannan, M.D., F.C.C.P., is a pulmonary and critical care medicine physician working for 21st Century Oncology within the Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, Florida. His email address is [email protected].

Benedict T. Nguyen

Benedict T. Nguyen, J.D./J.C.L., D. Min (ABD), M.T.S., is a civil and canon lawyer and currently the director of communications and the director of the Office of Sacred Worship for the Diocese of Venice in Florida, and is an assistant professor at Ave Maria University, in Ave Maria, Florida. His email address is [email protected].